I was lucky to have a film and television production student at Hertfordshire Uni reach out to me, who had seen some of my works through Behance. He was working on his FMP at uni and it was basically the production of a proper film which they were entering into a competition.
Obviously with this, it would need graphics to visually represent the film, and also various illustrations to go with it to go into their project proposals and film manuals - which they were going to commission me to do for them.
Initially I offered to consider approaching the whole identity for them, but this became problematic with their evolving time constraints...
- initial concepts & directions put forward by client - very sketchy and fluid line drawings, delicate but classy to reflect ballet.
Led to me researching the traditional form of ballet, looking at the movements through videos and gifs..
Which led me to think about how I can put forward moving concepts for digital platforms and then how this can be applied into the print media too.
For example - A Flip-book style approach in the bottom corners of the books, by page numbers
As communications via email and facebook got more difficult and as time constraints became tighter and they began bringing deadlines forward, it put me in a professional situation where I had to stick up for my practise and stand up to the client regarding the logistics and flow of the project.
There was no way I was able to complete the sheer volume of unrealistic tasks they had set for me and they were definitely spreading me way too thin with a deadline of within the next 4 days. So I had to learn from this experience and approach it in a cool and professional manor to resolve the problem with the client and communicate how I can realistically help out and be of service..
This meant I just had to worry about the illustrations - reflecting the whole storyline of their film of how two opposite sisters express their true colours and differences through the form of ballet.
Each illustration had a theme to fit the chosen chapter they'd assigned for it to be used within the project proposal, e.g. Storyline, Characters, Development, Time Management, Social Media, & the Audience, etc.
And I also went ahead and created the two sister gifs for each corner of the page to create the flip-book effect! - which they evaluated as "a very lovely touch" which brought the whole consistency of the book together for us".
In the end, they ended up commissioning me for the illustrations only and after later realising a cut in budget anyway, decided it would be easier, quicker and cheaper for them to make all the brochures themselves instead of out-sourcing the job to me, just as they were being lazy with the proof-reading! I successfully stuck up for my practise and received a professional and understanding response which led to a prompt pay for the commissions.
So overall, I was very happy with the outcome of the collaboration, it reinforced to me how I should always stick up for myself and the service I am offering - and it also pushed me out of my comfort zone creating a different style of illustration which I would never have normally considered producing content for! I thoroughly enjoyed this professional encounter!
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