Introduction to English and Digital Media
“How do we capture different texts, photos, and pieces conceptually?”
This Unit I learned a multitude of programs, techniques, writing skills, and more to overall benefit me creatively and intellectually. Before Freestyle, I would have considered myself the least tech-y person since the ice age, but as this unit went on, I learned that I love using applications to better my creative projects. I learned Adobe Photoshop, Pro Tools, Adobe Dream Weaver, Adobe Illustrator, how to use DSLR Cameras, Audio Recorders, Premiere Pro and finally, WordPress. The use of these programs allowed me to grow as a person and an artist and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to begin learning these tools!
I love being an english, design, and digital media student because I get to learn about all the things I value a lot. In english, I get to explore new genres of classic and artistic literature (such as the play “Red” and the novel “1984”) that I normally wouldn’t have picked up, but am so glad that I did. I get to play around with poem and writing styles and better myself as a writer and a speaker! Digital Media is also amazing for bettering my knowledge on beneficial applications. Throughout this unit I learned so much about the technical side of art and how that can be used to open a new world of creativity. I am so grateful for my teachers and the projects I made this year.
Haiku Video
For my first official project at freestyle, I got assigned a sentence to portray in a Haiku and an original photograph that I took to represent the Haiku. My sentence was: “the feeling of being overwhelmed through being bullied.” I then captured an up close leaf with tons of imperfections and edited it in Adobe Photoshop to reflect the mood of the poem. After the poem was finalized and revised, I used Premiere pro to create a video with sound, effects, and music. I value knowing how to now use Premiere Pro to create videos.
Poetry, Enclosure
In this portion of the unit, we had the opportunity to write a free verse poem about anything of our choosing. I worked through several drafts (10!) and continued changing the concept slightly with each draft. It started from things I loved and things I hated, to my fear of spiders, to the dangers of body dysmorphia. I found a photo to represent the image I pictured in my head and edited words for the poem using Adobe Photoshop. I then recorded the audio of the poem and my intention statement for the poem.
This Poem means a lot to me because it helped me realize that there is not only one body to look up to because no one has the same body.
“Enclosure” is a free verse poem about feeling hopeless about my body image and seemingly inescapable insecurities. The speaker in this poem is a spider. In the first stanza, I use hyperbole to represent its physical features and exaggerate them to show the reader how its brain warps its self-image. In the second stanza, I use objective correlatives to introduce the spider and use auditory details and a metaphor to describe its vulgarity. In the final stanza, I create a surprising shift in tone from disgust to self-depreciation, in order to relate the spider to myself. Finally, I use allusion to create a flow and end with the title of the poem. To create this poem, I revised it ten times according to feedback from my peers and English teacher. In each draft, I reconsidered significant elements such as the theme, tone, or title. Part of my process included locating an actual spider. . Once I found one, I stood there pacing back and forth for twenty minutes until I got the courage to take a picture to study it some more. I took a picture (from ten feet away) and tried to analyze the spider’s mannerisms. In short, the exigence of this poem is to show people that viewing your body in a certain way can be extremely harmful and can change you into what you fear most. You can feel trapped and hopeless or enclosed in your own mind.
Photoshop Blend Mode Editing Section
In this digital media assignment, we began getting comfortable with photoshop and using it to make our DSLR photos better. We tried multiple different tools that brightened, darkened, saturated, and desaturated our photos. Blend modes in photoshop taught me how to create more interesting photographs and now I can create better quality work.
Introduction to Design
Design is my happy place. I get to do what I love most: draw and design. We learned about Photoshop, elements and principles of design, linear perspective, color theory, Illustrator, DSLR camera use, composition, Photoshop, and applied that to different projects throughout this unit, such as designing our bedroom using linear perspective and more! It was so fun to sit at my desk and just produce art while listening to music and gaining insight from someone I look up to greatly (my teacher of course).
Conceptual Photography for Design
To extend the English and digital media assignment to Design, we were chosen to take CR2 pictures using our DSLR cameras, then make a contact sheet, choose the best photos, then edited them in photoshop (all using the same sentence from the previous projects). I did two different photoshoots, consisting of many ideas. My final idea was to have the flower portray the victim of bullying and the fire represents the act of bullying. I then went outside and chose a solid wood background to contrast the flower, took a lighter, and tried to get a fire going. I then edited it using photoshop and composed it to align with the rule of thirds.
Name Art Using DSLR Camera
For this Design Assignment, we were assigned to take a pictures of objects that could be used to spell out our name. Ten photos for each object of your name. This assignment was so exciting because it was such a challenge to try and find objects for the letter Z. When the shooting process was done, we made a contact sheet, narrowed down our best shots, and finally edited them in black and white. We color corrected them to show good contrast, and finally made our photoshop sheet where we spaced the letters out evenly.
