One month we have been on the go with this project. It has been a grind, but I have enjoyed it throughout the process and I think it really showed to how my video skills have improved. Below is my video for this project, I would love if you could check it out and then I will go more in depth about the process of making it and more importantly the learning involved.

So, let me quickly explain our task for this project. We have been learning about World War One and the many different roles within it. Our task was to choose a subject of WWI and create a short 3 – 4 minute video about it. We could choose any form of video as long as we explained our subject and created our own music. The plan was to show these to grade sixes and sevens from Cove Cliff so we had to gear the videos to their age group. There’s the little blurb about the project so now into the nitty gritty.

FIRST WWI LEARNING |

This is the part where we learnt everything about World War One. I feel like the biggest learning part in this section was the domino effect. The domino effect is basically how WWI started with all the alliances and the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand. I created a short video with my peers and we made the domino effect into a small bar fight. It was fun to make, but looking back on it it’s very confusing and if I were to do this again I would have everyone with signs of what country they are on. Anyways here’s the amazing video, I learnt so much from this and how Austria Hungry threatened war on Serbia after the assassination. It really puts in perspective why this did become a world war with all the alliances. Our video is kind of confusing so I also am putting a great video from Indie Nidel in that we watched in class. He has a whole series from WWI and they are great!

SCREENPLAY |

Before the screenplay we chose what form of video we wanted to use. I decide to do mine like Indie Niedel (the video above about the domino effect). Basically I was going to have a clean set with shots of me talking and lots of photos popping up from WWI and what I was talking about. Another thing we did before that was chose our subjects. I chose animals in WWI, but Jordyn really wanted that too so we both got it, but we wanted ours to be slightly different so I did some of the stranger animals in WWI (slugs and pigeons). It was awesome learning about them and we did way to much research, but it was fun to learn about the slugs and pigeons. Below is my screenplay and it explains what the animals did so I won’t explain it all here.

 

FILMING AND EDITING |

Finally after all this preparing and a short story board I was ready to start my filming. I had two main drafts in this project. The first was simply to see the timing and if I needed to shorten or lengthen my script at all and also for the set. It went well, but I did notice that the audio was really bad and low so I decided to move the mic right beside me and get the audio through my mic connected to my IPad. This worked although the first time I did the the iPad stopped filming so I had no audio and had to redo it. There were definitely some learning curves while making this video mostly with the audio, but overall it went really well and I took everything I have learnt this year. Below is my first draft and then final. Once again I’m just reading the script in the first draft so it’s simply for the purpose of length and the set.

I feel like the end result was great and it was really fun to make. Now came the last step of the project, to present it to the world! (Or cove cliff grades 6 and 7, same thing). We walked down to Cove Cliff during our block of humanities. We met up with all the kids and each made groups of 4 or 5 kids. I was first in a group of 5 boys and they actually listened really well and when I gave them some questions to answer about the video, they did well! Next I switched with Amelia and got 8 girls who sort of just watched my video and nodded, it was still pretty good though. Here’s a funny photo of me with all the girls.

Now, during this whole project we did have another thing we were doing throughout. We had a novel study where we would meet once a week with our group and discuss it. The books were all about World War One and we had three options to choose from. I chose War Horse because it’s told through the thoughts and feelings of a horse named Joey. I thought that sounded interesting and it definitely was! After finishing the books everyone made a final book reflection using something interesting, like for me I chose three songs that reminded me of different parts of War Horse. Anyways here’s my final book reflection

To end this post off I am going to say I learned so much through this unit, from the domino effect and alliances, to what grade 6 girls like to do. I enjoyed this project and it will be my final project in PLP humanities. I loved have Mrs Maxwell as a teacher and enjoyed all the amazing projects we did this year. My only regret is not going to Alberta. Anyways thanks for an amazing year and a great project to end the year off with a BANG!

Until next time, Aedan Loughran