1. FMP Production Log
Graphic Novel/Comic Book,
Set in medieval times focus
Set of comic strips over a on a hunting story or a
series of newspapers or scouting mission
magazines
Graphic Novel set in
the early 1900’s
focusing on a jazz
3D model of an FMP
idea for a new singer of importance
BRAINSTORM before their fame or
style of jazz club
set in town rising to their fame
3D model of a 1900’s jazz club
Electronic comic strip released environment
online over a period of weeks o
months
Adobe Illustration of a series of old
fashioned 1900’s posters displaying jazz
music and blues instruments to be shown in
music stores to either attract jazz fans or
increase peoples interest in jazz and blues.

2. Settling on an Idea
For my Final Major Project I settled on the idea of creating
a graphic novel based the iconic jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.
The main reason I chose this as my final idea is because I
enjoy listening to soul and jazz music and already knew a
lot about the subject beforehand, so I knew I would
understand the characters and the time and age.
I focused on Ella Fitzgerald because she is my favourite
jazz singer, and the most relatable for me. I decided to
include other jazz singers who would make guest
appearances or be more involved in the actual plot like
Nina Simone, Ethel Waters and Nat King Cole.

3. Gathering Research
For my research I went into Manchester Town
and entered a few different stores that sold
comics and graphic novels and merchandise like
that.
I took previously written up questionnaires and
asked as many people as I could about their
preferences to Graphic Novels genre, make and
style, and their purpose of being in the store on
that day. I got more than ten responses, including
one from the store owner.

4. Ideas Generation, using research collected
From handing out my questionnaires I have
discovered that the majority of comic and graphic
novel fans prefer hardback books to any other
kind, and would be interested in my idea.
Therefore I have decided to continue working
with my black hardback sketchbook for the
Graphic novel and with the general idea of Ella
Fitzgerald’s rise to fame.

5. Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Forums and Polls,
On carrying out my different types of research (qualitative
and quantitative) I went online to look at statistics of the
best sold kind of graphic novels over the past few years and
the best sold genre and type. This was to get a general
overlook of the preferences of the community as a whole
rather than a close inquiry of specific people’s preferences.
I also looked at numerous comics and graphic novel forums
and polls to witness the overall outlook of the specific
audience of people.

6. Carrying out visual research
Visiting Manchester Art Gallery and Dawson’s Music Store
To carry out extra research I visited
Manchester Art Museum and the Dawson’s
music store to look at 1900’s work more
closely. I found quite a few pieces from the
early 1900’s time frame and photographed
them including furniture and place settings.
When I visited Dawson’s music store to look
for brass instruments such as saxophones
and trumpets that would have been played
back in the 1920’s time. Unfortunately they
didn’t have anything that matched what I
was looking for in stock and only had lyrics
and note books on jazz music so I went
online instead when I returned home and
collected images from their website of old
fashioned types of saxophones and
trumpets and uploaded them onto my blog.

8. I will produce a plan for my graphic novel, accounting of the amount of
time I have and will produce a budget
I will carry out my production plan and create a production log to chart
my progress, reviewing it periodically
Present my Idea to a focus group or client and receive feedback, then
make changes to the finished product where necessary
Write a final evaluation reviewing the entire project and outcome, that
will be based on my production log