What is a Frankenstuffie?

A Frankenstuffie is an animal that has adapted to its surroundings. For this project we were each given a region of Canada to base our story around (setting, and animal(s)). My group’s region was the Canadian Shield. The Canadian Shield covers over 50% of Canada, so we had a wide range of animals to work with.

What is project Frankenstuffie?

The project was split into four main parts, learning about the regions of canada, writing our logs/diary entries, writing our script, and making our videos.

Part one
This was the very beginning of the project, where we were learning a bit about each region of canada, so we could later choose which region we wanted our project to be based around.
There was originally some confusion with the groups, because we thought it was a group project (a group of four people working on the same story), but we later found out that the groups were only for peer critique/editing.

My group

Adlih

Daniel

Tamara

Part two
This was split up into two mini parts: log entries 1, 2, & 3, and log entries 4, 5, & 6. All of the log entries were from the perspective of the main character. They were meant to be like a kind of diary(/personal log) Lets start with 1, 2, & 3, these entries were mainly about getting to know the main character, and their surroundings. The first three entries, are the days (or months) leading up to the climax. There’s also some foreshadowing included in the first three log entries. Episodes 4, 5, & 6 are about the climax, and what happens afterwards. These entries are about a change that happened in one of the matter cycles, and a change (or multiple changes) that happened to your animal because of that change in the matter cycle (eg, growing moose antlers). The last three entries (4, 5, & 6) also talked about the other animals and how they were adapting to the changes. We also revised each entry.

Part 3
I found writing the script easier than writing the log entries, because I wasn’t having to come up with a story. I was just converting a story written in first person, to a narrative script (for a video). However, it was still a time consuming process. The script writing was also broken up into two mini parts: converting entries 1, 2, & 3 into a script, and then converting entries 4, 5, & 6 into a script. As I was changing the stories, I noticed that I was changing small parts of the story/taking out the unnecessary bits of the story.

Part 4
The last part of this project definitely took the longest, because our last step was to make our story into a video. Luckily, we were given time to write (and revise) a script beforehand, so this step was much easier. Making the video was split into three parts this time. The first thing that we had to do, before we even started to film was make a storyboard for our video, and get it approved. Once the storyboard for our entire video was done, we were able to start filming the first half of our video (that was episodes 1, 2, & 3). The storyboard helped with this, because I didn’t have to spend as much time thinking about each scene, what angle the camera would be at, etc. We then revised the first half of the video. Once we were done the first half of the video, we made the second half (episodes 4, 5, & 6). Then, of course we revised the second half of the video.

The video

Now I’ll talk about the creation of the video. I started off making the video using a green screen, because we have/had one in the classroom. I ended up using explain everything as well.

Green screen vs explain everything
Using the green screen was difficult at times, because it was hard to get the stuffie in the right place. While filming, I used do ink The green screen was crowded at times, because there were multiple people using it at once. The other downside to using the green screen was that you usually had to get someone else to hold your iPad (Tamara held mine for me) and film while you moved your stuffie across the screen. Once we were done filming one of my scenes, we would switch, and I would hold Tamara’s iPad while she moved her stuffie across the screen. This ended up taking too long, so I switched to using explain everything. Using explain everything was easier. The only downside to switching to explain everything halfway through, was that it looks different from a green screen. Other than the difference in styles, overall I’m pretty happy with how the visuals of my video turned out.

What I would do differently next time

The fist thing that comes to mind when I think about this is the voiceovers. I think I would have benefited from having someone else voice my characters, so the video is less confusing to the viewer. This would’ve also saved me time, because I wouldn’t have to record as much audio.
Another thing that comes to mind is the log entries. I wouldn’t have fallen as far behind in this project if I hadn’t spent so much time trying to make the entries perfect. I also could have been more organized, especially with the filming, because I would spend too much time looking for a photo to use as my background, I wouldn’t have much class time to film.
There are many things that I still haven’t said about what I would do differently, but that list is long enough to make a blog post of its own.

Here’s my final product!