Planning for my Main Task

I am very excited to begin my main task! I have two good ideas for my project, both of which I am very enthusiastic about!

The first idea I have is to create a 4-5 minute animation for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's beautiful poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". I came up with this idea several months ago (as, being one of my favorite poems, I am passionate about the story) and even found the perfect soundtrack to accompany my animation! I had originally intended to create my animation using a computer program (Mr Wroe recommended FLASH as reliable) thus creating an animation comprised solely of CGI (which would be a laborious process, but give credible results). However, a major issue I face if I attempt this is the sheer scale of frames I will need to create a 4-5 minute motion picture (Mr Wroe and I calculated it would be somewhere around 7,000 frames!) Furthermore, technical issues may hinder the development of the work I create. When speaking to Mr Wroe, we discussed the idea of creating puppets/models of each character (in the style of Time Burton's "Corpse Bride") and creating a 3D set complete with lighting and 360 degrees' camera access! I would then photograph each scene and movement several times, before uploading my photographs onto a PC/Mac and running them like a flicker-book, giving the impression of moving image. This would of course be wonderful to do and would be visually impressive and very creative, however, it would take an extraordiany amount of time to create the figurines and the set (time which I am not sure I have!) In short, I would love to create an animation for "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", but I just don't know how feasible it is going to be!

My second thought is to create a trailer/short film based on the short story "Berenice" by Edgar Allen Poe. "Berenice" is, in my opinion, the finest short story ever written, and I feel it would be a fantastic narrative to convey through film - portraying Berenice would be a dream come true for me, as Poe is one of my favorite authors! Creating this would be much simpler than creating an animation (as far as timing and difficulty are concerned) however, the only issue I face in doing "Berenice" is finding a suitable location - the majority of the narrative takes place inside a Victorian bedchamber. However, if I could find a suitable location, it would look fantastic!

I am equally passionate about both these ideas, however, at the end of the day, the piece which I create will be based on practicality, i.e. what I can possibly achieve on my own!