Explorations
Introduction
“How can you find, explore, and/or expand your passion?”
For the Explorations Project, all Junior Freestyle students will explore his/her own passion and improve upon a particular skill set that addresses 21st Century Skills.
For my Explorations Project, I decided to research the importance of advertising in the film industry. Growing up I watched a multitude of films and have seen many ads and trailers for those films. Being influenced by those, I chose to create my own. The process included getting some background footage, conducting an interview, as well as editing together, and placing music to emphasize the engagement quality. Overall, this unit has allowed me to improve on my 21st Century Skills.
Explorations Film
Process
Pre-Production
During the pre-production phase, I conducted lots of research and watched videos on Youtube to gain inspiration. Through this process, I was able to learn about the history of advertising and how it was used to promote products back in the day, and how to create an effective advertisement/promotion video to engage the audience successfully.
Production
To produce this film I got footage of dancers from all classes to share the love and support, and also conducted an interview with Lauren Kato with the skills I’ve learned from the Film Documentary Unit. This process took about a day or two if you count up all the hours it took me to produce the work.
Post-Production
For the post-production process, I used the skills of keyframing, fading the audio with bezier, and syncing the audio to the video using the synchronize function in Premiere Pro, all of which I learned in Film. Throughout the year, I have learned multiple editing styles and for this particular film, I decided to include footage that corresponded to the message. For example, when Kato talks about community, I included a shot of the whole program together. Being able to make creative decisions without restrictions was nice, and I was able to utilize my strengths for the final product.
Final Product!
Lyrical Essay
In English, we read multiple lyrical essays, most of which had their own styles and techniques. When writing my own lyrical essay, I decided to follow the format of the story “If You Knew Then What I Know Now” by Van Meter. He uses 2nd person to talk to his future self when he is already in the future. It allows the reader to step into the author’s shoes and discover the person’s emotions and actions.
For my own lyrical essay, I chose to reflect on my time spent in Japan. Moving across the world, to meet a new environment and people, my 4th-grade self was excited but terrified too. It illustrates what thoughts were going through my mind and shares experiences that others may share with me.
Experimental Music
As our last junior assignment in Digital Media, we were assigned to create music using MIDI in Pro Tools. As I have little to no experience with playing instruments, this process was challenging but also fun in some ways. It allowed me to discover new ways of producing music through technology, and explore my artistic abilities in the production process. For inspiration, I went through my Spotify playlists because that is where I listen to music and it’s a good source to introduce yourself to new styles too. Recently, with my life being filled with school work, all I have been listening to is some study music playlists. They really allow me to focus and concentrate on the things needing to be accomplished. With that, I decided to take a chance on creating my own “study music” song, where the listener can feel relaxed and enjoy their studying without distraction.
Reflection
In the end, I am very thankful for this last unit because it gave me a chance to express my passions in life through artistic choices. With the help of my friends and teachers, I believe that I’ve grown as an artist this past year, and will continue to grow as a 2nd year senior next year. I still need to work on my time management skills and work ethic but I hope to be able to become a stronger artist next year to share my creations with the rest of the world.