Capstone Extra Movie Blog Post

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Making a movie might have been the most fun part of our Capstone project. We got to pick pictures, choose music, and share our research. The worst part about it was the recording because you needed to have the same type of recording in the same setting with the same tone. It was annoying especially when I was in a different place or had to speak louder because of background noise. But making a movie was still very fun and we got to share them with our classmates for advice and tips. In Cindy’s movie, she explained that when scientists wanted to share ideas, they could present them at a conference. Our movies and presentations were like that because we could present them in front of the class, with all our classmates and teachers watching.

Before the movie, we had to make a script. It wasn’t very exciting because we had to put all our research into simpler phrases to say. Also, I got my script corrected a lot. While the script was boring, it wasn’t hard or complicated. Before the script, we wrote an essay explaining the answer to our main question. What we were supposed to do was copy sentences or paragraphs from the essay onto the script and adapt it to make it match. So it wasn’t very difficult.

The movie was kind of the opposite – it was fun but hard. I think the most fun part was picking out a song because you could listen to music and think about the movie. In the end, I picked a song called Espionage, which was fitting because my topic was Cold War Espionage. It was too short so I had to start it up again on a slide talking about Aldrich Ames. It didn’t sound too weird and I was happy with it. But the most difficult part about the movie(other than recording) was picking photos. When Google searching, I had to use the “Tools” function under Images to set a Creative Commons license filter. That eliminated a lot of photos I wanted to use, but I found a trick. On Google Drive, when you use “Search the Web”, it automatically gives you free photos. There, I just clicked into the picture I wanted and double-tapped to get the file. Then I’d have a free photo. But when I didn’t have the photo I wanted, I had to search for something else or switch the topic. Sometimes, I happened upon a photo that was perfect for my movie but wasn’t free. When this happened, it was very annoying.

In conclusion, the final presentation/movie was sometimes fun and sometimes boring. It was sometimes hard and sometimes easy. In the end, though, I managed to complete it and make the best version of my video that I could. I hope that my whole Capstone project will be as successful as the movie. Because my Capstone is really a crowning achievement.

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

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Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

As I designed this Rube Goldberg machine, I had not foreseen as many problems as there happened to be. I knew some parts would probably cause problems, sure, but it simply didn’t occur to me I’d have to take out as many parts as I did. At least you could still see the similarities between my sketch and the actual thing.

Designing the Rube Goldberg contraption was never the problem – I probably had a thousand ideas of what to add in, at least half of them impossible. No, designing was easy. It was the building and collecting that were hard. Like I said, I hadn’t accounted for so many problems. So when those problems surfaced, I was unprepared for the sudden tidal wave. Because of this, I had no backups and simply didn’t know what to do. I was, although I’m ashamed to say it, ready to give up.

But just when I started to hang up my cap, a superhero called “Mom” (a strange name for a superhero, don’t you think?) came to the rescue, which is, of course, what superheroes are meant to do. Mom helped me see the problems from a different perspective, allowing me to fix most of my problems. Although, of course, that meant sacrificing my pulleys, seesaw, Jenga blocks… etc. Still, it worked, and my paper ball was in the trash (along with some balls, pieces of cardboard and other unwelcome items). 

There were certainly many lessons I learned, such as Don’t mope around and work on your projects or Don’t try and figure out fancy fonts for your We-Video and JUST GET IT DONE! You can see that the main point of focus was “don’t” rather than “do”. I’m afraid I must add yet another “don’t”, though, and that is Don’t give up. I was prepared to give up and Mom was as well (especially when I accidentally didn’t video it on the 6th try, which was our actual first attempt). Dad wasn’t really helping when he started telling us to video it, either. He only succeeded in making us more annoyed. Still, me and my mom supported each other, and we finally got through. So, just don’t give up. 

I probably spent about 2 hours on the video. Some of which was tinkering around with fonts and special effects. It had already gotten late by the time I finished, so I left the narration to the morning. I don’t know if I was supposed to do this or not, but I fitted all my narration for one image or video into 6 seconds. I wasn’t able to add any effects other than slow-mo and there were no transitions. If I’d gotten more time, then I’d probably fix up a few things, such as add a walk-through into my video or some type of effect. I know it said 3 to 5 minutes, but I had no way to stretch it, and I ended up just having it almost 2 minutes. Really, I was just grateful to have completed everything before the deadline.

I have said this for probably every unit I’ve done a reflection post on, but I have to admit, there’s not much else to say. So I’ll say it again: I’ve enjoyed it, really, but sometimes the deadlines get you stressed and I really wouldn’t want to do this again (maybe without deadlines, of my own accord and not having to worry about any specific rules). I think you’re probably getting bored of me saying that all the time. Maybe the next unit will be more exciting, or even worse than before. I just hope I will not have to type that one sentence once more.

Rube Goldberg Sketch

Rube Goldberg WeVideo