Intro

The documentary project at Freestyle Academy allowed us students to go out into our community and conduct interviews with a person, business, organization, or idea of our choosing. The assignment's requirements were to aquire at least three interviewees and use their interviews to help us write a book and create a website. This type of academic freedom was new to me, so it was difficult to decide on a topic. After juggling between different ideas, I finally landed on one - the elderly. Specifically, their advice for young students. My definition of "elderly", for the purpose of this project, was anyone 60 or older. I conducted three interviews with random older ones who had varying educational and professional backgrounds. Their opinions and experiences were sincere and they each took valuable time out of their days to speak with me. To serve them the justice they deserve, I did my best to portray them accurately in both my book and my website. The contents of this website consist of smaller projects and works that I created. There is also a link to the book that I created in my design class.

This project was, overal, quite a rewarding experience. It allowed me to connect with three beautiful people in a way that I would not have otherwise. Being that this was the largest project of my entire junior year, it was definitely overwhelming at times. However, the skills I learned in the process made it worth the effort. I now have more experience coding, and I have developed a completely new skill set by writing and designing my own book.

Creating this Intro Video Commercial was just one of the many valuable experiences I had during this project. I learned how to do many transitions and effects to pictures and text in the Adobe application, Premiere Pro. Some of these transitions and effects included opacity, position, scale, and blur. This is a heavy-duty Adobe application. It is oftentimes used by professionals to create blockbuster films. This was definitely a beneficial learning experience for me.

This is a screenshot of my Pro Tools interface. I mixed live music that I recorded with a voice recording for the Intro Video Commercial.

This is a screenshot of my After Effects interface. This is where I applied visual effects and incorporated my audio that I made in Pro Tools.

Book

Every student at Freestyle used the Adobe application, Indesign, to create either a book or magazine that portrayed their documentary subject. I chose to make a book. It needed to contain an 8-10 page essay and a multitude of edited pictures. We also had to take into account the principles of design. This includes contrast, repitition, alignment, and proximity. It was difficult to stay in line with these principles throughout the book, but the result was worth it. I tried to design it with a respectable, clean look. I think my beige and blue colors went well with this theme. Even though it took a fair share of my time, it was satisfying to see all of my work, from the three interviews that I did, come together in one cohesive piece. This book took over a month of class time to create. It is one of the largest assignments that us juniors get all year. Each picture within the book was edited with another Adobe application called photoshop. Even the text was fine-tuned to look aesthetically pleasing. It was the first physical product that I made at Freestyle, making it very valuable to me. From this website, you are able to access a digital copy of it. In it will be an essay that focuses on some of the elderly's advice towards students. Feel free to check it out!

This is a screenshot of my Indesign interface. This is where I put together the entire book. This project was the first time we used this application. It is very useful to know how to navigate it. I now have the ability to design a book or magazine article with my own photography in it.

Bios

To write an authentic research paper on the elderly's advice, I needed to interview some elderly people. After asking around for while, I found the perfect three candidates. I am glad that these three, in particular, were willing to work with me. Their unique backgrounds made for interesting answers and advice during our interviews.

George Kobayashi

My first interview took place in the Los Altos Sub-Acute and Rehabilitation Center. George Kobayashi is one of the most positive human beings I have ever met. He was willing to do an interview with me despite losing his wife less than a week before I met with him. While reminiscing the past, he was smiling and laughing. Because he was Japanese-American, George spent some of his early years in an internment camp. This posed as a challenge, but he worked hard, recieved a thorough education, and accomplish fulfilling work for his community.

Daphne Chan

My second interviewee stayed in the comforts of her pleasant suburban for the project. Daphne Chan is a poised, well-spoken woman. She was born into a "well to do" family in Burma. When her country went to war, she was forced to flee with her family. This caused a drastic change in her life, that eventually led her to move to America. In our interview, I talked to her about her past. The decisions she made in her life were exemplary and should be modeled by students today. She also gave many direct words of wisdom for the younger generation.

Pamela Evans

My third interview took place in the Mountain View Healthcare Center. Born in the Siilcon Valley in 1956, Pamela Evans has seen a sizable amount of change take place in her area. In our interview, we discussed changed. This should be useful to students because they can see what tendencies people had in the past that may be useful to students today. She was very kind, offering quality advice for students.

Gallery