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The Winter Exhibiton: A Star Wars Story

A short time ago in a classroom far, far away…..

There was a student named Grace who made a project on Star Wars. That student is me, and the project was based off my inquiry question (something I wanted to research about Star Wars). When my teachers announced that this year’s winter exhibition, where we would show our projects, was to be on Star Wars, I and many others became excited.

The First Steps

The first step in making this project is to come up with an inquiry question, and I began to brainstorm ideas. The next thing to do was to choose my top three possible questions and present them to my teacher, Ms. Maxwell. I received advice on how I could physically make a project out of these ideas, and so in the end I chose the one that I thought would be most interesting. My final inquiry was “What makes the Star Wars brand so appealing to a vast audience?”.

The reason I chose this was because I wanted to know why different types of people (demographics) are interested/die-hard fans for Star Wars. I also had a good idea of what I wanted to research and make regarding the question as well. With the people surrounding me, I wanted to ask them four questions on the topic, the main focus being on their favourite aspect, because it’s the reason they continue to go and see the movies. I would then add this to a poster board.

Research and Investigation

After some research on demographics, I set to work asking eight categories of people (young people, teens, adults, or seniors and girls or boys). In the end, I had asked over 56 people, and though I was aiming for more, it was a good sample size. I recorded each person’s name, demographic and their answers to the questions. I put a brief description of the results I found on my board so it was easy to understand and talk about. Out of the options, adults and seniors preferred the plot line, everything and the special effects, whereas kids and teens liked the characters, and the battles more. Boys chose the battles and weapons, girls chose characters and the vehicles. After I finished collecting all this data, it was time for me to organize it, and I thought it best to show the information in a bar graph.

Interview with Experts

Before I put anything on a poster board, I had my interview with two people that worked in the film industry. Not only did they turn out to be an excellent source of information, both Chris Buckley and Colin Beadle had worked on Star Wars related things. Chris is a director of animation and worked on the last two Star Wars movies, and Colin worked with George Lucas, who created the franchise, for five years. They gave me loads of really useful and interesting answers to the questions I asked, ranging from the constant changing of ideas to how they market movies. The interview was extremely helpful, and I did manage to recap many of the main focuses on my poster show on the exhibition day.

Critique and Revision

After a few critiques and learning what others were doing, I realized that in order for my project to be enticing to the audience present at the exhibition, it needed something more than a poster, something to engage the audience. Talking to Ms. Maxwell was useful, and I decided on the idea of a large board lain flat with figures that I made or bought representing aspects of Star Wars. To construct this, I got a large piece of black board, and wrote “Pick your favourite thing about Star Wars…”. It was a better visualization for the people at the exhibition, and a way for them to participate in my own project because they could put a marble in the bottle next to their favourite aspect.

The Very Large Posterboard

Alongside the board, there was my poster, where all my data and written information went. It definitely took longer than expected to complete (time management is what I’m striving to improve for the next exhibition in June), though when I finished adding everything I thought it looked cohesive and clear. My research on demographics went in the bottom corners, the favourite aspects large and in the middle, and the smaller graphs on each side.

Organizing and Making on Exhibiton Day

Now I come to the part where things became complicated….a sizeable part of this project is the theme, and since it was Star Wars, there was a light side and a dark side. Though my project could probably be in either, I and around 19 others were put on the light side. Nearly the whole day on December 14th was spent in the room that would be transformed into a rebel base. At the conclusion, it appeared put together, and a fair bit like the rebel base on the planet Hoth (as close as a classroom can get in 5 hours, that is). At roughly five p.m. people began to arrive, and I commenced the extremely vague script about my project and process. I also asked everyone to put one marble from a large jar into the bottle next to their favourite Star Wars aspect. In addition to each person’s project, there was an Admiral Snackbar with Jedi Juice and Princess Lays. There were also skits from the movies and a game called Pin the Lightsaber on the Yoda in the centre of the room that I made.

The End…or is it? I mean, I still had to do this blog post.

In the end, all in all, this project was interesting and unique, though immensely stressful at times as well. I learned heaps about demographics, the process of an exhibition, time management and working collaboratively with other people. I also certainly won’t forget when everyone in the PLP program got to see “The Last Jedi” the day it came out, it was so fitting and great!

 

Extra Photos Through the Process