Conceptual

For the Conceptual Project, as Juniors, we were assigned to develop our abstract thinking and communication skills to answer this question, “How can I use unconventional format to express myself?” This project was very keen on risk-taking through poetry, music, art, animations, experimental film, and web production. During this time, I became very familiar with applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Google Apps.

As a Junior, I was not very bold or extroverted with my expressions through art. I wanted to use this project as a bridge to get myself to open up and take a risk with skills I learned in the same time period. This unit allowed me to take necessary risks in order to convey messages in each of my completed projects.

English Poetry

In English, we were assigned to write multiple poems, one of them being a Haiku with an image that connects to the topic, as well as a Free Verse and Ekphrastic Poem. I chose a photo that I took with my phone in front of my Grandparents house, showing a close-up shot of a tree and its branches, the leaves differentiating in color.

Ekphrastic Poem

Groundbreaking

He stood,

clouds of thoughts swarming

his presence like the dawning

of an inevitable hurricane

consuming his thoughts,

 

wafting away from his body,

escaping the confinement

that was his pride.

His torrid thoughts torpedoing his brain like a tornado,

a torrential downpour took over his body,

dissipating,

like every miniscule element of his being

was being detached, every bond was breaking, one after the other,

his world beginning to collapse like dominoes.

His black shards slowly floating

expanding,

circumventing the only obstacle that was

himself.  

He always thought it was some other force

that the universe wouldn’t allow his

 

stars to align.

Like his constellations didn’t fit

the complicated,

50,000 piece jigsaw everyone had already mapped.

It had to be someone else’s fault.

But as the fog finally began to clear

he wiped the cold condensation off the glass

And when he finally could see through to the other side

he realized

there was no one else

to blame.


Free Verse Poem

When did the sun start to shine so bright?

Its rays beam brighter than ever before

I notice the chirp of the birds gets louder

Where have you gone this very morn?

You seemed to have left no trace for me to follow

Was that your intent?

Do you not want me to find you?

I’ve searched and searched over mountains and under bridges

I stormed the islands and sunk the neighboring ships

I swam to the very bottom of the deep blue and climbed the tallest trees

You thought I would’ve known better,

To stop looking.

But I’ll never stop looking,

I can’t bear to lose what I only knew.

Even if the only way I can be with you is in lucid dreams,

I can’t stop searching until I find you.

Photo Haiku

SukieD – Photo Haiku

For film, we created experimental films for this conceptual unit. This was our first actual visual film that we made in this class Junior year, so I had a lot of fun with this concept. We were required to have a folder full of shots called “Dailies” where we show the class at the end of each week, our progress. This was also a chance for our teacher to see the creative direction our films were going in and we received valuable feedback from him and the rest of my peers.

These are a few of my dailies for reference:

Since this was my first taste of this film class and production in general, this project was a good intro to familiarize myself with the curriculum of freestyle in relation to my work ethic. I learned a lot about time efficiency during this project, and also responsibility. I remember completely losing my first SD card halfway through the production period and it was nearly detrimental to my film. This made me more alert and for future projects, less susceptible to losing important film equipment.