Introduction
This semester’s Conceptual project highlights our individuality and creativeness through different forms of art. From poems, to photography, to abstract films, to music, We have put ourselves out there and vulnerably expressed ourselves. We have found new ways to tell others how we feel! We have been very lucky to use numerous professional resources such as DSLR Cameras, recorders and most of what Adobe has to offer! I have had the pleasure of taking part in this experience and I am so happy that I have. I have now learned so many skills that I would have never learned and that I plan on using in the future. From these classes I have found myself more independently able to use technology and write.
Haiku
One of our first assignments of the year in English was to write a Haiku. I loved this unit because even though Haiku’s are short they hold so much emotion. We were given a concept statement and we had to write a haiku about it and find a picture that matched the tone of our poem. In Digital Media, we made a video out of our Haiku by recording or Haiku and matching it up to the photo.
I really valued this project because I further learned how to use Premiere Pro and how to make a full video during this unit. I also really liked writing this poem because it was a reflection of an amazing experience so it brought me joy making this and bringing this memory to life!
Poetry
During the Poem Assignment, we could write a free verse poem about anything we wanted. I loved the freedom we got with this. In Digital Media we made another video putting our Audio to our Poetry and a photo we thought matched the vibe of our Poem.
“Don’t turn my room into a gym” is a free verse poem about a girl who is struggling with growing up and leaving home. In this poem the speaker is experiencing moving on with her life. Her parents turning her room into a gym serves as a symbol for her leaving home and moving out of adolescence. The speaker is sad and nostalgic but she also knows that there is more out there for her. By changing her room the speaker’s parents were bringing up all the emotions, nostalgia and anxiety the speaker has about moving on with her life. I separated the first stanza where it was separated because I was trying to show different emotions the speaker was feeling. I wanted the first stanza to represent her original anger and grief. This is evident in the lines “I’m moving into a new time without you” and “You’re moving the elliptical into my room”. In the next couple stanzas I used the feeling of nostalgia and what feels nostalgic to me (the author) to show her relationship with the place she grew up. This is evident in the quotes “The hum of the treadmill will replace the crickets” and “Your lifting will replace my dancing.” I used lineation in the nostalgic parts of the poem to play into the feeling that all these things she is feeling nostalgic about are things that she is leaving behind and her parents were replacing. I initially had my speaker talking very literally how she wanted to move to New York and do all the things that she couldn’t do before, to show how hard leaving her home is even if the speaker wants her independence. But my peer told me that I should be a little less literal about her wanting her independence and that I should instead have it be more clear that her sadness and wanting for independence coincide. So I decided to change the section of my poem from “I wanna live in a clean studio by myself in New York City, Buy my own groceries, Make my own money, Buy what I want, Live like I want to, But I don’t want it to be over” to “Walking down a crowded urban street alone seems nice But staying with tree covered sunset roads does too.” In Clint Smith’s poem “something you should know” I was very inspired by the way he made his metaphors not too under the surface that it was hard to understand but still had a deep meaning and I wanted my poem to be like that too.
I valued this project very much, I really liked making the Poetry photo. I love making pictures and graphics match with writing and so I loved making the Poetry photo and I really liked editing the sounds to make it match the tone of my Poem. I am very excited to write more Poems in the future.
Photoshop Blend Mode Editing
During Photoshop Blend Modes editing we learned how to edit our photos. Blend Modes are a variety of different filters and touchups you can do to your photo to fix it or make it more appealing. We spent multiple days in Digital Media learning how to use Blend Modes and editing our own photos. I really liked learning how to overlay and how to make a photo darker and lighter because a lot of times when you take photos they are either to dark or too light and now I have the skills to fix that! I think that it is a very valuable skill that I will definitely use in the future.
Film
Film has been an incredibly eye-opening and interesting experience and I can’t wait to learn more about how to produce films and learn about the industry.
Our first project of the year was an Experimental Film. I had no idea what an experimental film was. When Mr. Taylor introduced it to us he said that this project was going to require us to stretch our brains and make us think about ways we could portray an idea in a non-conventional way. I was very intimidated by this, I tend to think in a very linear and narrative driven fashion and what we were being shown were films that defied the boundaries that I had set for films. Experimental films became very cool for me when we started to dissect them. I was very impressed on how these Filmmakers could use mundane things like pencil in there to address hard topics such as pedophilia or make a feast portray the 2008 financial crisis. They made me want to try and make one too.
Here we have my experimental synopsis. Before make any film Mr. Taylor has us do a synopsis. Basically, it is our film on paper. We write down exactly what we want to do and how we want to do it. My synopsis did not turn out to be the film I made but her it is!
Here you will see, a picture of Premiere Pro when I was in the editing phase of my experimental film. We use Premiere Pro to put add special effects, put our film together, and do touch ups. This film was very fun to edit because I used a green screen for it and that is why you see that the background is blue. I had such a fun time editing this film and I have come to learn that editing is one of my favorite parts of making a film!
Other fun assignments!
The Video Scavenger Hunt:
The Scavenger Hunt was an assignment means to familiarize us with the different shots used in films! We had a list of shots we needed to do some serious like a pan and some silly like a dance battle!
The Green Screen Video:
The green screen was an exercise to help us learn how to use a green screen. Mr. Taylor took a video of these guys against a green screen and then told us to use the green screen to put them somewhere else!
The Double Effect Video:
The Double Effect Video Assignment was an exercise that was assigned to us so that we could learn how to make a double of a person in a shot. I thought that it would be really hard but with instruction, it was not too difficult!
The Chase Scene:
The notorious chase scene was a project Mr. Taylor gave us, to practice continuity and the 180-degree rule, which means you have to stick with one side of the character when you are filming them, you either have to choose to film them on their right or on their left.