Introduction
One of the biggest units in all of our Freestyle classes this year was the Visual Narrative unit. Over the course of this unit, I learned new technical skills, but more importantly I learned organizational and communication skills that will serve me well in the future. In Film and English class, I learned how to write and develop an original story into fruition, and how to tell the story in a way that is engaging and entertaining. In Digital Media, we learned how to take our stories we developed in English into audio recordings with album covers. By the end of this unit, I had learned how to create a story and how to pair it with artwork, write a flash fiction, and create a complete narrative film.
Story
In English class, we wrote a flash fictions, using example flash fictions to help guide our writing. The first thing we did before writing our flash fictions was character building. By building our characters’ first, we made sure we had interesting and engaging characters that readers would be interested in reading and learning about. After developing our characters, we could then start thinking about how our character could fit into an original story. The exercise we did to develop our stories was a plot map exercise. In that exercise, we wrote about the character’s want/need dynamic and how that could influence their behavior, and then we created a plot map using Freytag’s Pyramid. After finishing all of our preparation to write our flash fictions, we then created our stories. My story was about a little boy, Davey Wilde, who lives in Coldfoot, Alaska who is forced to mature quickly and take care of his family during the harsh winter due to his father’s disappearance. Taking our flash fictions from English to Digital Media, we used Pro Tools to record our stories. We then took our recordings and added sound effects and music to match the tone of our stories. Completing the audio aspect of our flash fictions, we then took to Adobe Illustrator where we created album art for the recording. Now having both the written and recorded flash fiction, it is cool to be able to share and express my fiction in different ways.
Firewood
The winter days spent just outside of Coldfoot, Alaska were freezing. Our small wood cabin was enveloped by the snow, the lake frozen over, and the only thing you could see for miles were the green leaves of the spruce trees that peeked out from the snow-covered branches. However, that did not mean I could sit idly in our small wood cabin. Work needed to be done in order to survive the stormy winter. Ever since my father went missing three winters ago, I, Davy Wilde, am now the man of the house. I live with my mother, an eight-year-old sister who is two years younger than me, and my little brother, who is only four years old. As the oldest man, I do the work required outdoors in the snow while my little sister and brother help my mother take care of the chores around the house.
It was late afternoon turning into dusk as the snow storm began to pick up. My mother who was working on dinner asked me if I could gather some firewood around the lake, as we had run out. In years past, my father was the one laboring out in the arctic temperatures, only occasionally teaching me his methods. But with him gone, I was forced to work in the storm alone. When we went out to collect wood, he never went his usual route into the forest, deeming it too dangerous. Instead, he showed me what to look for around the lake. His general rules were that suitable firewood was dry and just big enough to carry in your arms. Constantly reminding myself of his lessons, I put on my snow boots, scarf, hat, wool jacket, and mittens and walked out into the cold terrain. Ever since he disappeared those three winters ago, I have only collected wood around the lake. Nonetheless, I figured I was experienced enough to collect in the forest, getting better and more firewood that would better keep my family warm. And so, I walked in the opposite direction of the lake.
The deep snow in the forest made it hard to find sticks suitable for burning, but I kept searching and searching. Focused on finding feasible firewood, I was slow to notice the storm picking up, and the quickly darkening sky. The ferocious winds bit at my face, the thick snowfall made it hard to see, and my mittens were not strong enough to stop the numbing of my hands. Only holding four sticks in my arms, I marched deeper into the forest. Trudging through the snow up to my knees, I heard through the whistling of the wind a loud snap of a tree branch not far ahead. Knowing that a freshly fallen branch would be easy to spot, I disregarded my numb and quivering body and hurried in the direction of the sound. Blindly running towards the area of the fallen tree, I had no idea the danger I was heading towards.
The sky had turned dark, and the never-ending snowfall made it almost impossible to see in the blinding snow. As I approached the fallen tree, I was pleased to see I had been right! Freshly-fallen branches were all around, providing perfect sticks to bring back to the cabin. After gathering a satisfactory armful of wood, it was time to get back for dinner. I hope I didn’t make my mother worry, I thought. Tracing my footsteps back to the cabin, a new noise cut through the whistling of the wind, the last noise any person alone in the forest would ever want to hear.
My father and I would walk around the outskirts of the lake when we looked for firewood together. He did the majority of the work, never wanting to involve the rest of the family with any work that he could do himself. He loved laughing and talking to me about the magical nature in Alaska. While joking around and smiling as we circled the lake, I asked him why we could never explore the forest. His smile faded as his expression became more serious. He told me that the forest was dangerous and not all of Alaska’s nature was friendly. That one question was followed by a long lecture, cautioning me about what to do if presented by danger in the forest. I never thought that lecture would save my life.
Dropping the firewood in my arms, I turned around to see a giant grizzly bear not far away from where I stood. Doing my best not to panic, I raised my arms. The bear began to slowly approach me, but instead of running, I looked at it and roared as loud as I could. Keeping my arms raised and yelling at the top of my lungs, the grizzly bear growled at me and then turned away. Not until the bear had disappeared into the white storm did I pick up my firewood and start running back to the cabin. I followed my tracks for what seemed like forever, finally gaining sight of the cabin. As I approached the cabin, my pace slowed. I looked back at the dark, cold forest and realized that my father’s disappearance three winters ago might have been more grim than I was willing to accept.
Illustrations
Music Production
One of my favorite projects we have done all year was the Parody Project. We were challenged to make a parody – one minute long per person in the group – using any song of choice. I paired up with my friend Evan to create a remix of Bobby Shmurda’s most popular song “Hot N****.” My friends and I have always and still enjoy singing together, whether its in the car or online, so Evan and I were beyond excited to create our own remix of a song we have listened to for years. Picking a song was the easy first of this project, the next step was a bit more difficult: choosing what to make our parody about. Looking for inspiration, we listened to last year’s juniors’ parodies and “Digital Flex” made by Owen and Jensen proved to be very motivating. We ended up writing our song about our experiences in Freestyle up until that point in time.
Hot Fella
Y’all tryna make the next movie scene up in here, huh?
It’s Nate and Evan they wrote (ah-ah-ahh)
How much schmoney is that?
(Ah-ah-ahh)
Florendo beats holla at me
Ah-ah
Verse 1 (Evan):
On Adobe we some hot dukey (trash)
Like I talk to Charlie when I shot movies
Make the image twirl, photoshop booty (pirate)
And I film all my dailies in one spot, newbie
And I keep my photographs inside my blog, website
And Taylor, he be munch’n, he a tax taker
Flo known to get money, anti-Trump site
Tryna meditate, its gonna make me feel right
Verse 2 (Nate):
Editing these films till I pass out (pass out)
And we take no tests, we won’t flunk out
I swear to God, did my website crash, how
And if you aint with Flo, get on DM zoom now
I been telling Charlie since the 5th grade,
Being funny make no difference, when you’re 4’8 (4’8)
Bradley told me cut them clips and add the keyframes
Add the music back and sync in the same way
Verse 3 (Evan):
Greco hate the day, I take my phone out (phone out)
I be getting emails, no cooldown
Being quiet, stomach got so loud
Greco love the way that I share out
Verse 4 (Nate):
Free Evan, though, filmin all his dogs out
Taylor said too story driven at my prompt, wow
That’s what got lil Bradley locked up in the dog pound
Free Evan though, let all of his dogs out
Verse 5 (Evan):
We gon’ film up on the set, put the props on em
With them T6’s we gon’ get some shots of em
Do a lil crop, then send the drop on em
We gon’ mashup songs and I’ma use a lot of em
Verse 6 (Nate):
Vibe with Greco, that’s who we are (we are)
Greco students we get five stars
T6I, they go so hard
But DM projects half-done
Verse 7 (Evan):
And if it’s a daily we gon’ film raw
Shots poppin out the camera
I’m with Charlie, I’m with Bradley, I’m with Nate-Dawg
Broad daylight, when we gon’ get these things done?
Tell them teachers don’t grade me low
Some day, I won’t be so slow
And tell my teachers, give extensions yo
My blogs were due about a week ago (week ago)
Canvas buggin got me freakin though (freakin though)
Submit, hit the button, but its freezin though (freezin tho)
Everybody sweatin bullets tho, bullets tho
Teachers, help, I’m getting bullied, yo, bullied, yo
Chewin loud, bubble gum on em
Aperture, rule of thumb on em
Premiere got me feeling dumb, brick
Make me wanna give up, quick
Outro (Nate):
Make me wanna give up man
Charlie thinks he’s hot shizz
Ayo, pull up I need some more talent
