Reflections

Reflections Unit

The Reflections unit was the unit to start off our senior year, and last year, at Freestyle. It was meant to get us all back into the creative mindset that we cultivated last year and to inspire deep personal reflections. Throughout out three classes the question of the unit was “Who am I?” In our english class we explored this question by writing a personal essay that could also be used in our college applications. In our digital media class we recorded this essay and we also wrote and recored a short perspective piece where we shared an opinion of ours and put it with images. In our film class we were assigned a two minute video essay to try and tackle the same “Who am I?” question. This unit ended up helping me a lot in making decisions about college and my future. It helped affirm my decision to pursue filmmaking in college and put me back in the right mindset to create the rest of my Freestyle projects for the year.

Personal Essay Assignment 

In our english class we were supposed to write a personal essay. This personal essay could double as the personal statement that many of us were going to have to write for our college applications. We had to identify if we had faced significant challenges in our life and if we knew what we wanted to study in college to help write the essay. Writing the essay involved many different drafts and getting multiple opinions from peers, our teachers, and family members about what we could improve. The main objective was to answer the question, “Who am I?” and I think I did a pretty decent job at doing that because writing this essay helped me decide on what I wanted my major in college to be.

 

 

I can still remember the exact moment I discovered something to feel passionate about. In second grade, my class piled into the computer lab to research which animal we would like to present on for our endangered species project. I scrolled through the animals and was captivated by one that I had never heard of before, the okapi. After that day, I dove into my project and learned all I could about this elusive creature. The project consisted of a poster about our animal of choice, and I remember crying the night before we had to turn it in because I did not feel that my drawing did the okapi justice. That same year, I attended the Wildlife Conservation Expo in San Francisco and was completely overwhelmed by the speeches from leaders, such as Jane Goodall, in the fields of okapi and zebra conservation. Before second grade, I was a kid who really liked animals. After second grade, I was someone with a deep connection and calling to them.
My love for wildlife grew exponentially over the following years of my life. In middle school, my mom and I watched the documentary, Blackfish, with in disbelief and through tears. My next visit to a zoo was unbearable as I saw elephants pace in enclosures as big as parking lots. Soon after, I attended my first protest against animal captivity. I also traveled to the San Juan Islands for Superpod, a gathering of people fighting for the betterment of whales and dolphins. While there, I absorbed the palpable inspiration from people making change in many different, unique ways. On two separate whale watching expeditions, in two separate states, an orca and two humpback whales swam under the boat I was on. Both experiences were entirely surreal to me. With my high school choir, I was lucky enough to be able to travel to South Africa and go on two days of safari in Kruger National Park. After years of seeing these animals solely on screens and behind cages, it truly did not feel real and I could not believe my eyes. Seeing animals roam freely in their natural habitat filled me with joy and gave me a deeper appreciation for wild animals that I did not know I could have.
For these reasons and many more I cannot explain, I feel connected[a] to wildlife. This connection has been a driving force throughout my life. I have now come to a sort of pause and am looking for the next step. Recently, I have been able to dive into my curiosity for filmmaking and see many opportunities to promote animal rights through that medium. The collaboration, creativity, and dedication that goes towards making a film excites me. It is impossible to ignore the endless possibilities that filmmaking holds. 
Even though I had found a deep compassion and empathy for wildlife, many people have not. Friends have often made jokes about animal welfare just to spite me. The news surrounding animal conservation has many bleak moments. For the longest time, I had not been able to wrap my head around how people do not care. When all the news is negative and people you are surrounded by do not care the same way you do, it feels easy to give up and let go of one’s passion. Thankfully, I have never reached that point. When hope is fading and outside noise starts to take over is when I am reminded of the reasons I care and why I have no option but to care. This passion that I can trace back to second grade is an integral part of who I am. It would be inauthentic and lead to an unfulfilling life to leave it behind me. Right now, I am even unsure of how I can be most helpful, but I know I want to help. Passion stepped into the driver’s seat a long time ago and led me to where I am now. I look forward to how furthering my education can help me harness it.

 

Perspective Piece

In our digital media class the assignment combined the skills we were learning in ProTools and in After Effects. The final product was a short video where we had a voiceover that we edited photos to. Since the assignment was pretty open-ended in terms of what we could talk about, the videos all cover a wide range of topics. In my piece I focused on the idea that everyone should invest themselves in something they feel passionate about. This goes with the theme of answering the “Who am I?” question because one of my core values and defining personality traits is my passion.

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This is a screenshot of the After Effects project that I used to create the video. A main part of the editing process was adding keyframes to tell the photos how to move.

Film Video Essay

In my film class the assignment for this unit was to create a two minute video essay. The essay was supposed to offer some insight into who we are and how we think. The common theme among these videos was to focus on something specific to ourselves and elaborate on that to show the audience who we are.

The video will premiere at Freestyle Open House and will be on my website after Open House.

The voiceover of the video was recorded in Adobe Audition. This video was shot with cannon t6i cameras and manfrotto tripods were used. The editing software everyone used was Adobe Premiere Pro and the video was written, shot, and edited in about three weeks time. I really enjoyed that in film we got to try and tackle the “Who am I?” question visually. The scope of the project was also much smaller than the other classes since we answered the question by diving into something specific about ourselves. The question seemed less daunting when using film and the answer is not as obvious.

 

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