Showcase

Introduction

My name is Evelyn Potter, and the elective class I’m taking is Film.  My favorite things to do are being around my friends, taking pictures, traveling, filming and editing things, and adventuring. I am a senior at Mountain View High School, and next year I am going to be attending the University of Colorado Boulder studying political science and criminology, to prepare me for law school. The three projects I selected for the showcase are my junior narrative, senior narrative, and my zenith project. The junior narrative was my first big film in which my partner and I created an animated character to play the main character in the film. This was a big challenge because I had not been taught how to animate yet and working frame by frame took a lot of extra time but in the end was very worth it. The next film I chose to be a part of my showcase was the senior narrative. I chose this film because it was by far the most challenging and largest production that I have done at Freestyle Academy. This film was challenging because the screenplay took weeks and after rewriting it 5 times, 18 pages later, we started filming. It was the first film I’ve directed that we had casted actors which was a big challenge because of conflicting schedules. Overall it was very rewarding because all of the long hours of screenwriting and filming payed off. The last film I chose was my zenith project and I chose this because I worked alone and once finished was very proud because I edited most of it frame by frame in after effects. This film was especially rewarding because I did it all by myself and taught myself how to edit it all, and hours per day of editing for weeks was very rewarding once finished. I would like to receive feedback on my films editing and storytelling from my panelists because that is what is focused on most in the three films. My contact information is evelynp13@icloud.com.


The style and design in my zenith project was more pleasing to the eye and creating scenes that were edited and fiction than just having the raw clip in the film. I used all of the skills I had learned at Freestyle thus far to create my last project which was the zenith project. I used my storytelling skills, editing skills, filming skills, directing skills, and after effects skills to effectively shoot and edit this film by myself. I definitely feel rewarded after I finished the film because I taught myself how to do all of the edits and doing it all frame by frame took hours and hours for weeks to pull off, and it was very rewarding when it was done. I can use the skills that I used mainly editing and after effects skills and filming skills in future creative and or professional work.

The style and design in my senior narrative is fast editing and more fun and entertaining because the storyline is funny and meant to be more happy and entertaining. This project definitely taught me a lot about storytelling, and coming up with a story and being able to write a script and portray the story in the best way possible. Also, before this film I had not worked with actors before and directing them and making schedules to film was definitely more challenging than I thought. This project was definitely the biggest production I had done at freestyle and I learned a lot more of what it takes to create a film. I grew skills in directing, storytelling, filming, and screenwriting.

The style and design in this project is mainly to be more cartoony and funny because fish can’t actually do what the fish is doing in our film so although it isn’t the most realistic, it’s funny and pleasing to the eye. We chose to shoot in San Francisco because the fish would be able to go on more adventures and people who don’t live in the Bay Area would find this interesting and pretty. Before this project, I didn’t know how to use after effects at all or animate something within another clip. My skills in after effects grew and my editing and filming skills also grew. I developed a passion for animating and the editing process because although I was editing frame by frame, once it was done it was more rewarding. My passion for film also grew because I discovered what I enjoyed more which was the editing process. By learning after effects, it allowed me to be able to use this application more efficiently in the future.