LAU Graduate Entrepreneur Research Summary

Products and Service

Animation
Editorials (moving, still)
Zines + prints?
Community engagement events in the form of skill-sharing

People we'll be contacting for support

Leeds Inspired (Link) - They are doing small grants for people who are serious in doing cultural events in Leeds
Handmade Cinema (Link) - Sheffield-based community cinema.
Hyde Park Picture House (Link) - independent cinema at Hyde Park, Leeds.
Girl Gang Collective (Link) - Collective of women and non-binary who wants to break social barriers through creative engagement with the public.

Market Research

Opportunities
Leeds 2023 - European capital of culture in 2023; creatives who comes from different cultural background adds the value of the collective. Moreover, Leeds Film City campaign also demands for expansion of any form of film production in the region. This increases the opportunities for us to enter the Leeds' creative industry.

Customer Profile
Leeds student population; they are passionate about social issues and art.
General public who are interested in art and culture; creative engagement, workshops, exhibition, selling prints and zines.

Need to consider about  business competitions! (as stated in the forms)
Other than that, I felt that our body of work shows strong and unique understanding of illustration and animation which came from our overlapping interest in communicating through the moving and the still aesthetic.

Communication & Promotional Tools

possibly during the end of year exhibition, we will be screening the May Day! protest animation and showreel. Leah Tomlinson from second year Animation is also running an art market in July, and there will be projector for people to screen our showreel and films. We will be exploring more of Leeds' independent and arts scene. We will also be attending animation networking events such as Festivus and Loopdeloop screenings.

Finances

cost of setting up and management: (undecided)

estimated income: target of £50,000 investment funds (as required to switch to Tier 1 entrepreneur visa)

other sources of income aside of sales: workshops, grants, crowdfunding websites.

Operations

work week: 5 Days a week, 9 to 5

physical space: Creative workspace; Studio for two, and possibly a workshop space. Duke studio or something similar?

physical equipment & IT software: 

Physical-

Scanner

Photocopy machine

Laptops or iMacs

Papers

Art supplies

Software-

Adobe Creative Cloud (After Effects, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro)

Manufacturing and/or distribution process: 

offline - Print Fairs

online (e-Commerce) - bigcartel, domain website, and maybe other selling platforms such as everpress, awesome merch, and mercht HQ.

Legal Protection 

Business registration: Nobigi. Ltd, 

Protection of intellectual property: Animation and illustration by issuing a "purchase order" which consist of contract terms and conditions that needs to be signed by the clients at the beginning of the project. Also, issuing properly referenced invoice to keep track the finances of the company.

Insurance & Licenses needed:

from home office website

Legal documentation: Invoicing, bookkeeping (consider getting a freelance accountant to work with us), event notices.

Critical Reflection

I have found out that we are still far away from getting to a 'credible' business idea. Despite having found out a lot about the market in Leeds, the realisation plan of the idea still needs working. We will need to research further on legal and financial sides, and also contacting the people whom I'd like to get the support and advice from after PP3 deadline.

LAU Graduate Entrepreneur Update

I have emailed the LAU International team the other day telling them that I am interested in the opportunity and asking them to provide me further details. I have also clearly stated that I will be setting up the business with Galuh.

The International team has got back to me about the necessary details and the deadline for the pitch. We've got until 11th of June to fill up the application form.

In the application form, there are a lot of things we haven't really considered yet, such as building the 'team', marketing, finances, operations, legal operation and sustainability practice. However, they do provide a helpful framework to fill up each sections of the application form. Hopefully, I will be able to do some research which might help to fill them up for the submission so that I can get feedback from the tutors.

On a side note, I have also thought that it will be nice to work with other social enterprises and charity organisations based in Leeds. I feel like we should contact the Leeds Animation Workshop, a feminist independent animation studio, and their works connote strong political message. Looking at the council website and film festivals that'll be going on in Leeds could also be a good start.

Reflective Presentation

Design Board

Online Presence: Twitter & LinkedIn

Twitter and LinkedIn is my least used social media. I don't use Twitter often because I have aversion to reading too many short sentences. Twitter also have limitations in terms of the media shared, and more often than not it will link to another web page which is quite a hassle especially when browsing with phone. Meanwhile, I do not use LinkedIn as much too, as I thought it would be a bit dry and I am too shy to add people I don't know too. However, I found it quite useful for connecting with new people and old friends when I got log on to it earlier to take a screenshot of my profile. It can possibly be the place where I can connect with professionals and look for future clients, collaborators or employers.

Here is a screenshot of my Twitter and LinkedIn profile:

Twitter Link

LinkedIn Link

Twitter profile

LinkedIn profile

Online Presence: Instagram

Instagram is my oldest and most-used social media. Despite the sayings that artists should keep their professional account and their personal account separate, I choose to have just one account out of convenience. Most of the things that I've been posting are my artworks, with some photos to add more variety. Ultimately, it serves the function to show the relation between art and the artist's personality. On a side note, it is nice to keep in touch with some old friends and acquaintances who commented on things I have posted or replied to my story.

I think I am quite addicted to scrolling endlessly on my feed and following a lot of artists and creative bloggers to find inspirations. Despite the addiction, I have maintained a handful of friendship from Instagram, especially friends whom I met during Annecy. Although, nowadays Instagram has become a bit dull as they changed the feed algorithm as the things that popped up are quite same-y.

Instagram: Link

an overview of my Instagram page

Online Presence: Vimeo & Youtube

Throughout my 3 years doing animation, I have done myself an animation portfolio by consistently updating my Vimeo content. My Vimeo channel consist of a curated range of the final animation pieces I have done during my time at Leeds Arts University.

I also uses YouTube to post some unpolished process video for the blog, which are not appropriate to be posted on Vimeo. My post in YouTube is not as consistent because I am not really good in keeping up with the documenting, and usually upload process videos when I have to put something on my blog.

Vimeo: Link
YouTube: Link

Branding for LAU Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme

Brand identity:

• illustration, animation directors
• focus on visual storytelling
• low budget medium
• playful caricature to communicate heavy subjects

Idea brainstorm

For the branding, we came up with the name 'nobigi' as it came from our anagram. We like it because it doesn't make sense and the name itself sounds Japanese; signifies that we are influenced by Eastern culture too. It can also sound like 'No Biggie', which unintentionally suits our intention to instil entertainment values while presenting the heavy issues in our films.

Initially, we thought that it will be a good idea to be lopsided tits as an irony that when women says its not a big deal, you know it's a massive problem.

Anagram

The design becomes more abstracted. Aside of the tits idea, we also thought about creating an anthropomorphic characters of ourselves, which is what we went for in the end.

Developmental Thumbnails

nobigi logo

business stationery design

instagram feed

2018 Showreel

Ident

Showreel

Showreel 2017/18 from Brenda Christie Muliawan on Vimeo.

Where are You From Exhibition

I saw this exhibition poster at the uni and was curious of what it is all about. They do an open call for submission, but I thought most of my work hasn't got much influence of where I came from. I didn't submit anything, but still went for the exhibition instead.

The overarching intention from this exhibition is for people to sign petition to fill up the quota of ethnic minorities in the university, and also promote equality in the learning environment and the creative industry.

I enjoyed the exhibition and met some new people and exchange thoughts about discrimination towards ethnic minorities in creative industry and in the art uni. It is good to be able to celebrate diversity through the artworks exhibited. 

Personal Animation Project: May Day!

May Day! is an campaign project which would be the starting project for nobigi. The purpose of the animation is to comment on the Home Office's jeopardising the opportunity for international student to stay and work in the UK. The current rules imposed by the Home Office only allow student to find highly-skilled jobs up to 3 months after graduating, while 4 years ago students can stay for a year and earn less. Moreover, international students are the least priority in the job application process.

This is xenophobia-inducing and disregard the cultural diversity, which society have been trying to embrace. The animation will be targeted to audience who are coming to our end of year show. We wanted to keep the audience entertained while also effectively communicate testimonies from international student through a visual which can help the audience to reflect on the unfairness of this policy and how they should treat us, internationals, more like 'human' rather than means to make £20,000,000,000 per year.

Protest poster 1

Protest poster 2

Careers, Networking and Events in Indonesia

If I were to go back to Indonesia, the most suitable thing for me is to take commissions as a freelance multi disciplinary artist and also submit my work to exhibitions and film festivals around Asia Pacific. With a degree in animation, I feel more confident to approach and get involved with art spaces, studio, or events in Indonesia that showcases video art, film and 2D animation. Having done a handful of designing and illustrating, I have acquired a good understanding of the visual language which could give me a credibility as a visual artist, too.

Ika Vantiani
Ika is a friend of a friend who is a collage artist based in Indonesia, and whose art resonates her passion about the subject of feminism. Being an experienced freelance artist, I feel that she will be a good contact if I want to get to know more about freelancing and networking with artists in Indonesia.

Here is a link to her Instagram profile: Link

Residencies, Agencies and Studios
Ruang Rupa Link
Lir Artspace Link
Toaster Link
Kopi Keliling Link

Art Space and Events
Dia.Lo.Gue Artspace Link
ArtJog Link
Arkipel Documentary & Experimental Film Festival Link
Cartoons Underground (Singapore) Link

Update on Job Applications

During Easter break, I have attempted to apply for The Royal Institute Animator in Residence position and Moth Animation Studio's summer internship programme. They are all London-based as a tutor has recommended me that it is easier to find an animation job with a more than 23k a year in London than in the vicinity of Leeds.

The Royal Institute offers a residency for an animator who are passionate about bringing scientific discovery to the public. I am interested in applying as I enjoyed making animation based on real facts recorded in their sound archives. The reason for applying to the Moth internship is quite similar as I am keen to learn their way of telling the emotive aspect of a real story through the illustrative animation aesthetic.

I didn't get the two positions I am applying for, but at least the production assistant from Moth has bothered to reply and gave me a heads up on the timeline of the application process.

Another position that I am aware of, but I have decided not to apply to is Matt Blease's studio Internship. Matt Blease is a London-based illustrator who does minimalistic line work illustration and also did a handful of motion graphic animations in the style of his drawings. I didn't apply in the end because he focuses on trivialities of daily life, while I am looking for a more serious themes to work with.

a sample of Matt Blease's work

Painting Commission

I was traumatised from facing a difficult client who asks for a commissioned wedding stationery, yet here I am doing another project related to wedding. What a masochist! Well, the good thing about this painting commission is that it is more of a smaller scale, and I have the creative freedom to experiment with colours which I like a lot: pastels and bright colours. 

Throughout the project, I have learnt from past mistakes and make sure to set the expectations with the client. I also found out that for a shape-based painting, it will be nice to create the digital version of the roughs and try to put in colours. I wouldn't do it if I were to do my own painting, but this is an efficient workflow as I can show progress to the client and make sure she likes the colour palette.

These are the two mock-ups I made for her:

 She liked the nude coloured one better:

I forgot to scan the finished painting, so here a photo doesn't really do it justice to the final product:

I also did some mini paintings, one of which is meant to go in the packaging. I have also written a congratulatory message at the back to the married couple. They said they really like the painting and they will frame it for their new house after it is shipped. :)

Online Resources

I have decided to look up for more sources online rather than sulking about the problem of not having enough one-to-one guidance from the tutor. Instagram is a really good platform to find information especially about websites for creatives through people's stories and informal chats with recent graduates.


Online Sources

The Creative Independent

A website by Kickstarter which focuses on posting about personal growth as an artist and have an independent artistic career personally and practically. Kickstarter has curated a handful of essays and interviews about the ups and downs in artistic career, inspiration and how-tos. I found convenience finding informations in this website as quality information is shared for free.

An explanation of how to apply for grants. Provides guidelines and considerations that can be relevant for the LAU Graduate Scheme business pitch.

Applying for Grants

Applying for grants

Applying for grants

I have also looked into financial planning guide, too. Although similar to the cost-of-living calculator lecture, it provides clearer explanation in the break down of how to manage income so that it compounds as an artist. Also, gave a brief introduction to investing and considerations of terms, conditions and risks. I find investing could be useful for my sustainable practice in the long run if I have earn a stable income. So that, ideally, I could have savings for personal projects. Although the cons of investing is I have to do a lot of research about things I wanted to invest my money on, which takes time I could work on some other creative stuff. Furthermore, it could also lead to addiction.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning

If You Could
If You Could is a website by It's Nice That which advertises jobs in arts and design. I have been looking for motion graphic and designer jobs listed below which could potentially pass for the income eligibility for Tier 2 application (yearly salary of £23,200). Will start crafting an email in the next few weeks for the positions. Still have to look up whether internationals are eligible to apply and for the companies at the 'A-listed sponsor' list certified by the Home Office so the applications made are not going into waste. Will update as over the weekends as I got further information about the jobs.

Job Hunting notes from https://ifyoucouldjobs.com/

Anyways

I have signed up for Anyways' free newsletter and case studies for more insights, jobs and collaboration opportunities. Anyways is a sister agency of It's Nice That, a UK-based website featuring creative inspiration for contemporary artists and designers.

Reflection on Plans

I am quite flexible flip-flopping between animation studio, being an independent filmmaker or being in a collective. However, if I do have to work or doing an internship in an office setting, I would be aiming to work at relatively small studio as I want to stay being a generalist while also expand my knowledge in animation and filmmaking through the work experience.

If I am not eligible to switch to any of the UK visa by July, I wouldn't wanna find a professional job to stay in the UK. I am quite excited to make another short film and build network within the artist and independent filmmakers within Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The plan before leaving is to find several hourly-paid jobs in Leeds to earn enough money to fund my year off in Indonesia instead. Life is tough.

Creative Website

Over spring break, I did a proper portfolio website of selected works which reflects image I want to convey in my work and versatility with different traditional media. For this reason, I've decided to simply reuse an alphabet cut-out of my name from my past showreel to create a heading for the website.

Here's the link to my website: https://brendamuliawan.wixsite.com/brenda-animates

Homepage is my animation portfolio. Showreel is put on big screen to advertise what I can offer, while my most recent works automatically comes up after. Wix creates a channel for video portfolio where videos can be added and arranged by the user. It also offers basic views statistics on the videos uploaded on the site.

A page for illustration and sketchbooks excerpt:

Personal bio:

Complaints on Support and Advice

At this point of the year, I am utterly annoyed for the fact that I haven't got enough time to properly discuss Professional Practice with the tutor. The only times I can have one-to-one chat are the Pastoral Tutorials which only happens three times within a year for 20 minutes. Otherwise, tutors are 'busy, busy, busy' and never replied to a single email. It is time to figure things out by myself as I cant really be arsed to pester around anymore.

china, china, china bloody excuses!

I felt that the problem does not come from the tutors but rather from the institution. 

Let's talk about the elephant in the room

The art university is neglecting the importance of continuous engagement through discussions and learning through sharing professional and personal experiences in self-directed learning. These values are essential to achieve holistic development for future artists and designers.

However, the institution keep on increasing the quota of student intake each year without thinking of improving the learning resources. By giving the busy tutors more jobs, meetings and admin stuffs, which is taking away their time and energy for fruitful one-to-one discussion with graduating students and follow up the discussions with further research findings. There is often occasions that tutors favour certain students than others. This is a understandable circumstance: the tutors have to channel their energy to deal with other arduous tasks set by their employer, and they want to avoid other stressful matters that can prevail from students who have 'unique needs'.

The result is totally precedented: a lot of pessimistic view arising from the people in my year about the course and concerns about their future. 

This is even more frustrating for myself, which has 'unique needs' for being an international student who wants to stay in the UK after graduating. I have decided that have no faith on the tutors after not getting enough time for discussion and the long overdue pastoral tutorial follow-ups. I have to find my own solution on top of already being pressured by the stakes for me to get a professional job by the end of July.

Networking and Career Opportunities in the UK & EU

FESTIVALS

Aesthetica Film Festival Going to attend a sound lecture, unfortunately it is not the topic that I am interested in which is sound in post-production.

London International Animation Festival (LIAF) Attend the KINOManual Workshop and had a good chat with Katy Wang while we were putting bleach on the film negatives. Katy is a London-based freelance animator. She has just graduated from Kingston's Illustration and Animation. Talked quite a bit about grad films, freelance work and gender issues in Animation. She's really nice and open and we've decided to catch up during Annecy. Also met Alex Castro who's currently doing his final year at RCA and does cool direct on film animation. Overall, a good experience talking to them two!

Annecy It happens after uni ends, so can't really talk much about it. I am looking forward to going and have a chat with people while sitting beside the lake. Last year's experience was great, the crowds are super friendly. Queueing up for hours doesn't really feel that long with some friendly conversations.

JOBS

Moth Animation Summer Internship When I saw the internship post on my Instagram feed, I got really excited to send an application. It's always been my dream to work at Moth. I really like their approach to storytelling and the design of their animations. They have always impress me with the ability to highlight the emotive aspect in their commissioned work.

screenshot of the summer intern ad

Royal Institution Artist in Residence Heard about this position from a tutor. I especially took interest in applying for this position after watching RI's Michael Faraday Animation. The animation is made using collage and collections of real life objects. The combination of the peculiar visual and play of word gives a creative solution which confronts the conception that that science is only for the smart and nerdy. The dry facts are made accessible to public through whole aesthetic. I applied for this position because I am interested to explore how the concept of science can be made fun and accessible to adults and children. 

LAU Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme

Leeds Arts University offers a mentoring programme for two international students who are keen to develop a credible business idea. The deadline for the application is on the 30th of May. As I have said on my Extended evaluation, I intend to do a collective pitch with Galuh Indri Wiyarti from Level 6 Illustration, so we will dedicate some time to create a collective branding, compile a portfolio and also send an email to express interest our interest to the LAU International team.


STUDIOS

Seed Animation Studio

Studio AKA
Bliink TV
Animade

PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES

PUNAnimation
Women in Animation
North Festivus

Visas and their respective Financial Obligations

Cost of living calculator

In the study task set we have to calculate our yearly expenses. I have found out that my yearly expenses in Leeds as a student is £11,384.

However, my concern is not in how much money I spent per year. It is amount of money that I have to earn written in the visa requirements to stay in the UK.


Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa

Just found out from an email that the university is giving an opportunity for international students to pitch their business ideas. They will endorse someone with genuine and credible business ideas to stay for a year (can be extended) in the UK with Tier 1 graduate entrepreneur visa. If I got the endorsement, life will be bliss as the financial obligation is much more less than what is required in the Tier 2 visa.

Application:

• 3 months before student visa ends, 8 weeks process.
• The visa fee is £493 with additional NHS surcharge of £200. £693 in total.

Eligibility:

• University degree
• Endorsement letter from Leeds Arts University
• Bank statement with £945 savings in the past 3 months prior to application

Tier 2 (General) Working visa
stay for 3 years

Application:

• 3 months before student visa ends, 8 weeks process.
• Online visa fee is £704 with NHS surcharge of £600. £1,304 in total.

Eligibility:

• For artists to apply for Tier 2, we have to earn £23,200 a year.
• Meanwhile average pay for new entrants are £18,600 per year.
• Bank statement with £945 savings in the 3 months prior to application or more than £945/mo. salary stated in the certificate of sponsorship.
• Certificate of sponsorship from fully approved ('A-rated') sponsor by the Home Office.

Animation CV

I have made a generalist 2D animation CV for the Royal Institution's animation in residence application. Out of personal preference, I'd rather have a two-page CV that is neat and clean rather than one that is condensed in a page. 

This is my updated CV after the discussion with a tutor. He commented that my CV is of a good standard, straight forward and the format is easy to read. I only have to do a tiny tweaks on the description to make it less specific. I have also added the tutors' email at the reference section.

Identifying Market through My Past Works

'How to Apply for Grants' is an article by The Creative Independent, a website by crowdfunding company Kickstarter. The website contains a plethora of resources, such as interviews, guides, articles, which introduces and delves deep into professional practice of an independent creator.

Through reading the article I have found out that to define the directions I will be considering in terms of finding directions in my artistic career, I need to determine my passion by looking at my interests in content and aesthetic and how it influences the animations I have done so far.

Below is the break down of content and aesthetic, and how they distill into my vision as a maker and my artist statement.

Running themes in my animations

• Socio-political and cultural context
• Based on personal experience
• Anthropomorphic characters
• Playful, funny with satire and dark twist
• Character narrative; simple ideas with unconventional telling

Aesthetic

• Illustration Animation
• Entertainment value: heavy subject matter told in simple and sarcastic visual
• Flat 2D, abstract composition
• collage, paper cutouts and other quick & low-budget medium
• work from simple shapes
• doodle, quite messy and textured
• happy accidents a.k.a don't think about the outcome
• video montage editing

Lists of past work, description and inspiration

Artist Statement

An animator and illustrator interested in depicting socio-cultural issues. I am passionate about experimenting new methods and ideas of creating animation. As a recent graduate in Animation, I am looking for opportunities to develop new skills and gain experience in low-budget 2D traditional animation techniques.

Identifying market

• independent filmmaking: apply for residencies and grants to make short films
• freelance: Form a collective with Galuh Indri Wiyarti from Illustration
• studio job

Where I Stand Now

Area of interest in animation

I consider myself as a generalist who keeps an open mind when it comes to making animated films. I feel strongly passionate about finding new ways of self-expression through the language of motion. This made myself more drawn towards - but not restricted to - the experimental approach of making animated films. My animating process is hands-on experimentation with tangible media aimed to effectively delivers believes which I want to convey. It is reflected in works that I have been producing which have clear personal tone of voice that is open for interpretation to the audience.

Sustainable Practice

What could potentially bridge my practice to real life?

Concerns: UK government making visa requirements increasingly difficult (Tier 2 visa: earn £23,200) and the dilemma of where to move next.

job application procedure for foreigners in the UK be like

PENDINGGGGGGGG!!!

Look up on visa documentation and where to move next.

Work freelance or in a studio -> Move and find a job or an agency representative in London

Alternatives -> Canada (NFB), Japan (international new media artist residency in Tokyo), Netherlands, France (Paris or Lyon), Denmark (Copenhagen).

Remote working -> I want to find a place in Indonesia outside Jakarta where the art scene is more down to earth rather than elitist, possibly Yogyakarta or Bandung.

PPP2 Evaluation

In the PPP2 module we have to engage with the professionals working in the creative industry, market ourselves and develop our personal interest as an artist. Although it is simple and straightforward, it is the most challenging to me because I keep on delaying PPP work until the last minute. Time management is rather non-existent and I think I did poorly in this module. Most of the blog posts are done a few days before the deadline. I have no passion to get in contact with professional creatives. In conclusion, I actually have underestimated the PPP module, and so I did not benefit anything throughout the year when it comes to trying to get to know more about the industry. I did not benefit on the Professional side of things. Despite all these grim outlook to my engagement with people working in the animation industry, I feel that I have grow as an animator by the end of the year. I have a more distinct interest than last year, and I definitely have clearer definition of the things that I want to pursue in the future.

What goes wrong in this module is my fear to interact with strangers of higher social standing to myself. I always have a preconception that they are always busy and they are not the most humble person to talk to university students unless they are old enough to have free time to look at all the messages. Moreover, I did not know how to make connections in the creative industry in the UK as I found the norm of getting in contact with strangers here is awkward and not an easy thing for me. So, I keep on telling myself that all the emails that I sent to professionals are pointless because of this negative preconceptions, and this takes its toll at the end of the PPP module. I do not feel fulfilled towards the end of PPP because I did not push myself enough to overcome this fear to talk to new people. Professional work has been quite traumatising for me as well with the bridezilla incident. My self-esteem have been at its lowest point and gives a reason why I am reluctant to get out of my comfort zone. Studio Brief 3 is no better for me. My group consist of people who just want to get PPP out of the away instead of being passionate about marketing themselves in the real world. Their expectation does not match up to mine whose ambition is to make a real collective with like-minded people. I would not lie that PPP this year has been hell for me. Hopefully, I will be able to overcome this toxic attitudes towards my professional practice in the future.

In terms of animating skills and work ethics towards projects I feel confident this year. I tried to better myself by keeping the SWOT analysis as a reference point. From where I stand I have seen a lot of improvement in drawing skill while still keeping the flat aesthetic of my drawing. I am accepting my weaknesses of not being able to draw solid forms and make the style of my animation deliberately flat and stylised like that of modern cartoons. I am drawn towards experimentation with the consideration of shapes, textures and colours within the screen composition rather than the classical realistic type of animation (like that of Disney). In the future, I want to develop my creative practice towards this direction.

To sum up, I am unmotivated since the PPP started because it involves going out of my comfort zone and I started to get to work a week before hand in. I do not feel that I have accomplished anything in this module in terms of Professional Practice. We also failed to pitch our collective idea for Life’s a Pitch with the lack of passion. I made a lot of mistakes for PPP, and I think it is the worst module of the year because I cannot bring myself to step out of my comfort zone throughout the running time of the module.

Hi Stranger

Hi Stranger from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

To compete PPP2 blogpost I want to dedicate this last post as an appreciation to 'Hi Stranger' an experimental animation made viral by the Internet. I ditched Mr. Madila, and this animation has become my current favourite animation. The main appeal of this animation to me is the alluring voice of the naked character and the sense of genuinity in the way he talks. The dialogue offers warmth, comfort and zen, making the audience distracted from obligation and seek comfort. The oiled plasticine material purposefully makes the naked character looks uncanny and the mysterious gestures that he does incite curiosity. Keeping things secret is an element that keep this short successful to engage the audience emotionally. Therefore, it has the quality to be rewatched over and over again.

Derpy Projects of The Year

Some of the projects that I made randomly throughout this year, while not putting in much effort to it, but I decided to post it anyways.

Otong means dick in Indonesian slang language. The idea is to paste this derpy dick men on the small toilet's door in my current house to distract people from looking at their phone. Displaying otong in the bathroom also is a psychological mind game in the bathroom because his derpy face encourages people to vandalise the print. Otong proves to be an effective distraction from the mundane - and even leads to overthinking - toilet ritual. I am proud of Otong.

Si Otong 'anarchy in the loo' Toilet Wallpaper

A study task that I took too far because I like the character design for it that I did in my doodle book. I even got to make a nice vector of my derpy pigeon character and put the extra effort to put on sounds. 

Pigeon Walkcycle from Brenda Christie Muliawan on Vimeo.

In conclusion, I am good at initiating random and spontaneous project and I show more passion doing trivial study task. I also like to make derpy character designs.

Who am I Now?

• Identify 5 things you have learned so far on the programme

1. MAYA
2. Don Hertzfeld
3. Cinematography
4. How to email creatives
5. Presentation skills

• Identify 5 things that you want to know more about

1. Experimental animation techniques
2. Composting
3. tips and trick in applying for internship
4. Independent animation studios in the UK
5. how to interact with strangers in Britain without coming to be awkward

• Identify 5 skills that you think are your strengths.

1. 2D traditional and Photoshop animation 
2. Sense of colour and composition
3. Character design (but Ive had enough of it for now)
4. Layout design for animation
5. versatility when using new medium of animation

• Identify 5 things that you want to improve.

1. Overcome the awkwardness and interact with professionals
2. Looking for volunteering opportunity in animation and film festivals
3. Putting emotion into my animation
4. Social skills in general
5. idea generation

• Identify 5 practitioners that demonstrate your interest in Animation

1. Lara Lee
2. Ross Hogg
3. Bronwyn Maloney
4. Don Hertzfeld
5. BlinkMyBrain"
6. Chris Simpsons

• Identify 5 websites/online resources that demonstrate your areas of interest within the creative industries.

1. Vimeo
2. Edge of Frame
3. Short of the Week
4. It's Nice That
5. Skwigly
6. http://www.stanvanderbeek.com/

Studio Brief 3 - Life's a Pitch Presentation

We are supposed to make an animation collective for the brief, in which we have to pitch the collective idea to the class. The idea of forming a collective is to bring our names out there, having websites, releasing print publication or even an exhibition of the collective work. I am in a group with Tess, Vlad, Alex, Luke Chandler, and Bash. We call ourselves Blob TV. Our collective idea is to compile each other's work and put it together in the format inspired by The Animation Sketchbook.

I do not contribute much to the group because there are a lot of people in the group. My roles is just helping Tess do a clean up for the layout of the presentation and making the example page arrangement for the print publication. All the research for marketing and others have been done by other group mates. 

The presentation is disorganised and the idea of Blob TV was not strong enough. The main concern from the tutors is the name of our collective: Blob TV because we are not presenting our animations, yet we are putting 'TV' into our group name, which is contradictory. Also what I found from the group is that no one is actually keen to realise the idea. Majority of the people in the group are clueless and remained silent during the presentation. I enjoy the least Blob TV pitch presentation compared to other group works that I am doing throughout the year because the team lacks passion to realise the idea, so the idea does not project well in the mind of the audience.

Starving Artist Podcast

'Artists don't like to talk about money. Perhaps because they don't always make very much of it—or because they risk being dismissed as sellouts if they do.'

"What I find interesting about these conversations is that they very, very quickly stop being about money and start being about ethics, values, and priorities. How you live a good life and create art at the same time"

https://starvingartistpodcast.com/

Honor Eastly is the podcast producer for the podcast series: Starving Artist. She was motivated by the haunting thought of child-bearing's financial effect into her job to financially support her children through making art or even attaining success in art before giving birth to a child. I completely understand where she comes from since making a living through art is not easy. Starving artist podcasts are not meant to be a formula of success, rather than how Honor follows her curiosity and finding out how different people do it.

As quoted above, although the podcasts tackles money matters, different artists have different ways of dealing with their financial obligations. The factors that surfaces when discussing this money issue is much profound because they start to bring in personal considerations, such as ethics, values, and priorities, into the discussion.

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/careers-and-money/like-many-female-artists-im-told-i-work-too-hard-the-reasons-are-complex-20170331-gvb2ni.html

https://creators.vice.com/en_au/article/starving-artist-a-podcast-that-gets-real-about-money-creativity-and-privilege