Context of Practice Crits and Evaluation

Initial Crit:

For the initial Crit, I presented what I had researched as well and a general design sheet showing Ideas that I had in regards to packaging and presenting information to a group of about 11 of my peers.

From the initial Crit, the feedback I got was this:

Progress Crit Feedback

• Having a script would look cheap and dirty- not the aesthetic that the tutors would want
• Film Reel- Could you wind it back up again?
• Photosensitive paper- Book in Black bag with a month to read it
• Glow in the Dark- Read in the cinema?
• Book that you read whilst you watch the film?- Blu Ray DVD style
• Need to have a specific audience
• Show a film from Hitchcock and a Hollywood film to compare them

The problem with some of the suggestions was that they are not relevant to Hitchcock where they may produce a nice visual but they wouldn't have any justification. Its a shame about the idea of a script because a script can be beautifully presented if it needed to be but it was completely shot down.

From this, I will go onto producing a specific idea, the content and look into the specific audience.

Presentation Crit:

For this Crit, we had to present what we had done so far to a tutor and a small group of peers. We had to present it using a Powerpoint Presentation and explain what we are doing and what we plan to do next.

The Crit didn't go well for me at all. I got this feedback from my Crit:

• The aesthetic was too cliche and has no real reason or purpose behind it- nothing specifically linked to Hitchcock on his work
• The design decisions have no synthesis or link to the subject matter therefore has no link to the brief
• There is no contextual knowledge or synthesis- there needs to be film theory involved- Shot reverse Shot, how to construct film theory?
• Use of greyscale colour scheme doesn't say Hitchcock- needs psychedelic bolder colour
• Look into the visual graphics of Old School posters and focus aesthetic on this

This Crit really knocked my confidence as I didn't realise that I had done that badly with the brief. I came out of it not knowing what to do as it was clear that my work was falling way off the mark in regards to the synthesis and analysis. In reaction to this Crit, I went onto researching the classic posters for Hitchcock so that I would be able to gain inspiration whilst I try and collect myself to see if there is anything else I could do to improve.

Progress Crit:

For this progress Crit, I approached my tutors with the fact that I had been researching into the aesthetics of the traditional Hitchcock movie posters and told them that I was lost after having a very bad Crit to do with what I had been working on.

The conversation we had went onto me producing a series of film posters that could be folded into the Film Canister which are based on several topics and themes about Hitchcock. This would allow me to produce visuals that could be analytical and have synthesis as well as play around with possible visuals. I went away from this Crit eager to begin working as I felt like I had more direction and I had a new, reinvigorated energy to work on this brief.

Final Crit:

For the Module Hand-In, we had to present our final product and we had to have our blog posts finished. We were then put into groups of 4 (James, Ewan and Amy) which were then halved into pairs. I was paired with Amy. We had to Crit their work and they had to Crit ours. We filled in a feedback sheet based on the criteria of the Module. it was interesting to be in the position of our tutors because it tried to get us to understand how we had to apply our work.

Final Crit Peer Feedback Sheet

This is the feedback that I was given. I was very surprised by this as I was so expecting to do so badly with it so if anything it gave me a boost of confidence because I was so paranoid with it, thinking that I had done so badly. I am glad that they could get the visual contexts and understood where I was coming from with my work. This was my intention and I am glad they appreciated the packaging format as well.

Self- Evaluation:

• How did you approach the brief? - I approached the brief by finding a topic which I felt would be very interesting or something that I felt would be good for me to learn. I wanted a topic which I didn't know already so that I had the opportunity to learn something new from the experience. I wanted to be able to teach the audience what I had learnt about the topic so it was like they were learning along with me.
• What was your thought-process behind the brief? - My thought-process was that I wanted to produce a movie-goer collection/ collectable that would be available for modern film-goers that would be accessible for them to learn about. I wanted to have something which would encourage people to go and look for themselves.
• What worked?/What was Good? - What was good was my poster for the Filmography timeline as I felt that it was a great visual that has a strong influence which is obvious from the off-set. It was the main point in my film set which made me feel as though I was starting to get somewhere with the inspired visuals. What was also good was the fact that I managed to source my packaging product as it took a lot of searching and resourcing to be able to find a suitable film canister. 
• What didn't work?/ What was Bad? - What was bad was the fact that I had to complete scrap my original work based on the fact that it wasn't answering the brief and wasn't relevant to the needs of the module marking prospects. It was very disheartening and I found it a real challenge to continue as I felt very lost but I managed to persevere and pull something back.
• What would you change?- I would have changed the whole first half of my attempt at answering the brief because if I had known that it wasn't going very well in that sense then I would have stopped a lot earlier and re-evaluated my approach. Saying that, in a way, I wouldn't change this experience because it has been a learning curve for me which I think is important and invaluable in regards to me growing and learning as a designer.