Worlds of Fantasy

         My favourite unit this year was a unit full of magic. We did a unit on what makes something fantasy and it was fantastic. The project for this unit was to make a video explaining what makes something fantasy but there was a twist. The twist was the video was going to be on a ride at Disney world. In this video we had to answer the question “What Draws us to Imaginary Worlds?”. Of course if you are doing a video on a ride you must have gone on that ride. Well not everyone in my class had been to Disney world so we got to go there for the class trip. We flew down to Florida and not only did we go to Disney world, we went to a ton of other cool places such as universal studios and Kennedy Space Center. You can read more about Florida in my Blog Post I wrote on it. 

         One of the other things we did on this unit was read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We read this book to try and understand fantasy more and to try and figure out how the author transports his readers into an imaginary world. Imaginary worlds are great things that give us a break from reality. This is a blog post I did on the very beginning of this unit. To start off the big final project I had to pick a ride at Disney world to do it on. I had been to Disney land before and their rides our very similar to the ones at Disney world. I thought about all of the rides I had been on and which one I felt transported me into an imaginary world the best. Pirates of the Caribbean was one of my favourite rides at Disney land and it does a very good job at transporting people into an imaginary world. I had to think of a few other rides in case I didn’t get that one but luckily I did. 

         Once I knew I was doing the pirates of the Caribbean Ride I got to get started on my storytelling graphic organizer. I decided how I wanted the story to be presented and how I wanted to show every part. 

         Once that was done I had to do a storyboard. I decided to do my storyboard on real paper that is made from a tree. I’m pretty sure that was the only time I used regular paper in PLP the whole year. I had a lot of shots that I needed for my video so I had to fill out 8 story boards each with 6 shots. That was all I had to have done to get ready for Florida. I knew all of the shots I needed and was ready to go to Disney world and make this video a reality. 

         When I arrived to Disney world I was so excited. From the second I left the hotel to when I was pulling out of the parking lot at Disney world I was taking pictures and videos. I took pictures of the entrance, the castle, and pictures of adventure land. I got tons of pictures of outside the ride and while I was waiting in line. I had lots of time to take pictures in line because it was a 45 minute wait. While I was on the ride I was really thinking about all of the little things that made me feel immersed into a world of pirates. I took at ton of pictures on the ride and my friend filmed the whole thing. It was a little challenging to take pictures because it is a very dark ride but I managed to get a few really good ones. After the ride I interviewed a couple of cast members and asked the some questions about the ride. Sadly the audio didn’t work on one of the interviews so I only had one. I wanted to go on the ride again after that but the line was still very long and we had a lot of other stuff to do. 

          Later in the week in Florida we went to the other Disney parks and I continued to get lots of pictures and videos there. When we returned home from Florida we had exactly one week to hand in our first draft of the video. After a couple days of recovering from the trip I was ready to get started. I spent a lot of time going through hundreds of the pictures and videos I took and editing them. I already knew which shots I needed so I just had to pick the best ones I took. I started to put everything into the video and it was really cool to see all of my hard work finally come together. The first draft of the video was ok but it wasn’t super great. You can watch it Here.

          Once the first draft was done I got it critiqued by my peers. Getting my worked critiqued by my peers is great because they are all really smart and no exactly how I can make my work better. Once it was critiqued I had to do my second draft. I tried to make my video more exciting by adding in another perspective. I also eliminated a few unnecessary points so it wasn’t so boring. I handed in my second draft and this time it was getting critiqued by my teacher. You can watch it Here. 

          Finally it was time to do the third and hopefully final draft . I looked over the critique from my teacher and I still had a lot to change. I had to add in some smoother transitions and crop some photos and videos. I also didn’t have enough videos so I had to add more. Working on my third draft was my favourite part of this project because I really wanted my video to be good and it finally was. I handed in my third draft and I was very nervous to find out if it was good enough. Luckily I was one of very few people who’s video was good enough to be done. ​

          This was my favourite project this entire year. I liked it so much because I actually got to experience what I was learning about. It was a very fun project and I even got to pick the ride I did it on so I wouldn’t be stuck with a boring one. I like projects with choice because then I will never be bored with the work I have to do. I’m really proud of this video and I hope everyone else enjoys it.