In PLP, we go on many trips outside of school, otherwise known as field schools. The first field school PLP 10 embarked on was one in Camp Capilano, a camp place just outside of Capilano Regional park, where we stayed overnight to reunite with our classmates.
Camp Capilano-
Before we left, we were given a few sneak peeks into what projects we would be doing at the camp. One of the sneak peeks was looking at reality TV series intros like Big Brother, Amazing Race Canada and a few others. The class was supposed to evaluate all of the show intros and look at how they attract the audience and how the show embraces character development and having actors be unique and different from one another to have a more entertaining show. Having actors with different personalities can sometimes let a wider variety of audiences view the show. This is because people try to relate themselves to people on the series for a more interesting show, which will make them watch more of the show and give it positive feedback. This was the first part of our commencement to the first project, which had us creating our own TV series introductions.
Capilano Dam-
Our first stop of the trip was Capilano Dam, where in groups of five, we would film and edit our own series introduction. In one hour, each group was supposed to create a TV intro with ten unique characters in a film under forty-five seconds. My group, which consisted of Reid, Simon, Lucas, Kyle, thought of creating an Amazing Race type show consisting of teams of two with different characteristics, for example a football player with a nerd, or a fitness jock with a lazy kid. We had to act fast, as we were given only an hour to complete the video. At first, we took it easy, laughing at some of our ideas, not filming as seriously, etc. Eventually we stepped on the gas pedal which let us come up with our idea of the freeze-frame, where in the video it would freeze and show the persons name as he is acting. We all thought it was a great and unique idea as none of the other groups had it in theirs. Even though it went over the forty-five second time limit, I don’t think anybody in the class cared as they thought it was a very good video, and we did too. I thought we worked well as a group, and the main focus of the project, unique actor personalities were shown well in our film.
Here is our Complete Video-
Once we were all done watching our video, we began the next project. With the same groups, we had to create a video that introduced ten characters with different traits and personalities, without showing any visuals, basically a podcast. We had an hour again to create this assignment, and unlike last time, my group went straight into it, coming up with our story, characters and voices. Our idea for the podcast was to have a family of nine brothers, who were all different from each other, and their dad. One of the brothers decides to record the audio of his siblings, running around the house visiting his family trying to get some good footage of what the everyday life is in the Kang Household.
I felt this was one of the easier ones to complete, as it didn’t need very much editing because it was only audio. I also had a lot of fun recording this project with our funny voices and distinct family, it was awesome doing this assignment.
Our last and hardest project of the day was doing another podcast, this time talking about identity. This time I was in a group of three with Lucas and Adam. This project wasn’t due until the next morning, so we knew it was going to take a while. This was supposed to be exactly four minutes long, with a storyline that changed somebody’s worldview and perspective, while altering their identity. We had a couple good ideas, and gave them to the teachers, but we would constantly be denied, as our ideas were too broad, complicated or even downright crazy. Eventually we got to them with a pretty good idea, talking about an experience Lucas and I had back on Canada Day.
I thought we had a great concept, and our identity was changed during that event, unfortunately though, the teachers did not think the same as us,stating it didn’t show a change in identity and that the idea was, again, too broad. I was proud of what we accomplished that night, and I also had a lot of fun recording and editing it as well.
Once we completed our final assessment, it was time to head back home. On the way, we visited the Capilano fish hatchery, had some food, and before all of us even knew it, we were back at Seycove, our first field school, complete. On to the next one…