Conceptual

Introduction

During our first unit, Conceptual, at Freestyle we had the privilege to strengthen creative skills in unique forms — forms we wouldn’t normally use. Our projects were hands-on with lessons on music, technology with our cameras, poetry, video editing, and experimental film-making.

Freestyle, throughout my first-quarter, I’ve noticed is a very unique learning environment and really allows me to broaden my knowledge on things that actually interest me. In English, we have more opportunities with creative writing, a topic usually skipped over and one of my favorite aspects of english, and we often analyze the actions, characters, and plot in what we’re reading. In Digital Media, we’re getting a grasp on all the new technology we’re given the opportunity to use, which are programs like Adobe, recording music, creating web pages, and so much more.

Art Reflection

During our first week at Freestyle we had an amazing opportunity to visit SF MOMA because of it’s exhibit. While our time there we were assigned to search for a specific piece of art that spoke to us, and evoked a particular feeling — a feeling in which we were so captivated to the piece. I had been up two or three floors already and I still couldn’t find a specific piece that seemed to challenge my thoughts, until I stumbled upon a painting titled, “The Cast of Dice,” by artist Jess. I stood there for a while, and looking back, this project allowed me to critically come in touch with my thoughts and really grasp a sort of emotional connection with this painting. After, we were prompted to write a response to the piece we had chosen, though it had to stay under a 50 word mark. I had never visited this Museum before and I wonder the impact it could’ve given me if I didn’t get that chance to really reflect personally towards a piece so beautifully.

We created our reflection videos using Adobe Premiere Pro.

I had previous experience using after Effects, a different Adobe program, so I was able to use some knowledge from my previous years, however, I did learn lots of different shortcuts that proved to be very helpful throughout the editing process.

Parody Introduction

The process to creating a Parody Song was less stressful than I imagined. In the group I was in we picked.a specific topic and wrote our lyrics to match the amount of lines our song had — which was Killing Me Softly.

Parody Lyrics

I love broccoli / With the steam of love / Love of steam / Salty and green / So snappy like algae / So yummy in my tummy

Strumming my pain with the stems / Singing my life with the veggies / Killing me softly with tomatoes / Killing me softly with cauliflower / Telling my whole life with veggies / Killing me softly with broccoli

I love cauliflower / Crunchy and mean to me / Good on mac n beef / Burns my tongue so sweet / Eat on a Sunday / What a funday

Strumming my pain with the stems / Singing my life with the veggies / Killing me softly with tomatoes / Killing me softly with cauliflower / Telling my whole life with veggies / Killing me softly with broccoli

I love tomatoes / Red n juicy / Plump n crunchy / Eat it plain / Like an apple at Jermaine’s / Without it, it pains

Film

During our Conceptual unit in Film we have done many different exercises like a scavenger hunt with different filming shots, practice with the green scene and a Double mint effect where we take full control and use what we learned in our lectures hands on. As a film student, I value collaboration with my peers because of how much of a communicative class it is. Together, we build and analyze in class and work together in many of our projects.

Experimental Film

‘Locura‘, my experimental film — which means Insanity in Spanish — goes hand in hand with the prompt, “Doubt in Isolation.” I use the symbolism of an Isolated Island that seems to be driven into insanity from being alone. The jump from cut to cut shows the doubt slowly creeping in.

Here I am using Premiere Pro to create my film.

In this picture I am showing the process I took to create and edit my experimental film with the application of Adobe Premiere Pro. I imported all of my recorded clips and creatively placed them in an edit to properly portray the prompt, “Doubt In Isolation.”

Film Exercises

The goal for this Scavenger Hunt exercise was to see how many shots we knew and to work as a group. This exercise was really effective as my knowledge has broadened for future projects and I often catch myself going back to the scavenger hunt list for shot ideas.

This Green Screen exercise was to get us started on how to use a green screen and how it really opens up how many things we could create for our films. I liked working with it and after learning understand how easy it is to use and how effective it could be for future films.

For the DoubleMint exercise we were taught in the program Premiere Pro how to use certain effects to our advantage and used that knowledge for our own small video. I thought this lesson was really helpful for future films because I’m now aware of how tedious it has to be with not moving the camera.