Ideas meeting

We sat down with our tutor to discuss how we were going to tackle the project. I explained how that after the meeting I was a bit disappointed with the outcome, as I felt that my idea, which I felt really passionate about, had been substituted for a more vague one on behalf of the other group members, and I didn't really want to do another group project. We came to a compromise in that we could each do an individual project with a group theme, with mine linking the others. We also talked about contacting a school, but I had decided that my film wasn't going to be at a school any more, as it was already a very ambitious idea. I wrote a brief overview of my part of the project:

What I am going to do is build a Rube Goldberg Machine from Scrapstore materials. I have decided not to do it in the school due to time and complexity difficulties. I will instead do it all here at college, whilst the other films from the other group members will take place at the school. My film will link them with the machine.
To Do:

• Get materials from the Scrapstore
• Find a room I can use
• Build and Experiment
• Get a camera
• Film the machine
• Capture + Edit the footage
  

Meeting the Scrapstore

Today myself, and the other students who are to be working with them, went to the Scrapstore to meet with the business manager, John Pendlington. I suggested my idea which was to make a Rube Goldberg machine from scrap and then film it with children at a primary school. He commented on all our ideas and then told us he would like us to combine them somehow into one final product. I have written up the minutes from the meeting:

Initial Idea

I have made some rough notes about an initial idea before we meet with the Scrapstore this Friday. My idea is to produce a filmed advert shot in a school of a chain reaction machine, inspired by a famous Honda advert, called a Rube Goldberg Machine. I have drawn out a rough plan of action for it:
I was thinking of contacting a local primary school and get permission to film for a morning there. I would then design and build the machine myself beforehand and introduce it to the kids, where they could add their ideas. During the shoot the kids will interact with the machine and hold up signs portraying the advert's key messages. I thought this is a good idea to carry the Scrapstore's message of inspiring creative and constructive play.

Processes

At the start of the project we were set various products to make from cardboard. The exercises were about getting us to think about responding to a brief and using recycled materials. The tasks were to make a chair, a CD rack and a child's play tent.

Interaction

This is the start of my posts about the Interaction Project (Unit 3). Before the summer I began meeting with the four companies with which I could be partners. They were The Children's Scrapstore in Bristol, the Oxfam Boutique in Bath, B&NES Council and City of Bath College. I wrote research documents on them before we all met with representatives from each who briefed us on what they would require from the group who decided to work with them.When we visited the Scrapstore we also went to record various companies for our Recycling research, including the Better Food Company, and organic supermarket. I have written up all of my research in a Keynote presentation.

I chose to work with the Scrapstore because that was the brief that most appealed to me; it involved making physical things rather than more graphic design. Myself and the other students who wanted Scrapstore had to go back and meet with John Pendlington, the Business Development Manager. This is the letter I wrote requesting the meeting:

City of Bath College
Avon St
Bath
BA1 1UP
7th June 2010
Dear Mr Pendlington

We are a group of students from City of Bath College who previously met with you regarding our project, “Interaction” on Friday 30th April.

We are ready to meet with you again to discuss each of our ideas in further detail. We would like to request a meeting on a Tuesday or Wednesday sometime between the 9th and 25th of June, if that is convenient for you.

You can contact us through the following email address:
Kate1701@hotmail.com

Thank you, in anticipation

Yours Sincerely,

Jack Crossley Oliver Thurston Katherine Howes Lauren Wilcock