Introduction
As seniors, we are asked multitudes of questions about the future. Where do you want to go to college? What do you want to do? What change do you want to make in the world? This unit at Freestyle, we explored our individuality, allowing us to answer these questions, or explore options for our future, with at least a foundational awareness of who we are. In our Elective classes, we discussed self-expression, combining art forms familiar to us and trying new forms to push the boundaries of what we could say about ourselves visually. As we wrote our college essays in English, we used our personal values as building blocks to showcase who we are through writing–some of mine include compassion, inspiration, and experience. In Digital Media, we used these core values to learn Adobe After Effects, a program that has come to be exceptionally useful in visual arts!
Personal Mandala
Another large Digital Media project this unit was the personal mandala, inspired by mandalas created by Tibetan monks, as both a source of peace and storytelling–our personal mandalas are reflections, stories, of us. We used Adobe Illustrator to create our mandalas, experimenting with brush size and pressure with Wacom Digital Drawing tablets, colors, stamps, preset shapes and layers.
If the images do not display below,
On a Mac, press Command + (plus) then press press Command – (minus)
On a PC, press the Cntrl + (plus) then press the Cntrl – (minus)
I love drawing mandalas; I’ve filled the margins of my notebooks with mandalas, big and small, complex and simple, for years. They are my go to doodle, so I was very excited to embark on this project. I was inspired to try and take the mandala doodles I normally do to another level because symmetry was easier to achieve, as we used Illustrator’s reflection tools. I love the shape of the flower petal, which is heavily repeated in my mandala, but I tried to experiment with the thickness of the lines and how that changed what part of the mandala your eye was drawn to. I titled my mandala Perennial because the flower petal shape makes it seem as if it’s reaching out and expanding forever. For the colored version of my mandala, I wanted to continue using a floral theme–purples, blues, and yellows. I’m really happy with how the use of multiple color shades added a lot of dimension!
I chose to engrave my mandala on a piece of wood to enhance the symmetry and juxtapose it with the dissymmetry of the natural wood. What I really valued about this project is the attention to detail we were asked to have, it really contributed to the individuality of each person’s mandala. The only thing I would change if I did this project again would be to use a thinner brush for my strokes, as they came out harsher and darker than I expected. Yet, it accentuates the engraving.
Lastly, we used After Effects to produce a video of our mandalas being created!
Personal Essay
In English, we read the book College Essay Essentials, and began drafting our Common App personal statements for college application season. We used our core values, listed our “essence objects,” that we let define us, and brainstormed topics in groups. I wrote about my struggle succeeding in the education system and how that affected my self esteem at a really young age. Now, I am able to advocate for myself and maintain and understanding of my academic needs, so I can succeed.
Motion Graphics
To better develop our foundational After Effects skills, we explored the program’s animation features to create graphics for different kinds of videos. Our first task was to use the Rotoscoping tool to alter a video frame-by-frame, in order to visually isolate the layers so text or graphics can be placed in the background rather than the foreground.
We also learned how to sync graphics and music, and display the waveforms of the music as a malleable line. In my example, I chose to use the upbeat music from the Jazz scene in La La Land, because the changes in the pitch and intensity of sound are so significant you can see them well in the waveform. I also synced the music notes to grow larger when the music is louder, so they bounce along with the song.
Film
In Film, our main focus was short video essays in which we reflected upon some aspect of ourselves–optionally to be used for college applications. I find myself thinking a lot about the wild nature I had when I was younger and how growth has shaped it, so I chose to reflect on who I am now and wether or not my values have shifted. My favorite shot turned out to be the comparison between myself in the mirror when I was younger and myself in the mirror now, alluding to the theme of “reflections.”
We also began to advance our editing and storytelling skills from last year through collaborative projects. First, we split into groups, and tasked to storyboard a 1 minute movie. To our surprise, we had to swap stories to film, and then again to edit, to simulate how the division of creative control works in the film industry. My group ended up editing a love story between two bunnies and decided to go down a comedic-romantic route.
Next, we had to write, shoot, and edit an entire film in one class period, which proved to be extremely difficult. Our small group chose to film in Freestyle’s music studio, and our story surrounded a musician who thought they were incredible yet their producers could see how bad they were. Editing was the aspect of this production we struggled the most with due to the time constraints, and sadly it takes the audience out of their suspension of disbelief. However I had a really fun time filming this and I want to try this again!