Introduction
This unit was all about-well-exploring, the goal was to find something new, something emotinal, and invest in that, master it,a dn present it. Aong with that cocnept we also began new creative assigments in our other classes, which i throughly enjoyed as it felt fresh after tons of work throughout the year, a new project to master new skills.
English-Lyrical Essay
IjnEnglish, we worked on this style of essay titled “lyrical essays,” which essentially are essays which are not quite essays. What i mean by that is they take a new approach, style, and more persona concepts into the idea of essays. i loved this project as it allowed me to continue to explore new styles, even a struggled to turn everything in on time. I did my lyrical essay on three restaurants which are filled t the brim with stories, emotions, and personal conflict. Here is that essay.
I had a really fun time – and hard time- reliving certain moments in my life, the hardest place to write about being Dennys given how connected I am to theater culture and how much love I have, yet the struggle with emotional conflict with other people is haunting.
Digital Media-Music recording
In Digital Media, to end off the year on a high note (Music pun intended,) We learned even more about our recording studio, especially recording instruments and vocals from our insanely professional looking studio.
As we were allowed to choose any song, as long as we could sing it, I decided to go with Chalino Sanchez’s “Alma Enamorado,” A wonderful Mexican song about love which my family LOVES as the artist is an icon from Mexico. I also played the bongos over this song, and I helped my recording partner with his song. I am happy with learning, even if it is of course imperfect, as it is a song in Spanish I care about, and it was really fun
Film-Exploration Presentation
Concept
The pitch was this: Study a skill, learn it, and then show mastery by making something with it and teaching it. We were given these paramotors and a month of time, so it took me only a few moments on what to decide. here is my proposal:
Admittedly the final product was a lot less focused on the actual video and films I would make for the presentation, but rather the education and guide on how to create design and execute a stop motion plan. I learned a new passion for teaching throughout this process. I was given the green light this this and got started.
Process
I loved this project because of how physical I got to make it, this creature I was making- i landed on a Hydra, inspired by the movie and scene from “Jason and the Argonauts” where Jason fights a Hydra. I began wire construction over a week, and began clay modeling, which easily took the longest amount of time simply due to several different layers being added on over time. Starting with a base white layer for filler, followed by detailed colors. End result looking similar to this:
I spent a whole day filming the final product, or at least the final miniature product, where I essentially destroyed the hydra. The stop motion production is long and tedious due to the subtle movements you need to make sure are lining up with previous and future movements. I really loved this as again, it was such a physical being. The end result was this:
The final part was also green screening myself, that way I could fight the hydra! It was much less labor intensive however i wished I spent more time practicing as it was hard to line myself up with the Hydra at points.
Finally, with all I had learned I perfected my slide show, I have had a lot of recent practice on creating slideshows and I always enjoy doing so.
Final Production
The day finally came on finals week, and I was nervous, however I felt I had something I was passionate about that people would respect and listen to, so I got up and did my best. I felt as though I could have explained certain parts better, and maybe had more film, however, I was still happy with the reactions from everyone.
Reflection
I was really happy with this project. At first because of the huge workload and realizing I needed to scale down the film itself, I worried about the ability for me to grow a new skill set, however I realized that the education and teaching was the best way to show total mastery, and in that sense, I felt I did pretty well. I loved seeing people’s induvial reactions when I showed them, and I loved the process. Stop motion is certainty a skill I am glad Freestyle helped me master.