Week 15- VIVA

After our screwed up viva last time during week 5, this was our next important mile stone. In comparison to the last mini viva, we had a lot more time to prepare for this viva.

This presentation came off way better than the previous one as we are certainly more prepared. The components that are required are mostly in and most importantly, we remembered our lesson and did our presentations using a powerpoint this time. I think that this certainly have been a great help to us. Unlike of previous mini viva where everything is messed up and not going in the way we wanted it to, it is smoother this time with lesser hiccups along the way. With the technical aspect out of the way, all of us are able to be more calm and the information are being conveyed out clearer.

There are still missing bits and pieces that had yet to be added in to our pitch bible and slides. We received valuable feedbacks from the session. For me who is designing the environment, i realised that my exterior environment didnt tell me much information that our film is set in a futuristic world. The opening scene will be the first look the the audiences have to our film, basically the first impression of our film. I have to make sure that even though it may not be a very long scene, it should convey the style and information. there are alot of things that i can play around with. for example, one very important thing that the lecturer mentioned is that where are the airplanes? even a simple airplane flying sound could make an impact an establish our setting even clearer. And apart from it being a usual airplane, how would it look like in a futuristic setting? will it still look like an airplane? And for the cityscape shot, i could add more futuristic element to make the scene more fun to look at,opposed to it being a plain old “road to changi” scene. This is the chance for me to explore the things that i can do.

It is also very important for us to know about how an airport operates. Like what the lecturers said, we would not want to be sending out wrong information, even with we are not commissioned to do the project. There are also some things missing from our slides and pitch bible. We have to make sure that everything will be in ready and before the final presentation

Personally, I have to admit that i was lagging behind the schedule by alot and i had to rush out many of the things right before the presentation. We initially planned to rehearse but in the end we still didnt have time left to fully rehearse. this is certainly a problem that i would like to correct before our very final presentation. I believe that with well rehearse sequences, we will be able to show even better things and it will increase the chances of our projects being green lit.

Week 15_ Feedback from mini Presentation

On Wednesday, 30 July 2014, we had a mini presentation on the progress of our FYP.

Base on the feedback given to us by the lecturers, there are several changes that need to be made before week 18 submission.

Certain parts of the story has to be changed in order to convey the message much clearer. The role of the sweeper has to be changed to in order to give it more purpose in the film. Our establishing shot needs to be redesign to make it more futuristic as well as to add in several planes flying so as to indicate that the film is set in an airport. New scenes needs to be added to show the Do within the airport before we cut to showing MC doing the Don’t within the airport.

Some of our character design needs to be altered slightly so as to make animating more convenient should the film be green lit. The colour of MC needs to be changed as it seems to be blending into the background rather then standing out from it.

Week 15 – Mini Viva

It was a mad rush to get things done for the past few weeks in order to be ready for mini viva, but it was a great relief that we could get it done and gotten feedbacks for the things needed to be changed. 

 

Some of the feedbacks we got back were:

-For the opening scene, we should’ve included a scene to show the Do’s, since MC is focused on doing the Dont’s. And since it’s a futuristic theme, shouldn’t it be more futuristic rather than just showing the Changi control tower?

-The ending where the sweeper just sweeps the items away to this unknown room is irrelevant, as it doesn’t really have a link to our main story. Also, MC just boards the plane like that? After shaking so many prohibited items from him? That doesn’t seem plausible.

-The angles for the storyboards can’t be seen clearly; where is the floor? And the background? Where are the items dropping from?

Regarding these pointers that the lecturers had kindly pointed out (which made us realize that our story actually have a few major loopholes here and there), we have made the following changes:

-In the opening scene, we redesigned the control tower, with reference from Jetsons and a few ideas from Jim. Also, we added in a scene of an overview of the airport, zooming in into one or two people checking in and doing the correct things before it shows MC.

-Instead of making the sweeper just appear and sweep the items away into his room while MC runs onto his plane safely, we thought about making the sweeper sweep MC away instead, or dragging, and scraped off the room scene for the after credits.

-Thanks to the feedback we got from Yitting, she suggested that we show a bit of MC when the items are dropping, so as to give a direction on where – or who, for this matter – the things are dropping from. Also, to further show that the scene happens in the airport, in the background we would show some airplanes, so that the audience would know where the scene happens, and to further emphasize that we are, indeed, in the airport.

 

The above was just some of the more significant changes we did to our film, and with the deadline of the final viva coming up, all of us are trying our best to get things done for this as well as our own individual modules. 

I personally admit that I procrastinated a lot, delaying the things to be done. But we got it done on time in the end, albeit missing a few things here and there. For the remaining two weeks, we would have to buck up and complete the missing pieces in our project. No more slacking!

Week 5_Mini Viva

On 21 May 2014, The mini viva was held. A group of lecturers would be present to hear our 3 ideas which would then be narrowed down to 1 idea where we would begin further development on the chosen idea. Our group was assigned to present in the morning.

Due to failure to meet the deadline of getting the materials needed for the presentation, right up to the  timing for our presentation, we were still compiling the materials that was needed for the presentation. Just when we finished compiling, it was our turn to present.

We had decided to use PDF as a means of presenting rather then using powerpoint for presentation.

During the presentation, We face some technical difficulties, our presentation was not going to way we wanted to. It was too distracting for the lecturers present at the presentation to fully grasped our story idea. Our storyboards were poorly drawn that it was unable to convey the story ideas. We did unnecessary research on the design of the background. we place our focus on the wrong areas. Character design was not approved as it was too similar to the ‘anime’ style, and it was remotely not reflecting the western style that was being seeked out. Our stories were also said to not have a solid ending.

After the presentation, we were given 2 choices, Game on and Airport Rule 101 to choose to further work on the story.

(After thoughts:)

We should have used powerpoint to present. Instead of giving one area for each member to do, we should have split the workload by story idea, so that everyone could give a try at doing a storyboard, character design and environment design  for the story.

When preparing for the mini viva, I was in charge of doing the character design for all 3 stories, there was roughly 6-7 characters that i had to deal with. When coming up with the design for the character design, i face some problems, one of the biggest problem was the personality of the character, our biography for the characters were not well developed hence i had a hard time picturing how the characters should look like. Hence i spent a large amount of time on trying to come out with the design of the character so that it is able to portray the personality of the character. Furthermore, we were not able to come out with a style to focus on. Hence without a decided style, i went with the more comfortable style which was the ‘anime style’ when drawing the characters. I tried exploring some styles in the initial design of the character, but it was not picked for further development. As a result, we ended up  with the anime style.

Goal from here on:

We now need to choose a story from the 2 ideas and work out the faults that has been pointed to us. We need to come out with a solid ending and new character design for the character in the story.