For the Explorations Project, all Junior Freestyle students had to explore their own passion and improve upon a particular skill set that addresses a attribute they have yet to master. We had to choose a skill that we had been in need of help for. We would then need to research the topic and create a final product for what we have learned. For this project, i decided to choose my creative abilities. To narrow down my topic, I wanted to be able to produce a compelling story with an interesting topic and well developed symbolism. The metaphorical side of my story was put out to be the most important part of my learning.

I would begin the explorations project with the research towards storytelling information and the idea of metaphorical symbolism in film. This would ultimately allow me to start working on my production phases of my work. I would begin to create a story from something. I would begin to create a story that would have some sort of symbolism and some sort of metaphorical meaning to it. It would need to have a compelling and interesting story idea and would need some sort of satisfying ending behind it.

I would start my synopsis and gain a few ideas in my story telling. I would first write a couple different ideas for a story. However I started to give myself exercises, such as putting a couple of random words together and creating a story out of it. Once i had my idea down it would need the scouting of specific locations for the plot. We had explored some areas such as Treasure Island in San Francisco. Here is a photo of some of the sets and the actors we had come along with us.

Shots of the entrance to the setting

Shots of Ethan, one of my main actors in the shooting. My camera on the left was also used during the shoot

One of my actors, Turlough,

 

These are all shots of our production and shooting of the film. We had been located in an abandoned school in Treasure Island and would have to film with extremely dark lighting, which was a huge challenge for me. However the largest challenge for me in creating this was the creation of the story. I had learned a huge amount in the story making process of this film and had actually mastered a skill I had never thought I would ever be able to accomplish. This project had really shown me what I could do as a person and what I really can learn through a project such as this one.

Here is the final video. It is titled, LOG 3

https://youtu.be/fZ0IzWYKW9M

During our Explorations project we created an Info graphic. This was a project where were able to pick a certain topic and create an educational graphic design of it. We would design something and create a description of that design. I used Photoshop for mine and created the infographic using texts and creating every symbol and graphic by myself. Every texture in the info graphic is hand designed by me.

 

Here is my photoshop file and how i created this info graphic.

For our experimental project we also had to create a music production. We would be challenged to go to a music side of our creativity and explore music. This would be taught to us extensively before hand and would allow us to go into our own creative thoughts to figure out what we wanted to create.

 

Here is my exploratory music production.

 

This project would end up becoming incredibly extensive on my work habits. Being able to organize and budget my time for this production was difficult and would end up giving me skills that would make me learn a lot. Here is the Pro Tools file of my final music production

 

Explorations was a fun and extensive unit that was quick and budgeted me on my time and creative skills. It allowed me to learn a lot in a short time span and would give me a new perspective on many ideas such as Storytelling, organization and work habits.

 

Here is a video of the explorations presentation that would come at the end of our freestyle junior years. We would end up presenting in front of the whole junior class our explorations projects and what we did to improve our 21st century skills. Here is the full video