Remember the Florida post and how there was a project to go along with the trip? Well I’ll finally be talking about the Making Fantasy Real project that we were working before, during, and after the Florida trip. If you haven’t checked out my post about Florida, you can find it right here.
We originally started on a fantasy unit a while back and read Alice in Wonderland to get a better feel for fantasy and what it’s all about. I feel like the amount of work we did on this unit was obviously a lot more than previous units as it was going to be the project we worked on while we were in Florida and they would have to be good if we were going to Florida for the purpose of this project. Fair enough, because the trip was awesome and I think I actually got some good work done in Florida for the project. Right before the project, we wrote an essay generally asking what attracts people to fantasy worlds or the world of Alice in Wonderland in this case. We didn’t realize how much this essay would help prepare us for the upcoming project…
Ok, so what is this Making Fantasy Real project? Essentially, each of us were assigned a specific ride that we would have the opportunity to visit in Disney World Orlando and make a short video on why people are attracted to our ride. I was kind of concerned in the beginning because I worried that I would be given a ride that I wouldn’t like to work on for the video. Luckily, Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hughes had planned ahead and given us the chance to pick a few rides that we would like to work on the most and argue why we would be the best fit for the rides. Even if you didn’t get your first pick, you’d most likely be getting your second or third so all-in-all, it worked out pretty well I think.
I was lucky enough to get my top pick, Space Mountain. I remembered getting to ride it at Disneyland in California when I was really young so I definitely had some good memories associated to the ride which is why I picked it. As the Florida trip was closing in on us pretty fast, we had to work quickly on the preparations for the video. We had some time to research our rides which was good because obviously its good to know about your ride if you’re doing a video on it. We then worked on our storyboards for the video. There were two storyboard we did.
The wordy one (Picture of storyboard written)
And the not so wordy one (Picture of storyboard paper 53)
Once we were approved, all we had to do was wait and prepare for the Florida trip where most of us would do our filming and work.
Florida finally came! We were insanely excited about being there as the whole trip was just an everyday package of fun and even on days we had to film we were still overwhelmingly content. As everybody’s rides were split up in different parks of Disney World (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, etc.) There was a schedule as to where we would be each day and who would be filming with what equipment. I was filming on the first day we were at Disney World as Space Mountain is in Magic Kingdom. We were there from the second the park opened and the line for Space Mountain was already endlessly long so a whole lot of us decided to go on some rides first and get filming done elsewhere. As the day went by, lines got shorter especially Space Mountain which just turned into a walk-in ride clinic. I got all my filming I needed for that ride, so I helped other people with their filming as people did with me.
When we got back from the trip, it was go-time for our videos. I have to say, I’m really used to doing videos using only photos from the internet. The editing for those videos usually takes up a good amount of time to put together as I have to find all those photos that are relevant to what I’m talking about and timing the placement of each and every photo. Not to mention the editing I need to do on some of these photos. The Florida video was different. Since I already had all my clips with me, most of them good enough to use already, I was surprised at how smooth and quick my editing took. I’m in no way saying it was “fast” as the editing still took a few hours for me, but compared to Explain Everything or iMovie using only internet pictures, I was pleasantly surprised with how fast my progress making the video was. I wrote my script up, did the voice recordings, and put all my clips together. We made three drafts of the video that we would show to our classmates and teachers. I’ll quickly go through the videos and the changes I made with each draft.
Draft #1:
I really liked the layout of my first draft, but I knew there was a lot of cleaning up I would have to do to make the video better. Although I talked about using clips that I got in Florida, I still went back to using just a few internet pictures to help with the video as sometimes I wouldn’t be able to find clips that are relevant to what I’m saying. I noticed that these pictures really took away from the flow of the video and weren’t as nice as the videos.
Draft #2:
I took out most of the internet pictures in the video but still left a few in as I still had trouble finding relevant clips. I also noticed that there were some other problems that I didn’t realize from making my second draft. The audio sounded hollow and echoed and the title slides for each point in the video weren’t interesting and probably would have been better off not being there in the first place.
Draft #3:
I edited my audio using different combinations of voice filters and background reducers. What I ended with was a smooth audio that was consistent and clean. The previous drafts sound rough compared to the audio from the final draft. I also changed the title slides so that they would fit the video better by using one of the clips I got at Disney World of the statue of Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse. My last changes were minor such as how I removed all internet pictures from my video which in the end, I liked much more.
That was my Making Fantasy Real project. I really enjoyed this as I love making videos and being responsible for the clips I get for it. I also felt like I connected with this project as every time I see this video, I’m brought back to the trip which I think is pretty cool. I’m pretty excited to see what is in store for us next year, but until then, that is all.
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