3rd Year & PMP Learning Agreement

3rd Year

PMP

THE ARTS UNIVERSITY AT BOURNEMOUTH

Learning Agreement

Name: Gabriel Robertson

Course: Illustration

Level: 6                

Unit: Pre Major Project

Unit Code: ILL651 

Credit points: 20   

Study hours: 200   

Tutor(s): Joel Lardner, Lisa Richardson, Paul Roberts, Vincent Larkin, Gabrielle Cariole, Richard Allen

Synopsis of study

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was a ‘Wonder of the Age’, filled with incredible exhibits and fascinating stories. From eating ‘Dinner in a Dinosaur’ to exhibiting an enormous ‘Steam Hammer’, The Great Exhibition has plenty of fantastic imagery to base a project around. Over the summer, I’ve read books, watched films and collected lots of reference related to The Great Exhibition as well as the 19^th Century, Victoria & Albert and life in Victorian Britain.

My overall goal for third year is to create a Narrative driven animation around 4-5 minutes long. For the next 12 weeks I want to build a body of work which will explore, develop and test out ideas. Within the PMP I want to create all the prep work for the animation; i.e. character designs, locations, storyboards, animatics, test models, test animations and a final narrative. At the end of the PMP I will create a process book that will show clearly the journey up till the start of the FMP.

The focus of the story plays on Queen Victoria’s ‘Seven Assassination Attempts’ and uses her initial charity of sending the failed assassins to Australia as a motive. In my story; a man can’t afford a ticket to Australia, and upon seeing the newspaper headline, “Queen sends Assassin to Australia”, decides this is how he will get his ticket. The story then plays out within the Exhibition, where the assassin commits the act and is then chased by Prince Albert till he is caught. I want to exaggerate Crystal Palace and each exhibit, using animation as a way of creating unrealistic and exciting locations. I want to use each exhibit as a way of furthering the narrative, not just in location, but also in plot points. I want to fill the Exhibition with lots of crazy Victorian inventions and characters that I’ve come across in my research.

I’ve always had an interest in history, unusual stories and a Monty Python esque sense of humour and this project for me is a way of combining my interests. Terry Gilliam’s films are a great example who builds these worlds that are satirical and alive and is someone I will look at within my research. Another area I will research is satirical cartoons the 1800’s. A contemporary source from the time like Punch Magazine provides useful and first hand research which I can use and explore within my project. Over the summer I visited lots of museums and places related to the Victorians such as the SS Great Western. All this research has helped me develop the project so far, and I will look to visit more locations and draw more from things related to the Victorians.

Overall, I will use the PMP to prepare for the FMP and allow me to develop my own skills and research methods as an Illustrator. This project is something I am interested in, and so the work produced should reflect the enthusiasm and interests I have for it. I hope to work as an illustrator within art departments, and help develop worlds for films, animations and video games. I plan on using 3D programs, either Maya or Blender, to create the animation, and develop ideas in my sketchbook and on A3 sheets.