Explorations

Introduction

The Explorations Project is a fun and positive way for Freestyle students to finish their junior year. It’s also a chance for students in different electives to show off their creativity and what they’ve been working on. The main goal of this project is to learn a new skill and teach it to everyone else at Freestyle. For my skill, I decided to learn special effects using Adobe After Effects, especially how to create cool and unique text. I thought it would be interesting to do After Effects because it is something that we really haven’t touched base on as juniors yet in Freestyle.

Process

The process of my explorations project was completed over the course of five weeks. We began by presenting our pitch to our film teacher, Mr. Taylor, outlining our ideas and goals for the project. Below is the brief pitch idea I presented to Mr. Taylor:

Shortly after my pitch, I realized that my goals were a little too unrealistic for the short time we had to work on the project so I decided to change my Explorations project to using Adobe After Effects to create unique and cool text. The first step in my process was learning After Effects, which was quite challenging for me. It took a few hours of practice before I really got the hang of it.

Process of Learning After Effects:

Below you can find my completed Explorations slide show that explains my project step by step:

Final Production

Reflection

Reflecting on the Explorations Project, I realize how much I have valued the experience. Learning After Effects not only expanded my technical skills but also boosted my confidence in tackling complex software. This project pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to explore new creative avenues. As a digital artist, the skills I acquired will be incredibly beneficial for future projects, enabling me to add sophisticated special effects and unique text animations to my work. Overall, this project has been a rewarding journey of growth and discovery.

Music Recording

For this unit music recording project, we were tasked with creating a song using vocals and instruments in the Freestyle Recording Studio. Additionally, we were assigned to polish our song using Pro Tools. I ultimately created the song “Forrest Bump” we got the idea to write a song about Forrest Gump because in History at Mountain View we had to connect to modern history and Forrest Gump for our final project. We thought it would be cool to do it as a song for our digital media class too and it made everything easier because I was killing two birds with one stone. So, my group and I imagined a fake sequel to Forrest Gump where he’s in big events like 9/11 and World War II and we turned it into a song.

Lyrics:

Behind the Scenes:

Final Recording:

Lyrical Essay

During the Explorations Unit in English this year we worked on our Lyrical Essay project. The Lyrical Essay assignment was one of the more creative essays we got to work on this year, it gave us the freedom to choose what we wanted to write about. A Lyrical Essay is a literary hybrid that combines elements of poetry, essay, and memoir. We were also instructed to use footnotes in the creation of our lyrical essay to reveal a deeper meaning. I decided to write my Lyrical Essay on the past, more specifically the fear of growing up and missing the simplistic times of childhood.