Introduction
This project can help students overcome their personal challenges and create something new and special that only they have made. Using the skills we have learned from our classes we can apply this to real-life jobs and possibly make a living from it. There are many job opportunities out there that want professional writers, photoshop editors, music directors, photographers, and much much more. This academy can and will provide so much for you in order to become masterful at what you wish to do.
I value being an English/Digital Media student at Freestyle Academy simply because of the skills I learned from it. If I didn’t join Freestyle then I would never have known how to edit videos, remix songs, take professional-looking pictures, and more. I say more because this program offers you anything you want to be. Even English class inspired me. I know to visualize when making a story. How to make poems, and use citations in reading so I can express my points. I mention the reading because I struggled with that in the past. I could not take notes properly no matter what I did. Freestyle however finally helped me figure it out. This is a blessing for me to be a part of this community, I couldn’t be happier!
Haiku
Our first project in English class was making a Haiku. A Haiku is three short lines of text that have to be 5 words, 7 words, and 5 words again. I like to call it the 5-7-5 rule. We were asked to come up with an idea and add imagery to go with the text. I chose a picture that fits my text perfectly. Then in Digital Media, we were asked to record our voices, add music, and turn it all into a short video using an extension we use called Premiere Pro.
This was a Haiku explaining even though someone tries to be cool, they talk a different way. It doesn’t mean that you can fit in with any crowd. So they accept it and move on. Being who they want to be.
I valued Learning how to use the Premier Pro extension. Now if someone asks me if I know how to edit a video, I’ll be able to say yes I can.
Poem
The assignment we were given was to make a professional-sounding and looking poem. It all started in English class first. We were asked to make a free-verse poem that showed imagery in the poem as well as emotion. Of course, coming up with a topic to write about was difficult, but I found a topic that went with me. We had to give the poem a name and explain it in an intention statement. Then we had to take our poem from English to Digital media and give it more detail. We were asked to open Photoshop and find an image that went with our poem. Once we imported that, we would have to add the text from our poem onto the selected image. After that was all finished, the next step was recording ourselves with our Cam-Corder and importing the audio into Photoshop. The final part of it all was adding SFX to it so it can convey more emotion. Once we did all that we submitted it; This was a very fun two-part project we had to do. It was so much fun learning how to use all of these extensions and seeing our thought on a poem on a youtube video in front of our eyes!
“The Clock” is a free verse poem about a child crying while being scolded by his father, but then learns to understand why the father is scolding them, then accepts it. Ultimately, the pattern of Free Verse in this poem conveys the ideas of what a child’s imagination might show, like the father representing a grizzly bear, or the sad/happy faces being indicated by the clocks. The main tone shift in the poem is when it changes from a hailstorm to a gentle sprinkle of rain in the sky, as it tells us the child is calming down and the heavy tears are slowing down. The situation is when the child lies about a situation because he was too scared, to tell the truth about it, this is why he is in trouble and the father comes to him and gives him a heavy talking to. The reason why the child is crying so much is because this is what makes him most sad. He hates talks from his dad because they’re long, hurtful, and lot’s of yelling which really gets to the kid. The speaker in this poem is based on God’s view, since it’s not the child or the father telling the story. The reason why the child calms down later in the story is because the father is winding down and the child is listening carefully to the dad. The kid understands what he did wrong was bad and knows he needs to get his act together. When is say’s “the grizzly bear enters hibernation” that’s when the father has calmed down and is telling the son that he loves him and only scolds him because he only wants the best for him. When we get to the part that says “the sky clears and reveals the light- to show all the colors of the world”. It means that the child comes across a similar situation that got him in trouble before, he stops; He’s thinking about how he can treat this differently. Then the kid fixes his mess by being upfront and honest about it, his parents are very happy and reward him for doing the right thing, as it says “Colors that even the sundial has never once seen”, meaning the kid saw a whole new light when he did the right thing being honest and wants to do the same with every other similar situation he crosses. I wanted the reader to think about what might be going on in the child’s head and how he is handling it the way he is. I wanted the reader to see that even when a situation might be rough and it can seem like it will last forever, there will always be color at the end of it all, you just have to sit through it, and fix it. You can always get through it, it just takes time.
I learned so much from this assignment, like learning how to create imagery in many different forms, conveying a sense of emotion, and simply just learning about poetry, it is super undervalued. Then, of course, learning how to edit it all in photoshop was another exciting part since I got to upload SFX at different parts and add music to create an even DEEPER feeling!
Animation-Elective
Let’s start this off by saying that I LOVE my animation class! I learned so much from this class and I know that I want this to be my career later in my life. I remember every project we’ve done like the back of my hand! I would have to say that I am one of the best students in the class, as selfish as that sounds! My favorite project in animation was a tie between the object stop-motion project and making our puppets to create another stop-motion. I did stop-motion before I joined Freestyle but now I know way more and I am so excited to keep going. Our teacher Mr. Cho is such a nice guy and he teaches us in a very clear and understanding way. Overall I love this class and I am so excited to keep going!
Zoetrope Animation
This was one of our first major projects. We had to create a long strip of paper and draw frame by frame for 12 small squares of pictures. Then we put it in a little contraption called a Zoetrope, where you put the strip of paper around on the inside of the Zoetrope, then you spin it and the mirrors on the inside make it look like a moving animation!
Phenakistoscope
The Phenakistoscope wheel was the second project we did, we were asked to create 16 frames of pictures and to have them move slightly differently in each picture. Then we look through the little line holes and it has the illusion of moving!
FlipBook Animations
The next project was to create flip-books! We had to draw 90 frames of drawings for each card, I did more however because I have no sense of time. This was really fun to make and I actually really enjoyed doing it! It showed me that this kind of project requires a great deal of patience. Since each frame is slowly drawn over and over.
Paper Cutout Animation
This was our first stop-motion related project. We were asked to make a backdrop and set up our camera face upward so it can film on a table. We cut out a bunch of pieces of paper and slowly moved them and took a picture to give it the illusion of moving. We made this using an extension called DragonFrame which is super useful!
Object Stop-Motion
This was the project directly after the paper cut-out animation. This was one of my favorite projects to do because I got to make a little story with my own figures! I like to make my own custom lego bionicle figures and make little stop-motion animations with them. Our teacher Mr. Cho allowed me to use them for this project and I couldn’t have been happier!