Reflections

In our reflections unit at Freestyle, in each class we had a project to answer the overarching question, “who am I?” This project was at the very beginning of our senior year, and we had a project for Film, Digital Media, and English. In Digital Media, we did a perspective piece where we wrote a rant about anything, and then created a video which correlated to it in after effects. In English, we wrote a 650 word personal essay about how a trauma in our life led to knowing what we wanted to study for college. In our Film class, we wrote a short essay about something that represented who we were or a story from the past, and created a film about it with an over-voice of us reading our essay.

 

Personal Essay

In our English class, we wrote a 650 word essay which is also known as the common app essay for colleges. We did this at the same time as college applications because we would be able to use the same essay to send to our colleges. There were 3 types of essays we could choose from, either one where something happened to you and you know what you want to study, nothing happened to you but you know what you want to study, or nothing happened to you and you don’t know what you want to study. I chose the first option and wrote about how what happened to my dad led me to realizing I wanted to study criminal justice. It helped me answer the “Who am I” question because through writing this I was able to reflect on everything that happened and it helped me figure out exactly what I wanted to study and why. It was important to me because I never talked about what happened to my dad or reflected on everything, but this allowed me to do that.

 

“Your dad has passed away. He was found in his truck, alone, with the door open.”

 

    I had never expected to hear those words. It was February 18th, 2018, when I opened my front door to a stranger, uttering the words that would alter my life forever. Only a few days prior I had been at Freestyle Academy of Communications Arts and Technology’s exhibition, showcasing my entire semester’s work in English, Design, and Film. I was eager for my dad to see the work that I had spent months perfecting, however, he never showed up.

    Last year, my dad was charged and arrested for battery. He had been walking to lunch when a cyclist on the sidewalk ran into him. He got angry and threw the man’s bike into the road. The cyclist pressed charges, and my dad stood trial. Because of his overworked public attorney, he was sentenced to  jail time in addition to community service. From that point on, his life spun out of control. Since his record made him incapable of finding a good job, he became homeless, unemployed, and ill. I always knew that my dad had anger issues, but I never thought that it would cause a spiral in his life, and ultimately mine.

With a full school schedule and the trauma of my dad’s passing, my second semester of Junior year was very unstable. I was missing most of my classes, my grades were suffering, and I had lost all motivation. One question followed me every day, often overwhelming all of my thoughts: why did he die?

At the time the cause of death had been reported as “unknown”, and I couldn’t live with that. I needed to know what had happened, if only to get some closure.  I began researching, searching through his phone, looking through his truck, and reaching out to his friends. Although I kept running into dead ends, researching what could have caused his death established stability in my life, and gave me a sense of direction and control in a situation where I had none. The documentary unit, the largest and most demanding project at Freestyle Academy, was happening during this time. The assignment was to find a research topic and create a film, in addition to writing and designing our own book. Because the justice system had failed my dad and ultimately caused his death, the topic I chose was how the justice system in America is flawed, and fails to fulfill its purpose of successfully rehabilitating people within the system. To gain more insight into the system and its flaws, I interviewed people who have experienced it first hand. Additionally, I researched mental health, inequity, and recidivism within the system. Although I had to finish months of work in just two weeks, I made time at lunch, breaks, and after school. The project became my priority. I was so intrigued by my research that most nights I  worked at school so late that my teacher had to kick me out. What was most interesting was discovering other people’s stories about how the justice system had failed them. In one case, because of the three strikes law, a man was sentenced to life in prison for stealing a pair of $2.50 socks. I realized over 60% of people in American prisons are not convicted criminals; they’re simply awaiting trial.

The further I dove into my research, the more interesting facts and stories I uncovered, and I became captivated by my findings. I’m a very curious person; I like to find the answer to anything unknown. By attempting to figure out the reason for my dad’s passing, and researching the the flaws within the justice system for my documentary, I gained a sense of direction. My dad’s passing ultimately unearthed my passion for criminal justice. I can’t change my dad’s ending, but maybe I can improve others.

 

Perspective Piece

In the Digital Media class, for our perspective piece we were instructed to write a short rant about anything, and then make a video using images that correlated to this topic and use after effects to edit it. I chose the college application process as my rant topic because during this time I was stressed out about applying to college. In the after effects video, I learned a few new things about after effects and how to create different layers and have a video flow and look more appealing. The purpose of writing the rant was ultimately to learn more about after effects and how to edit pictures and animate them to audio. I believe that this project demonstrated “who I am” not very strongly through the perspective piece because ranting about something doesn’t really show who I am. I’m actually someone who very much enjoys school and learning and now that I have pretty much finished the college application process, it isn’t something that bothers me very much and it doesn’t show who I am as a person.




This screenshot is taken on after effects when I was working on my project. The green bar is my audio, and the purple bars are all of the photos. Under each bar, there are little circles which are keyframes. The keyframes change the size, angle, or length of the photo. This image shows how I worked on the video in after effects to produce the final video which you can see above.

 

 

 

 

 

Film Reflections

For our reflections project in Film, we wrote a short essay about something that happened in our life that shows who we are. I wrote about motorcycles because motorcycling has been a huge part in my life because my dad raced and I grew up riding with my dad and brother. I compared driving to riding a motorcycle, and how riding a motorcycle is more free and rewarding. We recorded this essay and imported it into premiere pro, which we use to edit all of our films. We had to film things that went along with what our recording said, so I found a friend who was willing to ride his motorcycle for my film. I also used the drone to film some shots, and overall I believe that my film did effectively show “who I am”, because motorcycling has always been a big part in my life and after watching my film, I think that message comes across clearly.




 

In these two screenshots, it is demonstrating my production of filming and editing my film. The first screenshot shows premiere pro which we use to edit out films, and all of the little boxes are clips of video, audio, or text which I put into the film. Before I filmed, I listed everything I said in my recording which I could film, so that when I edited it, what you were seeing matched up to what you heard. From this project, I value how we had the freedom to produce anything we wanted to and there was not a certain thing that the film had to be about. I like how it is important to me because it really answers the question and represents “who I am” as a person.