Hi!
I have recently accomplished the difficult task of completing “Franken stuffies”. Frankenstuffies is a project about the adaption of one animal due to a change in either the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle (I did this one!) the phosphorus cycle, or the water cycle. The project must be in written and video format! I really enjoyed this project and I wanted to share my expierence and my do’s and don’t’s of this project.
Our project began in early October, and everyone was interested and very excited. I personally had never done any big PLP projects ( I only joined this year, ) and so I was pretty nervous. Our first deadline we had to meet was October 4th, by this time we had to have written episodes 1,2, and 3. You might be thinking “ohh, that’s sounds pretty easy,” but let me tell you, when you can not write and you have got no ideas for the project you can’t really call it easy! I was struggling for hours trying to figure it out.
First do and don’t.
Don’t: struggle for hours trying to figure out the best idea and trying to perfect it.
Do: choose an idea and stick with it. It is so much more fun when your idea expands along with your story! You can always go back and tweak a thing or two along the way, and never expect your first product to be perfect!
I finally choose an idea and I started to write. I never really wrote before this project, but I had read a lot and that helped the process of writing go smoother. Franken stuffies was the first time I found writing fun and could not wait to continue! That’s probably why all my episodes were 500 words!
We edited the episodes in class and were sent home with a new due date. October the 6th. By then we needed all the 6 episodes to be written and the first three to be edited! No screwing around here! I went home and decided I needed a break from Franken stuffies. Already. We had a long weekend and so I left it to the last moment.
Second do and don’t.
Don’t: leave it to the last minute. If you know you’ve got work then do it. Even if you only do a little here and there it will help.
Do: your work! If you know you are going to be busy then set some time aside and do it then. And if you do forget about your work, and end up remember it last minute, still do it. Don’t make up some lame excuse! Put anything that will bother you away and get straight to it!
The last 3 episodes took a while to write, but I got them done and felt a lot better. I handed them in and edited them only to realize that I had to turn it into a script by Thursday, and it was Wednesday! I did not do my best on the script but I had a copy ready for Thursday. The next due dates passed fairly easily, but remember there is always calm before the storm. The storm hit us around October the 20th. That was when the first draft of the video version was due. I was so anxious and stressed. I had not used my time wisely and was paying for it! I spent my whole Saturday working on filming the video, and cutting and stitching my stuffy. ( which by the way, was a possum. And there are no possum stuffies anywhere!) the next day I showed up with a complete 14 minutes of clips. Someone asked to see the beginning of mine and was shocked when I had 14 minutes. It had turned out that you only needed to have completed the first 3 episodes, not the whole thing! I was angry at my self for spending my Saturday at home filming a possum dancing around the woods.
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Third do and don’t.
Don’t: forget to read the due dates and mix them up. There there for a reason!
Do: read the due dates! Also remember that this project is just a small blip in your life and it should not have to take all your energy and all your focus. You have to learn how to balance!
I guess it was a good thing I got the due dates mixed up because I was able to coast the rest of the project. I only hade to edit and add voice overs. Which is still a whole ton of work, but not as much as some of the others had!
The due date for the final project was supposed to be October the 26th, but we ended up tuning it in on November the 1st! Everybody really needed those extra days! Thank you so much Ms. Maxwell!
I had made it through the first big PLP project! I was so happy that I totally forgot about this blog post until the night before.So here I am. I guess I never learned my lesson, but I do hope you learned something from my mistakes!
Thanks for reading!
Adlih
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