Intro
Another blog post….😃 lots has happened, for example this frankenstuffy project! This Frankenstuffy project was so much fun, from making and designing a stuffy (abomination) of my choice, to creating a story and learning all about the Industrial Revolution. The final product of this project was a video about my stuffy, the time and area he lives in, and how he deals with it. However, even with all the fun aspects of sewing stuffies and whatnot, this project is based off of the Industrial Revolution, so of course we did some research!
Learning about the Industrial Revolution:
I don’t want this blog post to be a step by step of what we did, so these are in my opinion, some good key points of the research we did.
Urbanization game
At the very start of this project we did an urbanization game. We started off with a grid background, (this is all digital of course) and for a few days straight we had 5-15 minutes to draw parts of a town. Even though this was done in groups, It was very stressful for me. The whole purpose of this exercise was to see how urbanization worked. So, if we added 50 houses, we took away some trees to account for this. My groups final product is down below!
Note taking and collaboration with classmates
There was lots of great information I learned before creating my frankenstuffy. As a class, we watched informative videos while taking notes, or came together as a group to discuss what we learned.
Creating my frankenstuffy
OKAY MY FAVOURITE PART!!!! I was able to use my creative, artistic wonderful, beautiful, gorgtastic skills to create none other than Peter Malarky! He is the main character of my story, with a well thought out background, history and lifestyle. He is a brave sole and I treasured the moments I had while making him.
This is a time lapse of me creating the one and ONLY Peter Malarky
For some darn reason it will only put a link in, not a video!!!
Character resume and Storyline
Before any filming could happen Peter needed a backstory and character traits! I created a large pamphlet about Peter, and any facts you may need to know about him. Additionally, after I few drafts I finished the storyline and chose a few important sections to include for the video. There was so much I didn’t include in the final draft, so I’ll show a bit of the ideas I had.
Final video draft/overview
The final product of my video
I’me not sure why, but for some reason, the final video was really easy for me. We had so much class time to do it and i worked a few times after school, so it got done fairly quick! The idea for creating the video was, either get a photo of your frankenstuffy and animate it in certain backgrounds, OR attach string to your stuffy and move it around in front of a provided green screen. (There’s also the option to do both which is what I did) here is my final video!
My response to the driving question
The driving question for this project was “How can we, as writers, weave historical details into our creative storytelling to convey a clear and impactful message?”
Weaving historical details into creative storytelling in my opinion, is about making your work still have important relevant information, while also making it an engaging story so a clear message can be conveyed. For example, You do your research, look into what life was like in the Industrial Revolution and pick out relevant facts that help your characters and plot, not just random dates or events. By mixing genuine historical information whilst still making it an engaging story, you can make your message clear and impactful. For example, characters in my video open up an apothecary shop, using this opportunity I added information about time relevant things they would sell in their shop such as valerian root and Teatree.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I learned a lot throughout this project, from learning about urbanization and the Industrial Revolution, to designing and bringing Peter Malarky to life. I showcased my time management skills and had loads of fun! Thanks for reading my blog and stay tuned for more.🫶