Exploration Website

Freestyle Reflection

Much of the Freestyle experience involves working. We may start with a writing assignment in English which morphes into a photography assignment in Design and then a media feature in Web. While most of the assignments are loosly linked between the classes, there were isolated projects as well such as the Music Video which we completed exclusively in the Web/Film classes. These assignments make up the core of the Freestyle experience.

English assingments at Freestlye are comparable to English work at Mountain View High School. We read various things and we write various things. The Design class introduced us to photography, illustration, and other forms of art. Web class taught us how to build websites, record and edit audio, and create animations. Much of the work in Design and Web class is completed in class with minimal homework assignements. This still adds up to a considerable amount of work hours. Web class meets an average of 5 hours 45 minutes a week while English and Design class each meet for half that time. I've found that the longer I work on a single assignment the less enjoyment I derive from them. The advantages of spending so much time working on these assignments is I get to understand whether I actually like an activity.

The most interesting Freestyle project for me was the Music Video project because it was a completely new experience for me and our group ended up with a product we were proud of. The collaborative nature of this project also added to our enjoyment of it. Another favorite project of mine was the character portrait I took in design because we were able to experiement with different lighting and poses for our character. In English class, I most enjoyed the humor project we are currently working on.

Music Video Production Photo
Production photos from shooting our music video.

Another aspect of working on these projects is discovering the projects I liked least. For English class, my least favorite assignment would either be in the documentary unit or the senior project unit. Both these projects were essentially research papers which were quite tedious for me to write. Although I enjoyed the character portrait in Design, I realize that I'd rather spend my time organizing/editing my photos than taking them. In Web, I was least comfortable working on the After Effects features and found it most challenging.

Overall I deeply enjoyed working on a small number of Freestyle projects while finding the rest to be quite managable.

Experimental Photography

Experimental Photography

My experimental photograph reflects my experience at Freestyle through a combination of photos taken on campus.