The first and most daunting challenge we faced on this project was getting the head dresses to fit the actors in a way that was secure, light, cheap and adjustable. This was my main source of stress from the beginning of the project all the way up to when we finally got Scar anchored on a hat. At that point I was stunned at how easy it really was, relieved that we didn't have to rely on flimsy peaks and happy that we'd pinpointed a way of making the weight of the masks sit on top of the wearer's head, preventing any discomfort. On my last project I had not balanced the mask so well, and a lot of weight rested on the wearer's forehead and nose - so I was very concerned with not letting this happen again, especially since this was a commission for a real performance, with lots of people relying on the group.
Another challenge we faced that I feel was not perfected was making the different lions all read in a cohesive style, even though there were different people working on each of them. When the sculpts were finished, I noticed they had some rather different qualities - for example, Mufasa's muzzle is much shorter than Scar's and Simba's, even though he is a fatherly figure. It does not look incorrect or like a mistake - it's just a different sculpting style. When we first approached the project I wanted to aim for geometric, but this proved impossible when we started sculpting with the clay because it tends to 'flow' quite organically. Computer assisted design would have been much better for getting the geometric, low poly look as I outlined in my research post - and I would loved to have pursued learning how to 3D sculpt on the computer had we had the time and training.
With such a big group working on so many different costumes, it was always going to be difficult as project leader to keep everyone on the same path and heading forwards in the same direction. Overseeing people's sculpts helped with this, such as having a small amount of input when Scar and the cheetah was being sculpted even though other people were the 'main' sculptors for those animals. However, this was harder with non-sculpture based elements of the project, such as painting and the big pieces like the mufasa head. Some team members had quite different choices when it came to painting style - even down to simple things like line differences and choosing colours - and this had quite a big impact on the finished pieces. For example, Simba is quite a simple paint design, with fine lines and large sections of gum tape still visible, whereas Mufasa is a lot bolder, with no gum tape visible, and chunky dark brown lines. Even though I had preferences and wanted to guide the team towards one particular paint style, I didn't feel it was in my place to tell someone to redo their work - although I was the team leader I wasn't the boss or commissioner, and Hayley was very open to whatever design choices we wanted to make.
I knew from the start that even though there were 18 people in my team, it was highly unlikely that I would have all 18 people in one place after the first team meeting. This was true, and to an extreme on some days, when only 3 or 4 would show up for the entire day, leaving the brunt of the work to the few truly committed people. It is harder in university because so much of the work is self directed - as much as I tried to convince people to come in by using the facebook group and messages, people would only turn up if they wanted to, there was no way I could force them. The imbalance of dedication from some members was a little disappointing - especially team members for whom this was their primary, or only, commission, collaboration and community project. However, you have to move on from these issues, and work with the people that have shown up - there is no point in wasting energy on people that are not even there to put the work in.
One of the difficulties with working with multiple heat-activated materials - namely the thermoplastic and the hot glue gun - was that a lot of people got their fingers burnt! Lots of plasters were used throughout this project. Also, the cable ties on the willow proved sharp if not cut off at a good, flat angle, and I really wish there was an alternative to cable ties that was just as quick, easy and cheap. Tying the joins with a rope or thick thread works well and is cheap, but is particularly time consuming and with only 7 weeks to complete all of our creations, was not a viable option.
Hayley was a great lady to work with and in that sense I think our group got really lucky. Throughout the project we'd been hearing horror stories from other teams about the person they'd been working for refusing to order the materials in time, ignoring their emails or otherwise being difficult to deal with. Hayley was always extremely polite, grateful and punctual in ordering fabrics and being sympathetic to our budgeting requirements throughout the project, and her visit was extremely humbling and encouraging. She is a great contact to have and I really hope to work more with her in the future.
Reflecting on our budget of £725, I was surprised that we came in a fair amount under that and there is a possibility of everyone getting paid a little bit for all their hard work. However, when discussing this with other team members the problem arose that it would be hard to divide up the money fairly - some people put far more time into the project than others, so a tier system would have to be used to pay everyone, which could result in some quarrels. A solution to this problem in the future would be for people to check in and out on their work, marking down how many hours they have worked on each day and doing what. Had we known that there may have been budget left over, this would have been implemented.
I struggled with getting the sketch down for the flower festival poster initially, which lead me to stalling a little bit and producing the poster later in the easter holidays than I would have previously liked, but such seems to be the way for creative endeavours that revolve around a particular central drawing. It was really challenging to work with Adobe Illustrator on such a large scale and I hadn't before, but now I have more experience in using it from making the poster I am far more inclined to want to use it again in the future. This is great because it's a really important piece of software not only for graphic design, but things such as technical drawing too.
It was also a great surprise to find out that after a private auction on the poster at the Flower Festival, it had sold for £60 to the Vicar's husband, who planned to give it to his daughter, a dancer, for her wedding present. This made me really happy - not only had my work sold to support the church, a great local cause, but it was also going to be in someone's home, as an important gift. I am touched by this notion and it's definitely spurred me on to do more drawing and poster design over the summer.
Learning to blog consistently has been a really helpful skill to get on board with, though I wish the workshop for blogging had been at the start of the course, not a few weeks into it. I had to go back and add entries for days after they had happened because I had no idea that a blog was wanted, as it wasn't on the brief. Also, when I found out that a blog was wanted, I started with tumblr because it is a sleek and attractive platform - after the workshop with Jordan Buckner, hearing that blogger was the industry standard was a little disheartening because it is incredibly outdated and can be hard to use, offering fewer layout features than even Microsoft Word has to offer.
I feel that by leading this project, I have matured in myself and developed my skills in guiding and informing people. Leadership is an important skill job wise, and I feel like I can say that I have good leadership skills after being able to point the group in the right direction with some wonderful outcomes. It can be tricky to try and guide people without acting like an authority figure - after all, I am a peer of the group of students I was nominated to be in charge with, not a boss - so I could not be as demanding as I may have otherwise been in a more authoritative situation, for example taking action on poor attendance and making more changes to different parts of people's individual project parts. It definitely wasn't without it's challenges - not mentioning any names - but I would do this sort of project again in a heartbeat, and it's made me feel like I could even do a job where I had to manage multiple people on creative projects.
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