Hello and welcome to my first blog post of the year. This year started with something awesome, a trip! Our class went to Alberta for our newest projects, Story Finding in the Rockies, and Rocky Mountain High. For this post I will be focussing on Story Finding in the Rockies, our Maker project.
For this project we were tasked with making 4 videos over the span of this whole project, the videos were: a Silent Video, an Investigative Video, a TikTok style Video, and finally an At Home Video. We filmed two of these videos on the trip, and the others were done before and after the trip. During this blog I will show you what I learned during this trip, some highlights, and some low lights.
First though, I want talk about the intentions I set before the trip. We all set individual intentions before the trip so that we could all be our best versions of ourselves during the trip. My behavioural intention was to behave like I’m in the class for the entire trip, because we were learning the entire time so I thought I should treat it like I was in the classroom. My academic intention was to know every place we were going before we got there, and know at least one fact about that place when we got home. I think that these learning intentions were great because they were little things that didn’t consume my every thought, but they made a positive impact on my trip.
I think that the best way to write this blog is going to be by splitting it up video by video, because during the making of each video we learned a lot.
Silent Video
This the first video we knew about. Before beginning the video we were put into random groups and my group consisted of Sidney, Parker and me. We started the creating process by making a plan for the video and then also a script. We decided to make our video about a time travelling robber. This decision was very important because we had to be able to show the criteria: I can share ideas, ask questions, and research information from a variety of sources. If we chose a theme or plot for our video that wasn’t able to clearly show our understanding of the criteria that would not be good, because we only get one chance to film this video. The actual ghost town, Three Valley Gap, that we were staying in was really cool because everything in it was not from this generation. It was old! The town was an actual town too and it was surprisingly big! There were lots of shops that we could go into and learn about what would have been sold there during the 1800s-early 1900s and why the shops were significant.
We got about 2 hours to film around the town which was awesome because I thought we would only get like 20 minutes. During those 2 hours we also talked to a lot of people, and even the owner of Three Valley Gap! We learned that the town had been built by the owner’s family about 80 years ago, because they were passionate in preserving history, and this was a way of doing it that they thought was an effective way. When we finished filming and editing we got another tour from our teachers, and we learned some more fun facts like we were actually over 20km away from the next town. Three Valley Gap is presently self powered, and that they even had their own fire station. I think this really shows how the town is really family run and how they were self reliant.
A few things we learned here were:
1. How to film an effective silent video that shows what we intended using only facial expressions, body language and sound effects.
2. How to adjust ourselves and our learning to where we were, while still keeping our learning on track. I really liked filming and making this video, I would make it shorter though if I were to do this again.
Here is a link to the video. (Like please!) https://youtu.be/6WCepEgfSpo?feature=shared
Tic Tok Style Video
This video was probably the most fun! We did this in groups as well and my group was Alex, Sidney and me. We decided to make a transition video because we thought it would be creative as well as easy. Our transition video plan was to have one of us film themselves in front of a mirror, then drop the phone into the sink, and then all of a sudden the image transitions into Lake Louise, or another lake. This plan was approved and so all we could do was learn how to make successful transition videos and then figure out how to apply it. We decided to film it at Lake Louise because we thought that was the most popular lake. We applied the skills we learned at home, and the filming was done in 5 minutes. When we got back from the trip we edited it into something that looks like a TikTok. This was tough because I don’t have any social media, and my friends didn’t have TikTok! It was okay though because we received a lot of positive feedback from peers.
A few important things we learned about this were:
1. That we had to make the video represent us, ours had to do with nature, and all of us like nature.
2. We had to make the place that the transition video went look really good and it had to represent the place well. 3. We had to make the music appropriate and also match the video (pro tip: the video should change through the base-drop).
These all helped contribute to our video being successful.
This video was a lot of fun to make because all three of us had basically zero experience making videos like this. I think something else that made it fun was making this video with friends. It is always more enjoyable to do a task when you have friends to help you. I would definitely do his video again. If I were to do it again, I would add text saying where the location was.
Here is a link to my video. (Like please!) https://youtu.be/81OYfjMxVT0?feature=shared
At Home Video
This video was harder to make than the others for me. While making this video we had to make a plan, and a script. We were told to express ourselves in this video, that means it could be anything from a voiceover, to talking in front of a camera. I decided to voiceover a bunch of images that represent my thoughts and what I was talking about. We were told to base the script off of an assignment we did in the summer that helped us learn more about ourselves. This task asked questions like, What do I enjoy doing? Why? Or, What gives meaning and purpose to my life? And even What do I daydream about? I never have really asked myself these questions, so this form was really good for me to fill out. These questions and a few more, basically laid out my script, and all I had to do was elaborate my answers. 
A lot if my video had to do with sports, because that is probably the biggest thing in my life that I do, but I found it really hard to find words to express how I felt when I played. I was trying to write a script for how I felt when I played Field Hockey, and why it was so prominent in my life, but all I could think of was either too short or didn’t make any sense. When this happened I would either have to stop and come back to it later, or ask someone for help. This really set me back quite a bit and was also very frustrating. This was probably one of my biggest challenges throughout the whole project.
2 important things I learned while making this video,
1. I had to make it sound like the audio was as if I was speaking to a friend or something, If I was to formal it sounded really weird, this was a challenge for me and took some time to get used to.
2. Something that was super important that I learned my lesson on was using a mic. not everybody in my class had access to a mic bust luckily I did. This was a game changer for me because the audio would always turn out really bad if I just did it into my iPad mic.
I definitely learned some hints about myself during this video because I have never really asked myself these deep questions. If I were to do this video again I would try to have more of a clear beginning middle and end to it, because that is always important in a story.
Investigative Video
This was for sure our hardest video, This video was our opportunity in maker to sum up what we learned in this trip in one assignment. Thought this whole trip we learned and explored so much as a class, that It was hard to sum it all into one assignment. However, this was a great assignment for that because of the freedom we were given while making this video. the only thing we had to follow was the criteria;
-Investigates a story, idea, or facts about the West
-Supports an understanding of how geography of the West impacts the people who live and visit here
-Questions must be developed and approved by teacher prior to interview
-Work with your interview partner (anyone on your trip) to help you film
-Video must include a stand up explanation by the filmmaker
-2-3 minutes in length
-Individual videos
-Must include at least two digital enhancements (voice over, music, effects)
This criteria was tougher, because it made sure that we put our full effort and attention into the video. I decided to do a voiceover again because it worked really well for me in the at home video. 
My video was also evidence for our thesis we made at the beginning of the project, our thesis was something we made before we left, and had to prove during the trip. I proved it through doing interviews with people I met, as well as just learning about significant places we went to.
I talked a lot about how beautiful Alberta and Canada were in my video, because that is something that really stood out to me. Throughout this video making process, I feel i have met all of the criteria. I had a lot of fun making this video and would do it again.
This project was so fun for me, not only because we had a trip, but also because of what we were learning. The topics we studied during this project really caught my attention and I enjoyed adding to my knowledge about them. Overall, I really liked this project. Some of my highlights were getting to know to classmates better, driving in the middle of nowhere in Banff at 10pm, and getting to see the nature of Alberta.
Thank you for reading my blog post I hope you enjoyed.