Proposal

I have now finished my research and development project.

I thought that my project definately improved once I changed the topic to a more narrowed focus. Just looking at narrative meant that my treatment could benefit from a detailed analysis of the conventions of a fantasy narrative. I think that my project could be improved by perhaps one or two more case studies. Though I feel that I learnt probably as much as I could about fantasy narrative as they are all extremely similar. The conventions don't vary much from film to film despite extremely different styles.

I feel that my treatment could have been improved by spending more time on drawings. Despite my quite poor drawing skills, I think that more location sketching would have helped to convey the feel of the magical world. Because I just wrote the key events of the narrative, I did not describe the characters, locations or atmospheres at all. I think that just writing the narrative was enough for this project though, and reflected my research well.

Over the last week I have finished the research half of the project and have been working on developing my treatment. So far I have created a mind map of ideas and have chosen names and locations. I have started drawing some of the characters, which will help the reader understand the story better. My drawing skills are quite poor but I hope to put across what the characters look like in my imagination. I have started working out the key events of the narrative too. This is one of the most important parts of the project and so I will spend the next couple of days working on this. The narrative treatment must be clear to the reader because, in the industry, it is what gets funding for making a film.

Over the last few days I have done more research at the library, trying to find books to aid my research but books on fantasy narrative are scarce so I have mainly been using websites. Much of the writing, though, is my own analysis of the films I have watched. I have now completed most of the research section of the project with just the topic of Blockbuster Fantasy to write.

After receiving feedback for my first draft, I decided that my idea was too broad. Trying to study Fantasy across a number of mediums such as Art, Philosophy and Literature as well as Films was far too broad and I struggled to write any detailed analysis.

I decided, then, to just focus on fantasy films, and just narrative within these. Looking at one element of films offers much more opportunity for detailed research of particular films throughout cinema history. Now, I plan to start choosing and researching a collection of films from different times and styles as case studies to derive the conventions of a fantasy film narrative. I will then use this research to develop a treatment for my own original fantasy narrative.

On 9th January, I handed in my portfolio. It is not yet completed and I have a lot more work to put in it, but I intend to improve what I have already wrote and what I will write through the feedback I receive.

On 6th January, I compiled my portfolio. This includes all that I have wrote so far, pictures of related artwork, a contents page and a bibliography.

From 2nd to 5th January I wrote up the research I had gathered. I used both book and internet sources. I wrote up much of what I had found in using quotes, paraphrasing and my own ideas.

I had not researched everything I had planned to yet. I intend to work on the other subjects later on, after receiving feedback on what I have already written.

On 29th and 30th December, I researched the various subjects of my topic on the internet. I gathered a range of ideas and quotes from credible websites.

On 5th Decemer, I began researching my topic in the books I had checked out. I spent time reading, taking notes and writing out quotes from the books.

On 24th November, I checked out some books at the library in order to research my topic and write what I learn. These various books cover quite a range within the fantasy subject so I think they will be very useful to me.