SHR6E032F~001 Project Viability Study
1. Introduction and Proposed Project
Introduction
The aim for this project viability study is to outline my collaboration and showcase the potential for its success. I will also address areas of concern within my project by detailing challenges, and outlining contingency plans for this collaboration project.
Proposed Project
As part of my project I am collaborating with a fashion student (Mia Bryant) and a Hip Hop dancer to create a short dance film. My project is broken into two sections:
- Two, 3 minute Dance films
- A 4 minute piece for a fashion show
The second part of this collaboration will taken place at Edinburgh Science Festival. As part of the fashion aspect, my collaborator Mia must design and create a costume around one of the UN’s sustainability goals.
She picked Peace Justice and Strong Institutions (United Nations, 2025) and from this is exploring protest through history and key periods of change. I will be working closely with Mia to best present her design.
Krump
The dance style for the project will be Krump. An extension and variation of HipHop, Krump is an expressive, improvised dance consisting of high energy movements like chest pumps and stomping (Dance College London, 2016).
Goals
Our main goal is to create a dance film which captures the energy, importance and history of protest through time. It is important that the piece engages the audience and conveys the themes throughout.
It is also my goal to ensure that each collaborator showcases their contributions to the project to the best of their ability and the end result displays this.
Personnel – Direct/Indirect
Dylan Cater – (me)
- Producer/ songwriter based in Leeds
- 3rd year production student
- Experience collaborating on songs in a range of genres from electronic to folk
- DAW of choice: Logic
Mia Bryant – (Fashion designer)
- Fashion/ costume designer
- 3rd year Costume Design at Edinburgh University
- Previous work includes multiple musicals and fashion shows exploring recycled materials (Appendix 6)
2. Methodology and Rationale
Rationale
I decided to reach out to a fashion designer to explore a different art form and to challenge myself with something I knew very little about. The main theme for this project is protest through history. I believe this is important to reference in today’s society as it highlights how protest has shaped the world we live in.
Relevancy:
- Highlighting the importance and significance of today’s protests. For example, the Palestine protests. Black Lives Matter protests.
- Highlighting the power of mass unity and shared desire for change.
- What needs to change in today’s society?
Methodology
I started this project by looking over Mias concept statement (Figure 1), after reading this I broke the concept down into key phrases (Figure 2) which helped me understand the aims for the project and the role I had. Mia had already carried out research into the project so I was able to look at some concept designs from the powerpoint she sent me (Figure 3).
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Next, we created a shared Spotify playlist (Figure 4) where we could share inspiration and sounds we wanted to capture. It’s crucial that the composition is high energy to represent the protest but also dynamic so the piece tells a story.
Figure 4
(Tyler The Creator, 2024) (The Chemical Brothers, 2005)
Shared playlist
Popular Krumping songs
Demo ideas
| Synth | Drums |
| – I first begun by experimenting on my Korg Mini-logue synth. – Experiment with the textures and layer multiple sounds. Adding noise into the sound creates more grit whilst controlling the cut off and resonance controls the body of the sound (Reverb, 2016). | – Multiple layers of marching gives the impression of a crowd walking in unison. Inspired by Tyler The Creator’s song ‘St. Chroma’ (Tyler The Creator, 2024) – Broken snare and kick patterns creates energy and chaos. I recorded my own one shots and samples. |
Vocal Intro
Progress
We decided to call once every two weeks. This timeframe worked well as we could both gathered material we had worked on the past fortnight and discuss what we liked, any issues and updates to the project. (Figure 5)
Because the costume was being made in Edinburgh we decided it would be best to find a dancer and film the dancer there. Mia knew of dancers apart of Edinburgh Hip Hop society and began putting out messages. This was a challenge at first as Mia had to consider the heights of the dancers as she already had a model arranged for the fashion show.
Figure 5
A Gantt chart works great within a collaborative project as it communicates tasks and time projections clearly. (APM, 2025)
In order to manage my collaborators and my own work I wrote a SWOT analysis which highlighted my weaknesses and the threats to the project. (Kenton, 2025)
Communication
3. Market Analysis
I began by searching krump performers and found multiple documentaries which helped me understand the dance style.
- Raised by Krump (Maceo Frost, 2020)
- Rize (Boxoffice 4K Full Movies, 2023)
From these documentaries, I understood the importance and cultural aspect of Krump dancing. - Krump is a form of expression for the performer. Whether dealing with grief, communicating protest or translating present emotions (Maceo Frost, 2020).
Your Market/Target Audience
With a goal of highlighting the importance of protest we will aim our project towards younger generations. Age 10-30 years old.
– Studies show that 70% of the Gen Z population are involved in a social or political cause.(Carnegie, 2022)
This project will show the importance of individual expression, speaking up and unity. These are key lessons that should be presented to build confidence and individual thoughts.
- Edinburgh science festival aims itself towards families with younger children, and includes interactive educational events and other performances.
- This dance project is an engaging way to inform young people about protest and activism.
- Posting the performance on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram is a great way to reach our target audience. (Haigen, 2025)
4. Costs and Budgeting
Hypothetical Budget
Figure 6
Writing up a hypothetical budget shows how viable the project would be if we were to be paid. This budget includes payment of participants, important especially after university.
I referenced multiple sources as well as contacting a videographer to find out his costs (Figure 6).
- Cumbria Arts Funding – Getting this funding would massively expand our project and elevate production. The experimental category looking into the integration of technology with art. I would be interested to explore the addition of motion sensors that are triggered by the dancer.
5. Inspiration and Influences
I carried out thorough research to understand the progression of protests throughout history and the music that has come as a result. Understanding different forms of protest from peaceful to disruptive, inspires me to think about my sound choice, dynamics and structure.
- My collaborator also mentioned including samples of famous speeches within my piece. I looked into famous protests and started thinking about clips I could use.
- Martin Luther King – ‘I have a dream’ speech (Rare Facts, 2017)
- Current protests – recorded audio from a protest I attended, and sampled it (Figure 13)
Music Influences
- Looking at this performance I was able to draw inspiration for the overall project.
- Heart beat, consistent kick
- Aggressive synth design
- Tension and release – texture, dynamics
(Mad Rootz, 2012)
- Popular Krump song
- sampled intro, repetitive
- fast pace – 107bpm
- Instrumentation main melody acts as chorus.
(The Chemical Brothers, 2005)
- Contrast between aggressive chopped drums with flowing saxophone
- Broken up choral sections creates idea of a crowd, unity.
- chopped drums creates energy
(Kendrick Lamar, 2015)
6. Contingency/Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment
In order to best prepare for possible issues I created detailed risk assessments for both myself and my collaborators and ways to mitigate a potential issue.
Contingencies
7. Potential for Development
We could further develop this project by:
- Showcasing other historic protests in more detail
- More dancers – larger production
- Apply for other festival events
- Design and create a space for the dance, work with artists on backgrounds and lighting
Feedback from my questionnaire suggests to consider further research into different forms of dance. This could expand the project and become a series of shows, each showing a different historic protest through different dance forms.
8. Evaluation Viability
Looking at feedback from my tutor Matt, I need to spend more time organising the fashion event with Edinburgh Science festival, due to a lack of communication and certainty with this going ahead I have focused on the dance aspect. Carrying out a risk assessment is essential for this space and communication with the organisers is going to be essential.
Overall I believe this project is viable thanks to my early organisation, planning and frequent comunication between me and my collaborator. Having already started on demos and receiving feedback I believe that the initial exploration of the project excites both me and Mia and this motivates us to execute a final result.
Moving forward into the next stage of the project, me and my collaborator must maintain good communication and correspondents. To this point my collaborator has been happy for me to further explore my demo ideas however I believe I need external perspectives and guidance to ensure the quality of my work.
Powerpoint presentation – Appendix 4
Appendix 6
9. Bibliography
Bibliography
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