The Bear and his purpose

Here are some initial sketches of a short film idea.
The story goes with a bear who has been dumped and feels there nothing left for him to give. His luck changes when in a nearby tree strong wind cause an egg to fall from the nest whilst the mother gets stuck on a branch trying to fly towards it. This springs the bear into action catching the egg in time, finding the nearest equipment to help and climb to the top and reunite a family.
The process will be done on TV paint.

sketch portraits

6DM012: 'The Prey' Press Kit and degree show

As the last part of promoting the film other than producing the poster is conducting a press kit that involves the fundamental aspects of promoting my film including:

• Biography of myself and others involved.
• Synopsis of the film; short, medium and long.
• Credits.
• Stills from film without spoiling the story aswell as a cover to the press kit to give it a professional look.
• Questions and Answers that would be asked of me in an interview.

Below shows the link to the press kit: PDF and Microsoft word

As the film was finished aswell as the promoting, the final stage of post production was to create a display of our work towards the degree show with other additional tasks that would push promoting ourselves forwards to professionals and other visitors.

Below shows other student displays of their films.

6DM022: Final evaluation and Reflection

Towards the criteria of major project, the final stage was to produce an evaluation and reflection sheet from the experience and progress gained from the final film production aswell as other notes upon the experience gained throughout the entire three years at university.


Evaluation and Reflection: PDF & Microsoft Word

6AD001: Week 10-13 (18th april- 9th May) finals deadlines and pitching industry roles

From conducted research and planning I have created my personal portfolio and industry roles based from research into the adverts of jobs I would pitch towards, the artists I would aspire towards the roles that have worked particular professions throughout their career and how I would brand myself to studios and industries. Below shows the documents that are important to this pitch.

10 minute Presentation: PDF, PowerPoint Document
Portfolio: PDF, Word Document
Creative CV:

Showreel: https://vimeo.com/164733478

showreel animation projects from matthew danks on Vimeo.

Business Cards:

Module Evaluation:
Throughout this module, I have experienced the fundamental aspects of gaining a understanding into industry roles, how to apply to them and how to research towards what they require and what skills and background experience they need when apply for advertisements. Throughout this research I conducted a better understanding that the skills I acquire can be used for many roles that have different set goals. These goals wouldn't have to be through the boundaries of animation, instead they would focus their aim around marketing, advertising and publication such as comics or production, to illustrations and video games.  In turn, this makes me feel that my advanced knowledge and skill sets can open a variety of opportunites away from film making and animation. Even though I would start out in animation or film production as part of the action plan set up, I would be open to new roles in future if they are ever arisen or they are offered to me. What this can do is develop my skills, working in different patterns of how studios and industries aim their goals aswell as gaining experience from working closely with different professionals that have more knowledge and practical approaches in their field.
What I would take from this module is the experience of marketing my own brand towards potential roles and opportunites that will arise as I go along my career path.

6DM022, 6DM012: week 24 & 25 (2nd- 13th May 2016)

Final version of film
'The Prey' from matthew danks on Vimeo.


This film is password protected since this is not allowed to be shown to the public yet others with knowledge of what the password is can access it.


From the comment, they enjoyed how far I came towards the amount of length I produced the film in the end result. A couple of points they did make when carrying this on for the degree show included:

• Continuing the edit as it's not fully clean yet, such as vocal edits and sound effects as it is not fully clear when linking it back to the theme of horror.
• Change the credits aswell as adding Wolverhampton university logo at the end to indicate where this was made.

The next step forward is setting up the degree show as this would include having a display towards the theme of film; a cleaner final edit of the film; business cards that would help in networking with visitors and professional guests who will come in to see the film.


final wall schedule and last storyboard progression update

6DM022, 6DM012: week 23 (25th April-2nd May 2016)

The Prey 3rd may from matthew danks on Vimeo.

The feedback I would initially make towards the finishing the project includes improving the continuity of the characters especially at the start to get the fluid flow I would need for better pacing; Adding reaction and moon shots to get the full effect of the transformation and climax moments that would happen in the scene; start editing sound and music together to get the full effect of tension and interaction with the theme towards it's characters ;and starting to cut down some scenes to make the finishing touches easier to achieve aswell as improve the pacing

Updated schedule for final week

Post Production Excel 11th and 12th week plan

As I would be spending much time at home with a cintiq to complete the film it was easy to update digital schedule and plan and know what I am initially doing for the final week. This would help update the wall schedule in the final week if anything needs changing and I would be in university the last week when conducting the editing anyway.

As part of finishing the clean up and tweaking in betweens, The next part of the storyboard checklist to put red and yellow stickers on panels to indicate what is and what needs finishing as I go into the final stage of the project.

Final Poster

Degree show and press kit promoting

When promoting the film it was important to not give too much away as I wanted to keep the twist underwraps especially when showcasing it first time to audiences and industry professionals