There are so many different revolutions that all follow the same patterns. Every revolution that has occurred through time has followed similar stages. Crane Brinton, an American historian was the first to discover the patterns and created the Crane Brinton theory. The theory consists of four stages to revolutions. Each revolution starts with an incubation stage where people realize they are being mistreated and their rulers are not helping their country. The second stage is the moderate stage where people start protesting and becoming violent. The third stage is the crisis stage where the violence increases and the ruler may be overthrown. The final stage is the recovery stage where the violence ends and the government reassembles.
For our project, our job was to study the revolution and remake it in different ways. This could be an animation, a skit, or even a rap. We also had to answer the driving question “ how do ideas drive change?” We studied four different revolutions to help us answer the driving question. We looked at the French Revolution, the American evolution, the Russian revolution, and the Easter rising revolution. We looked at the causes and consequences of the revolutions. Every one of these tasks has helped me get closer to answering the driving question.
With each revolution we were studying, we had to write down the causes, consequences, events, and important people. With a lot of the revolutions, I’ve noticed that most of the causes and consequences were negative for one side but positive for another. For example, the Russian revolution was caused because the people were being mistreated. They were being starved and left to die. The consequence of that was that they all teamed up, took over the tsar, and eventually killed him. This was great for the people who hated the tsar and that now had taken over but wasn’t great for the people who followed him/supported him or even the tsar. Learning about the effects of these events and the actions helped me with understanding the driving question.
When researching for our project, we had to look at many different sources such as Wikipedia, History.com and some less known history sight. At times, there can be data conflicting with each source. When I get into an issue like this, I have to problem solve and try to understand which source is more reliable. The first thing to look out for is if it is a primary source or a secondary source. If the source is a primary source, it is most likely that that will be the most reliable source. In my case, both sources were secondary sources. The second thing I look out for is if there is an author or and a date on the article. The name may help look for the previous article the author has written about similar or the same topic and the date tells you how recent the article is. The third thing I try to do is compare other reliable sources. If more sources are similar and seem more reliable, they most likely are true. By following these tips, I was able to correctly sort through competing historical events.
With the research we had collected, we had to make it into our script or screenplay for our story. We created somewhat of a template for our screenplay to use when we had to create another revolution video. We had each other’s names written to the side with a line of text under it telling us what we needed to animate, film, or say. This was really useful for staying organized and helped us get some nice angles while filming. Another strategy was to work on something with each other when it came to writing a screenplay. It was a great way to share ideas and helped to correct each other if something didn’t seem right. With these strategies, we were on our way to creating a great final product for our revolution videos.
With all the data we had collected, we needed to start creating ideas for what we wanted to do with our video. We started throwing out ideas and dividing up the work. I and another member in our group decided we wanted to make our revolution video a more simple animation. We watched this YouTube video where a guy casually explains certain events and wanted to follow his animation style. When dividing up the roles, I had a lot of experience doing call sheets so I decided I wanted to complete the call sheet. I also gave ideas for the editing style to try making it simple but fun, captivating and informative.
The first revolution we made a video on was the French Revolution. For this video, we decided to make an animation. I worked with some of the voice-overs and animations. For our first video, I think it turned out pretty well. We had a good amount of information in the video with some nice animation. There were a few animations that could have been cleaner and the audio could have been better but other than that it was a great final product.
The second revolution video was about the American Revolution. Our group chose to present this in a heritage minute style video. I was away for most of the production for this video but I was still able to help. I think we did a great job with the acting and the editing. We also made the audio a lot cleaner than the last video. We were missing some shots but we were able to replace them with other shots. Other than that, we worked well together to create another great video
The third video we created was in the form of a song. We had to sing about the events of the Russian revolution. For our song, we decided to create a parody of the song “Ra Ra Rasputin” but make it into a techno/lo-fi song. We did a great job brainstorming and working together to sort out what needed to get done. Next time, we should have used our in class-time more effectively and communicated with each other better. From learning these lessons, we were able to work through the issues and were prepared to create our final video.
The final video we created was in the form of animation. We got to chose which revolution we wanted to make the video on so we chose the Easter rising revolution. We learned from our mistakes from the last video we made and we weren’t going to repeat them. One of our group members was away, but that didn’t stop us from creating a great video. We communicated way better than before and planned out what everyone’s role was in creating this video. For our final video, I think that we really improved from the first one and worked well together.
This project has not only taught me a lot about revolutions but about group work as well. There were a lot of issues such as lack of communication or getting off task but we were able to persevere and fight through the problems. Along with the problems were great moments such as when we worked well together and brainstormed a bunch of good ideas. Looking back at the driving question “how do ideas drive change”, I think that a great example is from revolutions. People all got ideas such as they needed more freedom or that their ruler wasn’t helping the people. They had the idea to overthrow the rulers and that is what they did. This leads to consequences and changes that may not always be for the better.
