Hello! In this post, I will be writing about Destination Imagination, or DI for short.
DI is a global competition for creativity, teamwork and innovation. Under normal circumstances, DI would be a big, live tournament with many teams and live performances.
This year the solutions for all aspects of DI had to be presented as videos. This was also the first national DI tournament!
Our PLP class was given the choice of the following challenges: Scientific, Technical, Engineering or Fine Arts.
My first choice was Fine Arts, and it was the team the teachers assigned me to. Our team consisted of Ava, Hannah, Colton, Cale, Judah and myself.
We were given the challenge of creating a music video that retold all or part of a piece of literature and included:
- a costume that helped to tell the story,
- production techniques (like long shot and close up) to enhance the video,
- two Team Choice Elements, which are parts of the challenge that no other team will have.
We decided, after some debate, to use Anne of Green Gables as our piece of literature. At first, we wrote the script to tell about how we imagined her vision of her new home. We soon realized that our idea didn’t retell all or part of a piece of literature, so we trashed almost everything and started from scratch. We decided to use the part of the story that stuck with us the most in which a boy in Anne’s class, Gilbert Blythe, pulls Anne’s bright orange hair while shouting “Carrots! Carrots!” This leads to Anne smashing a chalkboard slate over Gilbert’s head in rage.
Then Ava created our lyrics and music, Hannah designed and sewed Anne’s costume, Colton casted the roles and I organized team members, to-dos and helped wherever I could. Once we had lyrics and music we recorded everyone’s part. I found it a little bit nerve-racking to sing. I think that being in Seycove Choir helped me have more confidence to sing. Then we filmed in Myrtle Park, in the pouring rain. We all got soaked, especially Ava and Hannah. We filmed all of the classroom scenes with a green screen, so that we could have it look like a classroom from the late 1800’s.
We used my juggling skills to juggle carrots as one Team Choice Element, and Ava’s incredible drawing skills for animation as our second Team Choice Element.
I found that the most challenging parts of DI were planning and when team members didn’t do their share of work, meaning that someone else would have to try and do it instead. Another difficult part was that we had a very tight schedule, which made it very stressful with not a lot of time to think, plan or create. We didn’t have much flexibility in our schedule; for example, as mentioned, we had to film in the rain.
I am really proud of how we persevered even when we felt like giving up, team members weren’t contributing or time was running short, to complete the challenge on time.
Participating in DI required creativity, curiosity and courage. I think that the most creative part of our music video was incorporating animation and juggling to enhance the story. I was also very impressed by Ava’s song writing and animation abilities! Another creative element of the process was making a sign for our team. My team voted my design the winner, and I had a lot of fun painting it with leftover house paint from a mural that my family painted on our garage last summer. I designed the sign to resemble Van Gogh’s “starry night” because our team’s name was Let’s Gogh!
⬇️ Here is a time lapse I made of me painting our sign ⬇️
An example of curiosity in the DI process was to learn how to edit out the green screen and replace it with our classroom backdrop image. We made the mistake of having a green ribbon on Anne’s hat, which appeared as a transparent strip in the final video. I think I’ll always remember this mistake and remember not to use green with a green screen in the future!
As I mentioned earlier it took a lot of courage to sing and share the video with an audience, but I am proud that we did!
This video answers some questions and points out important parts of our Music Video ⬇️
Presenting our final product: Anne of Green Gables: What A Splendid Day, by Let’s Gogh! ⬇️
Here is the video that released the winners of DI 2021 Nationals ⬇️
🏆 Guess what? Our team won 1st place Canada wide for our level!🥇
I am very happy that all of our hard work paid off! If we do DI again I will remember that time is a limited resource and I will use each minute wisely.
Destination Imagination has led to some new friendships that may not have occurred had we not been on the same DI team!
⬇️ Here is a slideshow with various photos that were taken during DI ⬇️
Cale with the green screen.
Let me know what you think of our music video or ask any questions in the comments below! Thank you for reading!