Introduction
In this unit, we begin developing our understanding of a lot of different software and hardware such as DSLR Cameras, Tascam Audio Recorders, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Animate, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Avid Pro Tools, WordPress, and Google Apps. We are building the foundations to be able to create whatever we want digitally and either know or know how to learn to use any technology that we may encounter in the real world which is the main reason why I value the lessons we learn in freestyle. This knowledge will be applicable in our life no matter what we choose to do and since we get to try out everything, we can get an idea of what we want to do and what we don’t.
Haiku Project
For this project, we started in English with the task to write a haiku that corresponded with a statement. For me, I had to show the feeling of elation through the experience of wearing a mask. Once we wrote the poem we worked on it in digital media where we had to take a photo and make a video of us reading the poem out loud.
This project taught me how to use my camera to take photos, how to write haikus, and how to use our audio recorders.
Poetry Project
For This project, we had to write a free verse poem based that was inspired by something we’ve learned about in English. Then we recorded ourselves reading the poem and our intention statement in Digital Media. We also had to take a picture that went with our poem and add the text on top of it in Photoshop.
My intention for this poem was to show how too much of the same thing can be a bad thing. I wanted to start off making the snow sound beautiful in the first stanza and then for the second stanza I wanted to show a transition and the feeling of boredom with everything being the same. In my final stanza the poem gets a lot more dark but in the end it brightens up with hope but still that underlying dark feeling. I used the contrast of the snow being cold at the beginning of the poem and then at the end I mention the burning into the eyes. I also used the recurring metaphor of the canvas and comparing the blank snow to the canvas. I got my inspiration for the format and the repeating phrases in between stanzas from the poem “And Later” by Jen Bryant where she uses the same format and I thought it was really interesting so I wanted to use it.
Elements and Principles of Art
For this project, we learned about all the different elements and principles of art. We learned about what they look like and how they can be used in our art. The different elements and principles are: Lines, Space, Color, Value, Shape, Form, Texture, Balance, Emphasis, Movement, Proportion, Scale, Repetition, and Unity.
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Film
In Film this semester, we’ve been learning a lot of the basics to build our foundation of film knowledge and help us create whatever films we want. We’ve learned many different types of shots, and techniques such as Griffith’s pattern and Effects such as the double effect where we can have 2 of the same person in one frame. Overall, Film has been really fun and has helped me learn a lot of useful techniques.
Our biggest project this semester was our experimental films where we were given an intention statement and challenged to make a film using it. My intention statement was the feeling of elation through the experience of wearing a mask. To show this I decided to make my film follow the journey of a pair of shoes walking. Over time, Anything that the shoes run into sticks to it until eventually both shoes are completely covered in trash and leaves and other objects to create a sort of mask. Throughout this whole time, the shoes are moving faster and faster and are also shown doing skateboard tricks. This helps show how the mask causes elation because the tricks start off easy and then get more complicated. In the end, the shoes stop walking and the person wearing the shoes takes off the “mask” and the final shot loops back to the beginning and the shoes start walking again.
This idea changed many times over the course of the planning stage and I started off wanting to use a ball the would have objects stick to it and bounce around more and more with more objects to show elation. This proved very difficult to shoot and it was hard to get objects to stick to the ball so in the end I decided shoes would be better for showing my intention statement.
At the bottom middle of the screen is where most of the work happens and shows all of the audio and video clips in the film. That is where I cut the shots to fit together and add the music in the background. The top middle is the preview section which lets you see what a specific part will sound like. On the right, it shows all the different special effect options and in the top left is how you would control those effects.