Self Reflections

Cooper Stowers

Self Reflection on Enlightenment Project

1. Describe one thing you would do differently if you could go back to the beginning of this project?

I think that if I were to go back to the beginning of this project, I would spend a little bit more time making sure that the lines in the script were a little more clearly pronounced and had a little bit more space and wiggle room to be able to edit in the post face.  As I was going through the editing process afterwards I began to notice that a lot of the different material that we covered was a little bit lagging in some of the different ways that the lines were delivered.  Specifically, I notice that my voice with it’s a bit fast and sometimes, hard to understand.  A few of the lines were a bit choppy as well and I was particularly observant of exactly how I wanted lines to be delivered.  I also noticed that some of Sara’s and Lily’s lines were at times a little bit choppy and could use refinement.  I would also like to go back and fix some of the editing mistakes that occurred such as the fade-aways and cut-aways that were placed in the film in order to make a more complete version of the mistakes that had been covered over.  I wish I could’ve taken more time to talk with Mr. Corona about other or more effective ways to fix some of the problems that had occurred within the actual film.

2.    What advice would you give to another student who is about to complete a project that is as open as this one?

I think that I would tell this student to concentrate on something that they really enjoy doing and incorporate that into their project.  In my case I was able to apply my love of film and direction into a project that was limitless to the points of any direction that I could’ve taken and I feel that I’ve made a successful project that was definitely worth the time and effort spent in the editing, the actual filming, the acting, the directing, and the setup work.  I think that if any student for that matter applies something that they really enjoy doing whether it be writing, songwriting, film, or virtually anything can find a creative way to cover the information that needed to be explained to an audience and truly enjoy the process of creating that work of art.  This is why I enjoy the more broad-ended projects because instead of having so much confinement within the project itself there are so many opportunities and pat is a student can take in order to have an educational learning experience and have fun while doing so. I personally enjoyed this project, I think, more than any other project that I have done so far, simply based off oath how much creativity could be conveyed and house high energy the overall work was.  I would surely hope that another student could find the same love for this kind of project in the way that I did.

3.    What do you think a teacher would say about your performance on this project?

Based off of what teachers have already said, as well as peers, parents, and other members of the community, I would say that any teacher would it be truly impressed with my overall performance in this project.  I say this because my group members that I were able to make a satirical newscast that can be proudly displayed on a school web site or at any AHS exhibition and the truly satisfied with the overall outcome of the project.  I’m happy with the acting that had been conducted and the editing that had taken place after all the footage had been shot and I think that many people will enjoy the humor and all the time and energy that has been spent on this project.  I believe that a teacher would think very highly of this project in general.

4.    What is one thing you always want to remember about enlightenment or about something you learned during this project?

I would really like to remember the lessons that we had on Martin Luther.  I really enjoyed learning about the history of the Catholic Church and how corrupted it really was.  Back in catholic school, we only discussed this very briefly and I think because some of the atrocities that were happening during the time of Martin Luther were sold folder based and disgusting that a lot of Catholics and catholic teachers these days tend to drive away from details during that portion of history.  I’m not saying that they totally disregard the fact that the church was corrupted but I would have liked to have gone into greater depth upon that subject.  Now that I’ve covered that lesson with much more information and a better understanding of what really happened I feel that I’ve gained a lot out of this particular class.  This is something that I would like to if remember that for a very long time.

Lily Oswald

Self Reflection on Enlightenment Project

I think that this newscast for our Enlightenment project went swimmingly.  Overall we put a lot of time into completing it, and editing it as best as we could.  Of course though, there is always room for improvement.  I think the biggest thing we could have improved on as a team from the beginning would be to take MORE takes.  Some of our lines are a little sloppy and not perfect which would have been ideal.  I also think that we should have lessened the amount of what we focused on during this video project, since we covered each enlightenment aspect in this newscast. 

This project was very open ended, given it just had to be focused on an area of enlightenment that we had covered.  This was almost harder with how open it was, and you really had to think hard to come up with a do-able project as well as a beautifully done project.  If I could give one word of advice to someone who would be completing this same project I would probably tell them to come up with an original idea, but also have it be easily finished by the given due date.  Our project was a good idea and all, but I think our aspirations were originally way too high for the amount of time we were given to complete it.  So my advice would be to come up with a simple enough, but still really good project for the small amount of time. 

I think a teacher would be able to recognize how hard we as a group worked on this project.  We spent three days after school filming, sometimes in the rain.  Since Cooper is the main member in our group with knowledge of editing these types of films, he spent the majority of editing time doing just that.  Meanwhile, Sara and I found pictures to put on the film, wrote the script (with Cooper) as well as figured out how the entire film was going to happen and be uploaded.  Overall I think it’s safe to say a teacher would be very proud of our finished project, since it turned out even better than originally thought out.  It really reflects how hard we worked on this as a group. 

In this project, the main thing I think I would want to remember and take out of it would be my personal feelings about it.  I really feel like I connected with what we were introduced to, whether that be Chris McCandless’s miraculous adventures, or Siddhartha’s outlook on life.  I really LEARNED a lot in this project and I feel that that doesn’t always happen in school, but in this project it was interesting enough to be easily absorbed.  I also feel that I will be able to save some of what we learned away in brain for a really, really long time.  Making this project also helped me get a better grasp on these enlightenment aspects and I now understand a lot more of what we had touched on in class.  So really the main thing I can take out of this project would be a full understanding of what it is that we had learned. 




Sara Martin
Self Reflection

Overall I am so very proud of our video project. With a project so open we could have gone anywhere with it but our video was a great idea and us three were able to do a great job on it. Cooper and I have not always had the best relationship but now Lily and I consider Coope Town a good good friend! We all spent a lot of time and effort on filming and editing our project.

If I could start this project over again I think that I would have practiced my lines in the mirror to see what exactly I do when I am speaking. Sometimes I think that I have weird hand movements or body motions. I could have tried harder not to do those specific things. I also think I would have tried to acquire more video editing skills. I understand the basics but there are a few more things that would have been great to learn.
If I could give any advice to a student doing this project I would tell them to think long and hard about your project. It is so open that you can pretty much do anything! It is sometimes hard to be creative but you have so many things to work off of that you can go crazy. Except that your really don’t have much time at all to work with. We barely got our project done on time and we had a lot of troubles doing so. We had to stay after school multiple days and work through SIGS and X-blocks.

I think that our teacher is very proud of us in this project because it is true quality work. We thought a lot about our script and tried to make it as funny as possible. All of our clips took a long time to film and edit. We but so much work into it to make it a fantastic example of hard work.

Out of this project I will probably remember the Chris McCandaless story the most because it was the first and easiest to understand! I don’t necessarily agree with what he did but it was very brave and worked for him!