Creative Me! What a week! This tested me on so many levels; composition, technology, lighting, music, timing, nerves, the perfectionist me. The list goes on. But I did it! The following Critical Reflection follows Gibbs's Reflective Learning Cycle (Gibb, 1988). CRITICAL REFLECTION Description My movie “Creative Me” was created using animation technology Stop Motion Studio (Cateater LLC, 2021). This was to showcase my creative journey as highlighted in my River Journal (Chandler, 2021). The my journey is told in a montage, (Chandler, 1994-2021, Narrative Style) narrating my journey through the seventies, eighties and nineties using symbols and props (Roy, Baker and Hamilton, 2019, p. 161). My composition then changed, using photos to reflect my changing creativity from creativity for myself to creativity for children both my own and those in schools where I worked. The last section moved onto now, where I am still learning and growing as an artist. I had not used this particular software package until now; however, I had supervised students using cameras and similar software to complete stop motion videos. The emphasis being on "supervised". Feelings Once I had my story, composition (Roy, Baker and Hamilton, 2019, p. 161) of artefacts became the both the most exciting and the most challenging. Knowing where to place each item, the space between each item, which was going to be in the foreground and which would take on a more background role became a time consuming passion. The media languages (Roy, Baker and Hamilton, 2019, p. 161) used, such as symbols sent me on a nostalgic journey as I scrounged objects that reflected time periods. The high camera angle chosen was deliberately chosen to show a birds-eye view (Roy, Baker and Hamilton, 2019, p. 161) giving the viewer and insight into my creativity so far. Lighting and colour were strong influencers in what objects, symbols, and music I chose. Lighting manipulates how the viewer perceives the scene (Chandler, 2021, Lighting). My lighting was strong so as to cast shadows highlighting the 3D elements especially when I wrote or snapped my fingers. The lighting was also bright which was reflective of my creativity journey being one of great happiness, soothing to my soul while firing my imagination. I find challenges exhilarating and I had this aplenty with making this movie. Evaluation While I thoroughly enjoyed the task, I found that some of the limits of both time and function of the program served as both a hinderance and an inspiration. The length of the video being only 30 seconds meant I had to be creative in including all that I did. To this end, the use jump cuts and subjective time (Chandler, 1994-2021, Editing Techniques, Manipulating Time) provided a way for me to explore 5 decades of creativity. I used the finger snap as a way to initiate the change in time from decade to decade and then from childless to children and work, finishing with how I have grown in this course. Understanding and using the program Stop Motion Studio (Cateater LLC, 2021) was also a hinderance and an inspiration. The restrictions of available music meant I had to choose select tracks and sound effects. The sound track was chosen as it had a happy, lilting piano tune. The sound effects gave the "illusion of reality" (Chandler, 1994-2021, Use of Sound) with the animated piano, a symbol of my musicality until I had children. Sound effects (Chandler, 1994-2021, Use of Sound) were interspersed where they had the most impact. The 1990's was a time of buying and renovating our first and subsequent homes; therefore, the sound effects of construction (Cateater, 2021) added to the visual objects. Not all sound effects were easy to manipulate, nor were there exact sound effects that I needed. The snapping of fingers has been created by trimming the slap sound effect so that there is one "snap". This all took time and also some frustration Analysis My time with Stop Motion Studio (Cateater, 2021) showed me that media arts is very much about the "making" (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2021, The Media Arts). The iterate nature of creating with technology suggests that time needs to be carefully managed. I found that coming up with ideas was a slow process. Perhaps this was due to not fully understanding what the program could or could not do. Once I started ideas became more solid and I found I tend to create as I go rather than following a set plan. Conclusion and Action Plan One thing I could not change was the 30 second movie time, I had to work within this time constraint. I spent a long time massaging objects and ideas, perhaps too long. I should have started the filming with a basic idea to understand the program better. I also spent a long time on inventing a contraption to hold my phone with what I had available at home. Photos were another time waster as finding what I needed were not in categories, rather, shoved in a box or on multiple, various storage devices. While I was mulling over ideas, I should have got on with finding photos and this could have lead to inspiration earlier. IN THE CLASSROOM The media arts challenge can be adapted into a year 5 classroom using the History Learning Area of the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2021, Level Description). Students are to present their inquiry into the effects of colonisation and migration in 1800's Australia using different modes. Focusing on the events that lead to the Eureka Stockade, students could create a stop motion movie highlighting their knowledge, inquiry and skills (ACARA, 2021, Level Description, Elaborations). Not only is the stop motion Media Arts, creating a diorama, painting, montage, or drawing also connects to Visual Arts where they create their artwork in order for their audience to understand their topic of the cause and effect of the Eurkea Stockade on Australian society and politics and economy (ACARA, 2021, Visual Arts, Year 5 and 6 Content Descriptors). In creating a stop motion, in groups, of the Eureka Stockade students access the Media Arts strand of The Arts curriculum. As part of the Achievement Standards for Years 5 and 6, students are to communicate and respond to ideas in created artworks, in this case a stop motion (ACARA, 2021, Years 5 and 6 Achievement Standards). Being historical The Eureka Stockade is consistent with years 5 and 6 describing historical context that influence what they have created (ACARA, 2021, Years 5 and 6 Achievement Standards). Students will research their own inquiry question relating to the Eureka Stockade, from the viewpoint of the Chinese, the police officers involved, government officials, women in the camps, or the miners. In this way they can use "story principles to shape points of view and genre conventions". Students will experiment with elements of media arts using camera distance including zoom, angle of camera, lighting, sound, commentary, choosing a narrative style (subjective or objective), and graphics such as titles and credits (Chandler, 1994-2021). They will also edit and manipulate time conventions to communicate the meaning of their artwork. As this will be a Media Arts artwork, students will not only make but they will also respond. They will make meaning and interpret stop motion movies of their own and others artwork (ACARA, 2021, Years 5 and 6 Level Description). In making the stop motion students will need to identify their audience that will ultimately respond to their artwork (ACARA, 2021, Years 5 and 6 Level Description). Responses will follow similar steps to the RISE Model for Meaningful Feedback (Wray, 2020) where students can say something they liked, ask questions to gain more information and provide possible improvements. References Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2021). Australian Curriculum. www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ Cateater LLC. (2021). Stop Motion Studio [Computer software]. https://www.cateater.com/ Chandler, D. (1994-2021). The ‘Grammar’ of television and film. visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/gramtv.html Chandler, S. (2021, March 30). Creative me [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASfoWRWBZkE Chandler, S. (2021, March 8). My river (arts) journey. The Arts. https://suzycthearts.weebly.com/river-reflection Gibbs, G. (1998). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic Roy, D., Baker, W. & Hamilton, A. (2019). Teaching the arts: Early childhood and primary education (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press Wray, E. (2020). The rise model. www.risemodel.com/
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this weekThis week we have the exciting challenge of creating 30 second movie of our creative journey. Personally I think an extra 5 seconds needs to be added for each decade past 3 :) ArchivesCategories |