The student completed their initial plans and proposal for their FMP project in the first week. They felt their idea became clearer as they worked. In the second week, the student conducted research on similar animation styles and surveyed audiences. They found time may be an issue due to the length of animating. In the third week, the student experimented and researched subjects for ideas. Pre-production was started and finished in the fourth week, including shotlists, music planning, and contingency planning. The shotlist was found most useful for visualizing the project.

1. Weekly FMP Reflection
Ewan Wild

2. Week 1
On the first week of the FMP, I started and completed my
initial plans as well as my proposal. The initial plans took at
little bit longer, as I was still unsure about the specifics of
my project as well as the fact that there were more jobs to
complete than in the proposal, however both were done in
the first week. Inside the initial plans were lots of different
smaller tasks. For example, the first one was my pre-
proposal which is a brief idea of what I wanted to make.
There were other larger jobs, such as my key influences for
the project. For this I chose Norman McLaren, Persepolis,
Classic Disney, and Terry Gilliam. When all the basics were
done, I added more mood boards and other slides. My
mood board did well at influencing my proposal because it
allowed me to give more detail as to what I wanted to do.
For example, I had a more clear idea on the style and the
content I would have in my trailer. Throughout the week I
worked on my initial plans, my idea became more clear as I
worked on it, allowing me to make my proposal a lot more
easily.

3. Week 1
When writing my proposal, I felt quite happy. I have a
clear image of what I want to do in my head, and my
proposal just made my idea feel more real. Writing the
schedule was also very useful. It has given me a good idea
of how to spend my time throughout the project, so I’m
not swamped or not doing anything.
In conclusion, at the end of this week I feel like I have
enough knowledge to proceed. I already have some ideas
as to what to put into my pre-production, so I am ready to
move on. If I could improve something from this week, I
would just keep adding slides to my initial plans, it can
always be improved. I would probably add another mood
board and analysis, as well as another key influence.
Further research I would do now is just to look up a wider
variety of animated short films. Even if I know my style, it
could be useful to know about others, as well as how they
are made and other aspects of them, such as sound
effects and music.

4. Week 2
For week 2 I spent starting my research. I started by
researching existing products. This was a variety of short
films and styles that were similar to my style but also
slightly different. I started by talking about Disney’s old
classic style and how the game Cuphead has adapted this
into a modern game. By not only drawing it, but also by a
computer to add colour and make the movements. I also
talked about other short films such as Father and
Daughter, Who’s Hungry, and a variety of film posters.
I also started my primary and secondary research.
Primary research involves areas like creating surveys and
conducting interviews that I do myself. Secondary
research however is already existing and I just talk about
how the results affect my piece. I started by completing
some of my secondary research. To do this, I went to
different websites such as IMDb and YouGov.

5. Week 2
From this secondary research I have learnt, in more
detail, my target audience as YouGov has a lot of surveys
and so from a survey taken by nearly 6000 people, I got
more information about my audience. I also compared it
to other major film companies to see the ratio of how
many people liked Disney compared to others such as
Warner Bros. Finally, I started my primary audience
research. This involved creating a survey for people to
complete. I didn’t type up the results in week 2 however
as I was letting the responses build up. I ended up with
46 results but had to delete some of them due to
answers that weren’t serious, and so they couldn’t be
used. I still have another week of research though, and
in this next week I will type up everything about the
primary audience research and do some more on it. I
will also conduct an interview in person which will give
me more information on what I can do to make my
project better.

6. Week 2
From this research so far, I can bring forward different ideas that people from the
survey have given me. They, as well as the existing products, have let me find out what
makes a good animation, as well as what people want to see in a short film.
My research hasn’t made much change in my short film, as the majorities on my
survey were happy with my idea. It has helped my adapt what parts I will concentrate
on though, as people have said what areas they think are more important.
My research from existing products has only highlighted one problem, time. My
production will take a long time to complete as I need to draw everything as well as
create all the music, so I need to look out for the length of time I take to do it.
My most successful area of research so far is my existing product research. I have
spoken in a lot of detail about the areas of these short films which have helped me
create stronger ideas for my own short film.

7. Week 3
Week 3 was also spent on research. This time I
concentrated on experimenting as well as subject
research. This week I think that subject research
worked well, as it gives me a large insight into
different areas of animation, and then gives me
my own ideas for what I can do during production.
My experiments were also kind of useful, as they
gave me an idea of what to do. As of the end of
week 3, I have nothing else to do on this
PowerPoint, and so I can quickly move on to pre-
production as soon as I can. During this week,
nothing went wrong and I flew through my work,
writing in great detail about everything. I think
this can be partly due to the planning I completed
in my proposal, as it has helped me go through
everything in good time.

8. Week 4
This week I started and finished my pre-production
work. This involved making a rough idea of
everything I want to make, including three slides
deciding what font I want to use. This was not
limited to just my main piece, I also made layouts
for my side projects, as shown below. This was really
useful as I now have a clear image in my head for
what I want my poster to look like, so when the time
comes and I finally have to make it, I can do it
quickly and make it look exactly how I want it. I also
did this with other side pieces, such as an album
cover and various T-shirt designs. Because of pre-
production, I will hopefully be able to complete all
of these quickly and well, giving me more time to
focus on my main area of production. The more
detail I complete my pre-production in, the easier it
will be to complete all my production work to a high
standard.

9. Week 4
As well as all of that I did a lot to further my music. I
decided on what instruments I wanted to use, as
well as the style of music I want for each section of
my trailer. With all of this done, I thought I better do
more on my main piece. I started by creating a
shotlist, which is very useful as it shows, in a decent
amount of detail, what each shot will be, and what
happens in it. This makes production a lot easier as I
know what I am doing shot by shot, and can
therefore create my project much more easily. After
all of this was done, I completed my contingency
planning and health and safety planning. These
didn’t take too long, however they are an important
part of pre-production as they have a lot of
information of what to do incase things go wrong.

10. Review So Far
• In my planning, the shotlist was probably the best part. Because of that list, I was
able to find everything that I need, as well as at giving me an order to do things
and an image in my head, more so than I had before. I also think planning all my
side projects was good, as it gives me an important idea of how I will make them,
so when the time comes, I will be able to complete it the way I want, and quickly
too.
• My schedule started off being quite important, but as time went past, I became
less useful. I underestimated how much work I would need to do, so my schedule
has gone out the window and instead I am just getting as much done as I can in
whatever order is the most important.
• I fairly frequently review my planning as the shotlist reminds me of everything I
need to do. It is by far the most important and useful part of my planning and
without it I'd be very lost and have more difficulty completing my project.

11. Review So Far
• I have never had any problems due to poor planning, as I have always made
sure it is detailed and useful. I hope this is the same in the future, as poor
planning could potentially cost me the grade I want.
• The planning stages have taught me everything I need to know to create my
project. From different ways I could animate it, to the ways I could draw it.
Without my planning, I would have nothing and everything would be a
disaster.
For Production see my Daily Production Reflection