Introduction and Reflection

This semester, the largest project which we had to accomplish was to create a documentary. In animation, we were instructed to complete 3  interviews, 1 of which , that would be translated into a 1:30 of animation.Overall the project proved to have many difficulties. For one, my original idea of a documentary, around the stigma of tattoos, proved to be extremely difficult to find information, so I had to change my topic. Furthermore the project took extreme time management skills. However, the project was extremely valuable, teaching me the importance of self dependency, and to achieve goals I set for myself in a timely manner.

In addition, English honors has us read a non-fiction book that helped give research to our topics. Finally, we wrote around an 8 page essay. In my case, my essay was a profile, similar to my documentary, describing the life and journey of Anne Nguyen as she grew up and escaped during the communist revolution in Vietnam. TLDR: the essay reviews a brief history of Vietnam’s communist revolution, then follow-up with the major life events of Anne Nguyen.

Link to essay PDF: https://www.freestyleacademy.rocks/~NatalieH/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/NatalieH_Documentary-Paper.pdf

Animation Production

In my elective class, Animation, we created a 1:30 animation documentary. I used photoshop and the rotoscoping technique, which involved drawing over live footage. Before hand, we also had to treat and animatic, which planned out our shots, as well as concept design, which we could reference throughout our production.

Concept design:

 

 

 

Interviewee Biography

For my main profile, I interviewed Anne Nguyen. Anne happens to be the moth of one of my close friends, which is how we met. She shared with me her story of how shew grew up in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh city, and I thought it would be an interesting topic to explore. As I got to know Anne, I fund she has a love of photography as well as her two daughters who are both involved in dance.

I also interview my current United States history teacher, Jamaica Kreps. How received her BA in History during 2002 at Sonoma State University, her MA in History, 2005, University of California, Santa Cruz and has been teaching at Mountain View High School since 2007. She provided insight of historical context for my other interviewee”s stories.

I finally interview Nga Dang, mother of my friends Isabella Levenston. She like Anne Nguyen is a fellow Vietnam refugee. I use her interview to compare and contrast the experiences of Anne.

Photogallery