Claymation essay

Ellie and I were partners on our claymation project on Francisco Coronado. This explorer was an interesting person. It seemed odd to think that an explorer in history risked his life and the lives of others to search for seven cities of gold. That sounds more like a character in a fable, not history.
The most enjoyable part of the project was being partners with Ellie. Every day we worked was fun and enjoyable. The partnership worked well for both of us because we planned ahead and completed our work before it was due. Ellie and I got together a couple of times each week to make clay figures and scenes and to take pictures. If my partner’s mom or schedule wouldn’t let them do that, we would never have gotten the project done because it was very time consuming and there was no way to complete this project only during class. Recording the audio was probably the most fun. We had so many re-dos in audio. Ellie was the narrator and I took care of the technical work and dialogue. At the end of a couple of scenes we could be heard laughing or making fun of each other on the audio, but we deleted those recordings. Overall, having Ellie as my partner was very beneficial because we learned to work together and we received a good grade too.
The technical parts were difficult because other people (besides Ellie and me) had access to our work and could tamper with it. We had photos deleted from our videos, audio removed and whole videos deleted. Ellie and I spent way too many class periods re-doing work or looking for our photos or videos on the computer. Even though we were ahead of schedule for taking photos for our scenes, the technical challenges made us get behind schedule. It was challenging enough to complete the project and upload the photos, make a video, get the audio to match the video and do it seven times, but to keep losing it was absolutely frustrating. It was especially difficult to get the audio to match the speed of the photos and flow with the rest of the video. At the end of the project, we added all the single videos to one single big video. We need to make all the videos Quick Time files and then save the videos to the desktop. Four of our videos were missing, deleted, gone. We couldn’t find them on the hard drive for two days. By far, the technology of this project was our biggest challenge.
The most important lesson I learned in this project was to make a separate backup on a zip drive or some other media so our work could be restored without having to start over. It was very challenging to have to re-do photos and audio. I found it a huge waste of time to constantly re-do parts of the project because they were missing on the hard drive. When a part of our project was deleted or moved, and we could not do anything about it, our scene was late and our grade was lower than we wanted. In the future, I would like more control in keeping our project safe by saving it to our own backup. It’s very frustrating to have no control over what happens to our project when it is saved on the school’s computer and we have deadlines to meet. Also, in the future, I would like access to the computer program at home so we can work on this at home. Then if we had extra photos to add to our scene, we could add another clay character and take extra photos and go directly to the program and add them without having to be at school. It would have been good to have the audio at home too so we could make those changes because it was often hard to get the project done on time. Finally, we found it was very important to PLAN AHEAD for anything we did have control over.
In conclusion, I had fun on this project even though it was extremely long. I enjoyed learning a new technology and hope to enjoy the final video if it ever gets finished once we find our missing parts. I also learned a painful lesson to rely on yourself and your own backup and not to trust the school’s computers as the only place to save my work.

River Ellis.

Well there's this kid. named river. so when i first met him, i was like Wat a freak! who names a kid river, but know we are closer than life. he is pretty stupid and gets WAY to hipper some times but that's what makes him river. So i have know him like a year know. maybe 2. i don't really keep track. So his hair is really blond and he is kind of sh0rt. he is really good at soccer, and cants play x box to save his life. i am scared of the day he drives, hope fully he wont always crash around turns. but i am also excited to see the day, when he grows to like, normal height. sorry riv riv. He is so much fun to hang out with. and i can talk to him about anything, i don't even know how many of my secrets he has kept and for that i thank him. he can come to me for anything. i will always be there for him. Our favorite show is lost. lost buddy 1 & 2. We always talk about the seasons and Wat we think should of changes. OK i was kidding, he can play xbox to save his life, but all that i know is that he cant drive 4 wheelers. NEVER EVER should he drive one of those like for real. he is one of the coolest kids i know and i will always love him, my best friend.

Lindsey.Phalen.Angela.

After Tuesday, I'm pretty much sure that walmart will never let us back in. On Tuesday(no school) i went over town with phalen and Lindsey. When we first where over town we went ice skating. About 45 minutes later, i had fallen about 6 times, Lindsey about 1 time, and phalen...none. So that had to be taken care of. we where not leaving without her falling more than once on that rock solid ice. So after we whent ice skating we went to the mall and had panda express. OMG I LOVE THAT STUFF! anyways, then we just walked around the mall while my mom and my sister looked for a present for my cousin. We found a photo booth. Sp we took our first picture and then then felt things getting thrown at us...ohhh Lindsey was pissed. so there where like 2 Lil kids out side throwing candy at us. Then we went shopping in walmart for like 2 hours. We first got just random outfits with ugly clothing on. then took some pictures. then it got interesting. we went out and got boy clothes,like men clothing. so big baggy pants, shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and shoes. i think. and OH my god that was pretty funny because3e my pants, WOULD NOT STAY UP FOR THE LIFE OF ME! so i had to stand with my legs as if i was doing to splits. Then we got footy full suite pajamas for Christmas. i looks like Santa clause because it was all red with white dots. Lindsey's was light and dark blues stripes, and phalens was red and green stripes. and then we just went around putting lots of random hats and glasses,scarves and stuff on. and there where clothes EVERYWHERE by the time we left. it was such a fun night and i love spending time with them. Love you Pay Pay Love you Lin Lin

High School

Next year i am hopefully attending Archbishop. i have just this year been thinking about it. There was an entrance exam the first week of December and i was very scared because my English is not so good. but besides that i hope i have a chance of getting in. There school program is very very good there and if you have that on a collage transcript, it is very good. There volleyball team is the best in the region and i love volleyball and i made a premier volleybal team over town becouase i want to play so bad. i cant wait till next year and i hope i get in. I am kind of tired of people giving me crap about going there and saying our high school is better because i hope you know that by you saying that makes me want to go there even more. So please be supportive of me. Because i know you guys are all that good of friends.And you love me.

Thanks

Phalen!

OMG! its phalen! i love this girl with almost all of my heart( we wont talk about the other part). I trust her with my whole life. i have only know her for a year but it had been the best year of my life. Shes is so easy to get along with. it didn't take me that long to realize that i love her to death and that i would be her friend for the rest of my life. She is an amazing dancer and singer! especially with Hayley Newman. i love her and she is a very good vballer and soft baller. but the balls don't come very soft from her....so this girl i call my best friend is named phalen. And she always will be my best friend no matter wat kind of silly outfit she i swearing. i love you pay pay!

Sienna Frikken Schaal.

Sienna Schaal. Wat a retard. But i love her to death. I love all of her retartedness. Sienna is probably one of the most trustworthy people i know. But i can tell her whatever i feel like even if i am super duper embarrassed and i know she would never laugh at me. That she would always be there to support me in everything i needed. She is such a goofy ball. And always know what to say and when to say it. She is a very very good volleyball player and i hope she will forever know that. She can get moody during vball games but i will always forgive her for that becuase i get that at horse shows and i know how she feels. I love her to death and i love spending time with her during class out in the library taking pictures with riv riv then deleting them becuase our faces where spread out and all conjumbled. I can talk to her about anything and will always love her.

10.10.10

ON October 10, 2008 i went to 10 10 10 with my friends scarlet Inches and Nora Wilson. It was so so much fun. At half time during the football game we got picked up and started to go over town. bu the time we got to a gas station me and scarlet were so hipper you said hi and we would laugh till we cry ed. So we stopped at the gas station and scarlet and Nora wanted gum. So we went inside, then we saw a GIANT monster energy drink so we had to get it. then a box of Twinkies and 2 bags of skittles and two 2 letter mountain dews. So then after the gas station we went to Starbucks. oh dear. Scarlet got the biggest size you can get of mocha chocolaty mess of coffee. with whip cream. then she was about to take a drink and i made her laugh and the whip cream just went EVERYWHERE! hahahahahahaha i could not stop laughing. oh and that i just the beginning. When we first got to the church, we hung out for about 15 mi nuts then we went to Fantasia fun park. ALL of the games where free! we could do them however many times we wanted to. Then we went back to the church, had pizza then went to skate and bowl. Free roller skating and bowling. After that it was the ice rink. but not how you normally ice skate, with your shoes on. and they had obstacles on the ice like tug aware and blankets so you could pull people around. then to the giant swimming pool. at this time it is 4 in the morning. At the pool there was a wave pool, slides, hot tub, floaties. everything! and it was so so much fun! by the time we got home it was 8:30 in the morning. no sleep at all. it was way to much fun and i will never forget that night.no matter how many pounds of banana loaf i eat. never ever. i pinkie promise that. " you can break a promise but not a pinkie promise!"