Thesis Proposal

1. Previous Work: List previous photographic directions and interests that relate to your thesis goals. Reference other prints or portfolios that may be related. Please describe elements of the projects that are working well. Please describe elements that you wish to improve upon for your thesis project. How can you extend these projects into a larger project/s in order to create more well-developed pieces?

The key art firm, Ignition, has created several great motion posters. And the Gamer motion poster I think it a fantastic way to use the new medium. I have worked with Flash on various projects and would love (hate?) to use it again. I love film-related graphics, so obviously posters, which I have made in the past for student films. I would love to learn more about motion-graphics, so creating a motion poster seems ideal to me. To extend this project I would create a still poster to go with it and then other forms besides a poster where the graphic would be used, like a DVD and cover.

2. Project Specifics
a. Motivations: Describe your goal/intention for creating this project. Why are you passionate about this project? How does it relate to you and your future goals after graduating? Where are “you” in the project?
My motivations to make this piece is to create a piece that would help me learn about motion-posters, which are a new concept and I feel would help me stand out in this specific field I’m interested in. The “me” is really just creating stuff I enjoy, as unthought out as that sounds.

b. Concept/Aboutness/Idea: What do you think your images will be about? Describe the concept depicted in your images/project.
My project will be about telling a story, but that story will be based solely on a visual image that I feel like creating. Such as a car crash or a person in the rain.

c. Interpretation: How do you hope that others will interpret your images/project?
I hope that others will feel like there is a story behind the poster and want to know more. If so, then I know it would’ve been a successful poster.

d. Content: What subject matter will be depicted in your images/project? Human subjects, spaces, plants, objects, textures, shadows, etc.?
Humans and text will probably be in my poster, beyond that, will depend on the subject matter I choose.

e. Form/Composition: Describe your intended use of framing, perspective, contrast, emphasis, balance, lighting, color/black & white, etc. If each image will be different, please describe how these formal elements will coalesce and relate to form a larger cohesive project.
I’m leaning toward a low-key poster because there is more smudge room in terms of things not blending together depending on the methods I use and how well I execute my piece.

f. Format of presentation: Describe how your project will be presented. Will you matte prints, project images onto a bed, make an animation, collage video and still images and then display the piece on a 70s style television monitor, make a collage that is wall-sized, make 6 printed posters, etc? Where will you install this piece? Do we need to go to your dorm room to see it? Will you install in the gallery in Kresge? Will you install the project in the classroom?
My piece will be projected or seen on a screen. If I make print material, I will print those out.


g. Technology: Describe the technology you will need to create your images/project. For example, will you use 35mm film, digital SLR, photoshop for digital manipulation, Maya, After Effects, a flatbed scanner, a projector, a video camera, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.
I will need a computer, Adobe Suite, maybe Final Cut, a digital camera, a studio, a model, probably a video camera, and maybe a scanner, and hopefully After Effects (but I don’t know how to use it).

3. Techniques to Learn: Describe any techniques, processes, or materials that you need to learn/experiment with in order to complete your project. In other words, delineate skills that you do not yet have mastered that you will need to learn during your project.
I need to experiment with a video camera and how to alter the look in After Effects. I want to learn more than the basics of Final Cut and studio lighting. Everything else I’m confident about.

4. Method: Discuss the process you will engage in as you work on this project.
a. List important due dates/checkpoints that will help you to keep on track. Describe how your project might be broken down into smaller manageable sections that culminate in the larger project at the end. Describe how you will build in time for risk-taking and experimentation.
My piece will have one final motion outcome and a still poster to match. I may make several similar looking pieces that would fit in different advertising contexts.

b. Will you complete a series of experiments before beginning on the final images? Will your project include smaller projects completed along the way that when installed next to one another become a larger piece?
I hadn’t planned on completely experiments, but I may now because that seems like a very good idea.

c. Describe some of your intended working methodologies. Will you create analog sketches or digital sketches? Will you observe your environment? Construct a scene? Direct subjects? Light your subjects with a flashlight?
I will have analog sketches and work from a working file that will most likely change. I might save each stage just to see the progress and so I can go through my process in the future to somebody in the future.

5. Context: Describe how your project relates to the work or ideas of other photographers, artists, or designers. Be specific. How is your work similar to and different from these creators’ work? How does your work bring a new or alternative perspective to the idea represented? Describe how your work relates to larger issues outside of art and photography. Is it about social, psychological, historic, chemical, cultural, anthropological, etc issues?
My work will be similar to digital artists’ work, photographers who do digital reconstruction, and motion-graphic designers. My work will combine all those different elements into one piece. While the subject will probably not address a cultural or social issue, the medium most certainly does, as it’s a new artistic medium and places it in this decade.