WordPress is a bit broken so unfortunately I can’t seem to embed these as Youtube. Oh well, so it goes.
Zenith Reflection
When I started on my Zenith project, I was absolutely determined to get it done. At this point, I am no longer absolutely determined to get it done, and I’m okay with that. Acceptance is the first step, dear audience. My project was an incredibly ambitious story with 24 episodes that were due to be scripted out. I knew that I couldn’t script them all out, so my goal was to have 1 or 2 scripted by the end of the project and 1 storyboard.
By the end of the project, I had 1 scripted out and about a tenth of the storyboard done, but it wasn’t my fault. Which was a nice change of pace. When I was visiting Universities in England, I had my bag stolen, which contained my notepad, my laptop, and my passport. This set me back a fair few days,and by the time I got back I was too late to finish my project. I still had plenty of things to present and teach about the process, and now I know so much more about how to make these things in the future, which is something that I’m very proud of.
In conclusion, oh crap. Wait, this isn’t three pages.
I collaborated with a bunch of other people for the sake of character design and story. For the story, I bounced the idea off of a bunch of different friends with writing experience and workshopped it over and over again to make sure I was telling a decent story. For the design, I talked with Ms. P, Skyler, Izzy, Elena, my pal Eli, and did a lot of thinking over and over to make sure that things worked out. I sent character sheets out to different artists who offered to draw things, and came up with new designs all the time. I sent the story to as many people as I could, even some who couldn’t work on it. I was absolutely determined to get this done.
Then, before I was due to start storyboarding, I went to England. I was planning on corresponding with people and continuing to work on things for a good long while, when my bag was stolen from a hotel in Bath. In my bag was my Nintendo, my notebook, graphing calculator, laptop, and my passport.
This, understandably set me back a bit. I was no longer capable of playing games, checking notes, making graphs, corresponding with people, or return to America.
This kinda killed my momentum, and just like that the project could no longer be finished in time. So it goes. When I got back, I consolidated what work I could still present and made sure that I could still have enough to make the Zenith presentation to the Juniors.
In the end, what I had were 3 slideshows. One was about Character Design, one was about Storytelling, and one was about Worldbuilding. I decided to let the audience pick 2 of the presentations, which I would then discuss at length. It was a little more work than I could have gotten away with, but I figured it was worth it in lieu of having actually done what I had set out to do.
I’ll be honest, I’m still very disappointed in myself. But, there’s time to be sad later. Progress marches on, and time waits for no man or woman.
The presentation went pretty well, and now, if I so desire, I can use the slideshows as bases for video essays. Once I finish all of the other jobs I accidentally just accumulated. Who knew the end of Senior year would be so manic? Here I was thinking that school was almost over, but I gotta do Visa stuff and exhibition stuff and then Flo signed me up for a job I didn’t ask for and then there’s the documentary thing.
Crap, I only have 1 page left to answer all of the stupid stuff. Okay, lightning round. You ready?
I chose this idea for a project because I thought it would be challenging and interesting, and would give me a really great portfolio piece. It would also teach me a whole lot about story formats and how animation worked. I learned how to do worldbuilding, character design, collaborate with others, and write a medium-form story effectively. Had I completed my project, it would have made it far more interesting and good and funny than anything I would have been able to make last year or the year before.
My collaboration led to more interesting and consistent character design, and held my story together much more effectively. I wouldn’t change a thing about the interaction and collaboration, but I WOULD change a thing or two about the project as a whole. If I could do the whole thing over again, I would save the whole “getting trapped in england” thing until AFTER the project was done. And I would also get rid of Winter and Spring break. I’ve always hated them.
Creativity definitely benefitted the most from this project. I came up with so much ridiculous stuff, and so much funny stuff, and so much good stuff. I’d love to reprise working on this project again, if I wasn’t the only one doing it. And if it was my job. That’d be swell. The least good 21st century skill was probably Social and Civic responsibility, because I don’t really care about that so much. The world can manage itself, it doesn’t need me spreading my morals.
Aw crap, I think I’m gonna have to break into page 4 now. Curse you, double-spacing! Without you, I would be allowed to write so much more cool stuff. Here we go. Okay, Learning Experiences I’d use in the future? I don’t really know what I want to do in the future, so I don’t really have an answer for you. I guess if I’m writing, I now know a whole lot more about medium-form storytelling, so yay for that. If I’m animating or designing I learned a lot about design. Heck, I even learned about directing animation.
As for the whole “Ignite your own passion; elevate your skills and experiences; create your ultimate/most successful Freestyle project?”
I did okay on the first one, great at the second one, a bit awful on the third one. Honestly, my first year narrative is probably my greatest and most successful Freestyle project. Oh well. Last question on this two-page “lightning round.”
One meaningful final thought you would like your reader/listener to remember about the story of your project or its lasting value for you. Me? I learned a lot from it. If I had more time, a crew, and some funding, I could probably bring down the house. This was an okay project. Cheers.