Introduction
The Conceptual projects helps Juniors like me develop abstract thinking skills through the means of creative risk-taking. Using mediums such as poetry, arts, films and animations, we are tasked with expressing our feelings through the digital space. helped with professional equipment like our DSLR Cameras and a plethora of Adobe applications such as Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Audition, and many more!
As a Digital Media/English student myself, I value creative freedom in my works. I try to think as openly as possible and try something new. Normally, I am restricted by limitations in what I can do. There’ll be a word count I need to reach or requirements that need to be fulfilled that don’t really allow me to express my imaginative mind. I’m able to express them here.
Haiku
The Haiku Project gave us a prompt that we had to write a Haiku about. We got the prompts in our English class. The prompts consist of a feeling you get when faced with an aspect of life. After writing the Haiku, we would have to take a photo that connects with what we wrote. We would later record a reading of the Haiku to use for a video.
This is my Haiku Project. My prompt was to ‘explore the feeling of Hope through Advertisement’.
Since this was my first time making and editing a video on Premier, I really didn’t know what to expect. I valued the overall theme and mood of the video. I wanted it to be ominous and a bit grim to fit the photo that I took. The recording I took was a bit fast, so I cut it up and spaced it to slow down the reading which worked pretty well. The music I choose was also a bit of a challenge because I needed it to be foreboding without it being too creepy sounding. Towards the end of the editing process, I moved the image further into the video to match the music. However, I didn’t change the first audio of me talking and the corresponding text. The end result actually came out better than before. The text appeared first, then the photo and music fades in and it goes kind of hard ngl. Overall, I had a pretty alright experience using Premiere for the first time, might use it again.
“Why Art?” Essay
The “Why Art?” Essay was one of the last projects of the Conceptual project. In English, we wrote an essay based on the question “Why does Art Matter?”. We looked at many articles from artists like Brian Green who give their opinions on why art matters. The person I read about was Sonny Rollins, an American Saxophonist. From what I read, Sonny thinks Art will never die because it represents feelings in our soul that cannot be expressed through words. I though a good artist to relate this statement to was Salvador Dali, famous for his obscure and abstract pieces.
Here is my “Why Art?” Essay, titled ‘Art: The Infinite’
You can also listen to my Why Art Essay below.
Photoshop Blend Mode
The Photoshop Blend Mode Editing had us do exactly that: Use Photoshop Blend Mode! We learned how to darken photos with the Multiply Blend Mode, brighten photos with the Screen Blend Mode, sharpen photos with the Overlay Blend Mode, and how to blend two photos together. We would also learn how to Juxtapose an edited photo next to the original. I value actually knowing how to use photoshop to enhance photos now. I’ve learned all these new techniques that I will genuinely use later on. I can see myself mostly sharpening and brightening/darkening photos with the brush on photos I need to use. I found those blending techniques to be my favorite to use and best looking.
Animation
Animation so far has been my favorite class! it’s really chill since there are only Three people in the class, including me! we’re given all the supplies and tools to do whatever the teacher tells us to do and we have at it. It usually takes a week to complete each assignment, so we blast through them pretty quick. Half of our work was done on a computer, taking a picture of a frame of one of our projects. the other half was the physical objects that needed to be animated. I think i’ve grown a bit more as a digital artist because the class is very close. As I said, me and two others are the only Juniors in AM Animation and we were already friends, so we all got along very well. The only downside to that is that being absent removes a third of the class. I value that tight-knitted workspace because we it gives off a chill vibe that I haven’t felt before in a class.