Another year of DI, another few months of hard and intensive work. DI, short for Destination Imagination is a challenge-based presentation where teams ranging from 2 to 7 people in each group work together to solve the problems. Groups have weeks to prepare for a specific challenge (fine arts, science, engineering, improv and technical) and create solutions to the challenge deliverables without interference. We needed to imagine, discuss, plan, build, test and improve our creations, following the forms and LAUNCH process are teachers set out for us. DI tests teamwork, communication and coherent skills to build the challenge together.

My group consisting of Angelo, Holly, Asha and Liam were definitely wanting either the science or technical challenge but how we got the luck of a draw we were given the fine arts challenge. This year the challenge was centred around photography where we needed to pick a photo and recreate it in our presentation using theatrical and/or artistic techniques. At the climax or turning point of the story where the protagonist has a change of perspective we needed to make a visual effect in the live performance; this was called the New Development. As usual, the challenge required 2 team choice elements (TCE) which are unique to each team and are different from the main challenge. The story is supposed to connect all of these elements, holding everything together and is the basis of our presentation which earns the most points.

In this project, I knew from last year, we needed good communication and teamwork. There are always ups and downs to every group but if we can use our different personalities for the better of the project rather than a source of argument we can succeed. Miscommunication is one of the biggest problems with teams and without the insight on ideas things can be done that don’t result in perfect products. One new problem came up this year, we are too passionate, we all wanted our ideas to be chosen and think it is the best for the group.

Leading into the challenge we needed to brainstorm and plan before we could start creating. Despite the small amount of time left over to actually create, planning is necessary for a polished result and it never hurts to overly plan. Like many other maker projects, we used the LAUNCH phase to guide the process but unlike last year’s DI, we chose some of the forms that our group felt were beneficial. When trying to create the story, we made the mistake of trying to make the story and base a photo afterwards. However, we decided to find a famous photo in history and create a story based on the photo. This would provide more points for creativity and improve our performance. From lots of discussion and consulting, we finally decided on a story about a doctor and his daughter with a disease. I would be the protagonist acting as a doctor trying to find a cure for his daughter until he finally. However, to his surprise, his wife and daughter left him because he didn’t spend enough time with his family. He would walk outside in sadness and then the snapshot would occur.

The snapshot was based on a photo called country doctor by W. Eugene Smith in the mid 20th century. I would be dressed exactly like the doctor in the photo and carry a briefcase. This is the very last scene where thunder effects cue and then the presentation is done. The background is of the photo on one half of our backdrop and our 2nd TCE. With many different artistic techniques, lead by Asha, we made a textured landscape photo recreation. Some of the techniques were impasto (a technique where thick brush strokes of paint are used) and mixing techniques to achieve different colours.

Our 1st TCE was our music and how we created it. Using GarageBand live loops we were able to play the specific song whenever we wanted to. Angelo and I played our instruments remixing the songs and making them able to loop. We would play this at times of crisis when he finds the letter and not being able to find the cure. Finding the letter is the climactic point and we chose this to be our New Development. Originally we wanted to show a reflection of myself as a monster but logistically it wouldn’t work and not have a dramatic impact. We came to the consensus of using zoom and showing the letter to the audience for them to read.

When trying to create a different New Development for the climax of this story I had to rework this problem and see what it was looking for. It was supposed to occur at the point when the character has a change of perspective and no better time would work better than when he found the letter from wife. While looking through the list of visual effects, I came to the idea of using the zoom to show the audience the letter as well. Creating music with my trumpet and learning parts of new instruments was an instrumental task. I used my trumpet to play the “up” theme song and improvise some parts. We remixed some of the songs while still keeping the main sound that makes it “up.” This was out of the usual and I had to use more of an artistic perspective to learn the songs.

Leading up to the presentation was stressful and as the days till DI got fewer the amount of work went up. The full rehearsal in front of the teachers was 6 days before regionals but we were not ready at all to perform. We weren’t even able to finish our presentation because we were stopped. Like the prior year, most of the necessary elements of the challenge are done in the last week before the presentation. The biggest factors that needed to be modified were the story, the backdrop and the New Development. Our story was confusing and had a lot of empty spots, which could all be fixed by a narrator. A narrator could fill in awkward gaps and help explain important parts of the story, not completely obvious at first.

In the last week, we pieced our story together very nicely by fixing things as fast as possible. The times were stressful and to make matters worse Liam was not going to be at the performance. Eventually, we pulled it together and when the day had come, we all felt comfortable.

The day of Regionals, right after the parade we were set to perform. As the parade was delayed we found ourselves running late because we needed to check in but I still needed to put on my outfit. We made it just in time to start and once the timer started we were preform from the get-go. The presentation ran pretty smoothly and I thought we all acted well, even there were some hiccups. We missed a few lines and at the end a cue for the snapshot.

For the next time, we need to work on all our deliverables because our scores were not ideal. Scoring around half for most of the categories and then only receiving 76 points on our instant challenge, let’s just say we have work to do. My acting personally needs improvement and more of a dramatic portrayal but that will also come with more practice rehearsing. Though we have a little break until Provincials, we still need to work as hard as possible so we don’t leave stuff to the last minute.

Reflecting as a group we answered a list of questions for our improvement.