Introduction

Expressing myself through unconventional forms is seriously powerful and rewarding. It’s a whole new way to express my ideas and feelings that I wouldn’t be able to do in a conventional way.

Poetry is a great example of this. There are so many different styles and genres to try out, and it’s a cool way to show emotion and meaning through language and structure. I love experimenting with different techniques, like free verse or rhyme schemes. Plus, using Photoshop to create designs for my poems is a fun way to express myself and learn more about the software.

Music and sound design are also great ways to express myself unconventionally. This semester, we used Pro-Tools and it was a bit of a learning curve, but it was still amazing. It can be intimidating to use advanced software, but with the help of our teachers, I was able to understand it better. There are so many options for expressing ourselves through sound, whether it’s playing traditional instruments or experimenting with electronic sounds. Personally, I love drumming in the music room – it’s a way for me to let out my creativity and emotions.

Technology and digital media also offer a ton of unconventional ways to express ourselves. We learned about DSLR cameras and audio recorders this semester, and there are endless possibilities for using these tools in a creative and unique way. From animations to experimental films and design work, the options are endless. And with photoblogs, we get prompts and can choose how to express ourselves through the photos we take.

Using these unconventional forms of self-expression is a whole other level of self-expression that we don’t get to experience in a typical school environment. It’s a chance for me to take the vision in my head and make it a reality.

Without being in Freestyle and the English and Digital Media classes, I doubt I would’ve been able to express myself though these ways. I absolutely adore being in English class, its the most fun I’ve had in an English in a long time, we get to read fascinating books and debate them in class, which typically end up turning philosophical, which is just as fun, we talk about what love truly is. No ones opinion is every silenced, but we do attack each others arguments in a healthy debate style to try and find holes. It is truly fun.

Being in the Digital Media class is giving me access to skill and abilities I could never see myself with, without freestyle. We get to work with amazing programs and tools, and I’m so grateful for everything that both classes have done.

Haiku

In English we were tasked with writing a haiku, a traditional Japanese poem. 3 lines, 5syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.

Eventually after we had written it, we were required to take a creative photo for the poem, and put the two together in photo in Premiere pro.

Poetry

In both English we were tasked with writing a free verse poem, we had full control over the entire thing. After we had written it, we used photoshop to combine it with an image.

We also used our audio recorders to record us speaking the poem, and combined them in Dreamweaver, which was so cool seeing it all come together.

What I value about producing my poetry in so many unusual different ways, is the creative expression it allows us to have, we ultimately get to decide how it looks and feels through several mediums.

Photoshop Blend Mode Editing

Throughout the beginning of Digital Media class, we learned how to take photos with the DSLR, we then had a ton of photos and needed to learn photoshop, so we combined the two, literally combining to photos together.

Blend modes in Photoshop are super cool because they let you control how different layers mix with each other. You can use them to create all sorts of effects, from subtle color adjustments to more intense changes, for example making parade balloons appear in an originally blank sky. Some of the blend modes we learned are “Multiply,” which darkens the image by multiplying the colors of the layers together, and “Screen,” which lightens the image by screening the colors of the layers together.

I really appreciate learning about blend modes because they give me a ton of creative control and allow me to be super flexible when editing images. By experimenting with different blend modes and adjusting the opacity of layers, I can achieve all sorts of cool effects and fine-tune the look of an image.

Film

Being in film has been an amazing experience, from learning all parts of the film making process, pre production, production and post production. The conceptual parts of this assignments have been learning the basics from the ground up. Teaching us the basics of film and film language. As well as how to edit using premiere pro.

Film Synopsis

Opening shot is a black screen, the haiku appears, menacing bass plays.
The perspective is immediately uncomfortable for the viewer: the camera is dutch tilted, dollying in
on the main character whose face is obscured by a phone. The character is unaware of the camera
as it moves closer, focused on scrolling through content. As the camera moves to an intimate
distance, their head jerks up and they stare directly into the camera and the viewer’s eye; they
jump up to leave with a surprised sucking in of air, like a gasp. The camera does not follow as the
character walks out of shot, but instead moves down to their phone which is left to the side, with
the words, “Two leaves, one tree.” The phone then flickers into a banana. The sounds of gasps will
continue, and eventually turn into a gentle breeze.
The camera whip transitions to the character standing in an extremely busy space, people pushing
past them. Suddenly, a flicker of the camera, and the person is in the same spot, no one is around.
As the camera zooms in, a time-lapse occurs of different shots all with the characters face in the
middle, and a feeling of being overwhelmed with everything happening too fast. The main colors
are red and green. Day turns to night. Night turns to day. People appear. They disappear. Items of
clothing change on the person. Gasps.
The camera then cuts to the character running away down the highway, no cars around pitch
black at night. Passing a bill board that says Myself, you. The camera cuts to them as if they have
just run into the ground. The character is on the floor with their hands of their ears, clearly
overwhelmed. Back in the house, they stand up quickly, disoriented. They walk into a random
room and stand at a mirror. No one is in the reflection. A reflection eventually walks into frame,
confused and looking at the character. The reflection is NOT the character’s. The word “Rustled” is
spoken as a gasp by no one – the only word from the poem voiced. The glass breaks.
The character then runs out of the bathroom, tripping over things, trying to get as far as they can
but eventually ending up back in the bathroom – running on broken glass over and over but not
noticing. Every room leads to the bathroom, with the person waiting in the mirror. The person in the
mirror then flickers, becomes the face of the main character. The person in the mirror puts their
hand to the glass. The character does as well. They are then transported – facing each other – to
another scene like the boardwalk – but all is sunlight. There is reunion. Union. Wholeness. Film
ends as characters lay in the afternoon sun, clasping hands under a hyperreal tree with something
falling that isn’t quite leaves. It could be snow. The camera pulls out and the words appear on the
landscape: we fall together.”

This film was fun to make! I hadn’t learned anything about film making language yet, I’m pretty sure I broke all the rules. Looking back on it now, there were a lot of changes I could’ve made to make it better, but for my first film, im pretty proud of it.

These are some of other projects i’ve made since then.