Applied Animation: Documentary: Week One: 19th - 25th March 2018

After finishing the competition project, I quickly got excited about the documentary project. While we didn't manage to really get much done about this project for the beginning of the week, we met up after the COP hand-in to discuss the documentary. 

I am working with Andy and Nicole. We all decided early on that we wanted to do our documentary on history. In the past, Andy and I had already discussed that we would both like to make a pirate history animation. This is something that I am very passionate about as that era of history is fascinating to me. I thought a crash course video on the golden age of piracy could be fun to do. However we decided that doing a video about a specific event would be much more realistic and manageable, while also allowing us to go more in depth on that event.

I suggested that we cover the events of Blackbeard's death, and the others agreed. To gather research for this topic, we will be looking online for accounts telling of the events. I also own a book called 'The Republic of Pirates' which has a chapter dedicated to the life and death of Blackbeard.

Andy suggested styling the animation like an old 18th century illustrated book, which Nicole and I both really liked. Doing this, we then decided that making the animation 2D tweened would fit that style the most. An example I used was like the Horrible Histories animated sections.

Neither Andy or Nicole wanted to direct this project and suggested that since I am the most passionate about the idea, I should direct it. I am really excited to direct this one and make an interesting documentary on Blackbeard. Andy will be in charge of character designs and character assets, while Nicole will be working on backgrounds and background animation. I will then be doing most of the animation, though we will all be doing bits of the animation.