In this unit, students will undertake a diagnostic investigation into visual language and creative practices. This exploratory investigation allows students to become familiar with and experiment within a range of creative disciplines related to their chosen subject as part of their journey to, or reinforcement of, further specialism in Unit 2 or 3. 
  
Projects* 
  
Mini-projects during Induction and Collaboration weeks:  
Phonotropes: You will create a short sequence of drawings that come to life when placed on a spinning record player and viewed through a camera’s viewfinder. 
Pixilation: In small groups, you will animate people and objects to tell a magical short story. 
  
Project 1: Future Fiction 
Imagine the world in 100 years; how will it have changed? You will create a world outline, character design and environment design. During practical workshops, you will build a jointed paper puppet of your character and shoot an animated stop motion sequence against your environment background. 
  
Project 2: Animating Spaces 
In small groups, you will devise a short story taking place in the room of a hotel. You will design and build a miniature scale model of the set with props, light it, and make a short animation or film based on a storyboard. You will also design a poster for your film. Workshops on set design, modelmaking, cinematography, 3-point lighting and Dragonframe stop-motion software will support you in creating your project. 
 
Project 3: The Past is Present 
You will write a beat sheet and a 2-3 page script in which a person interacts with a past version of themselves. You will then direct, film and edit a live action short film, using a green screen for at least one shot. You will present your film as a physical installation, using a projector and objects, or using screens in an unusual way.  
  
*Projects are examples and may change from year to year depending on the nature of live projects working with external partners, current exhibitions and visits planned and emerging new trends 
  
Skills Learned 
Character Design, Environment Design, Concept Art, World-building, Animation, Stop Motion, Puppet-making, Collage, Pixilation, 3-Point Lighting, Architectural and technical drawing, model making, scaled construction and other 2D and 3D representational techniques, Laser Cutting, Photography, Adobe Suite, Dragonframe, Storyboarding, Scriptwriting, Cinematography, Green Screen, Sound Design, Video Editing, Video Installation.  

This unit will provide the student with the opportunity to reflect on the knowledge, skills and practices they have developed in Unit 1 of the qualification, and to define their creative ambitions by encouraging a holistic approach to a range of activities, which will support, contextualise and position their creative endeavour within their chosen specialist practice. 
  
Projects* 
  
Project 1: Narrative 
You will learn about narrative structure in filmmaking and create a short film or animation that tells an interesting story. In 2022, as part of the Cambridge Creative Encounters project, we worked with the theme of Global Catastrophic Risk, creating stories about the end of the world to build awareness around factors that increase the likelihood of civilisation collapse. In support of this project, we spoke to researchers at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and visited the Science Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.  
  
Project 2: Documentary 
After learning about the history of documentary and its use in contemporary practice, you will create a 1-5 minute documentary film or animation on a topic of your choice, beginning with a recorded interview. A practical workshop on interview skills, including lighting and microphone setup, will prepare you for individual approach. A workshop on ethics in animated documentary will support those of you working with animation. 
 
Project 3: Sound and Image 
You will create a 1-minute non-narrative film or abstract animation to a piece of composed sound. You will experiment with materials and focus on colour, shape, movement and speed.  
  
Project 4: University research and application 
This Unit is delivered through both weekly personal tutor sessions and 1:1 tutorials in the Autumn term and a UCAS week in September where students visit the UCAS fair in London and are able to research different institutions and courses, speaking to University staff. Students are expected to gather a body of research evidence, develop a personal statement and submit a portfolio of work from across the course applying the skills learned in portfolio skills classes. 
 
*Projects are examples and may change from year to year depending on the nature of live projects working with external partners, current exhibitions and visits planned and emerging new trends 
  
Skills Learned 
Interview Techniques, Lighting, Sound Recording, 2D Paper and Digital Animation, Walk Cycles, Camera-less Animation, Collaboration, Production Planning. 

This unit aims to provide students with an opportunity to take control of their own learning and demonstrate their achievement by independently initiating, researching, completing and evaluating a project proposal and its realisation within their chosen professional context. 
  
Skills Learned 
By this stage in the course, it is expected that students will have acquired the necessary skills knowledge and understanding to undertake their devised project, however investigation into new skills is encouraged and facilitated where possible.