Family History Project

Click here to read the interview with my mom.

Click here to read the interview with my dad.

Click here to see the letter I wrote to my family.

Click here to see my FamilyEcho outline.






Click here to see the five frame storyboard I made about my family.

Monday December 2nd

I am doing a lot of things at once on my project, but am making pretty good progress. Over break I found this big file my paternal grandparents made a while ago on their family history, which has thorough family trees and short histories. That should help bunches. I didn't interview anyone because we were kept a bit busy with my mom breaking her foot and I had to write five thousand college essays. I will soon though!

Friday November 15

Best Stop Motion Animation Movies

1. Luke Slagle - racing cars. This movie was very fluid and well-made. The movements all flowed together as if in a live action film.

2. Matt Farrahi - peppermint. I liked this movie because it took a concept that sounded boring in theory and made it entertaining. The movements all flowed together well and stuff actually happened in the movie.

3. Collin Wolf - skittles. Once again, all the pictures flowed together to create an impression of constant, fluid motion. It took a boring-sounding idea of moving skittles and made it interesting and entertaining.

Wednesday November 13th

My stop motion animation video turned out better than I thought it would, but still could have been cleaner and more thought out. I would give it a 55 out of 60 points. From creating this video I learned that making stop motion animation videos can be frustrating but can be done by anybody if they try. The hardest part is taking pictures that flow together well and all stay within the same frame. Once you have the pictures taken, though, creating a simple movie is pretty easy.

Monday November 11th

I know what I'm doing for my stop motion animation video and will be able to get all my pictures taken today. I just fleshed out my ideas over the weekend because I was really busy with a debate tournament and two AP Government papers. I don't have all the pictures right now, but if everything goes according to plan I will by the end of the hour. If for some reason something goes awry I will still definitely have them at the beginning of the hour tomorrow.

Friday November 8th

I am going to take photographs of books so that it looks like they are opening and closing by themselves and moving around and stacking on top of each other. The story will be about the objects coming to life - how books have a life and mind of their own. The video will be fun and different because it will show a completely inanimate object come to life. I'm taking the photos and will probably take them this weekend.

Monday November 4th

I used fotoflexer.com to edit my five photos. I like this tool because it's really easy to use but also has a variety of options. Every tool and effect is clearly labeled. There are useful tools, such as auto-fix, contrast, hue, lightness, and saturation. Such tools can be used for any photo. There are also interesting effects and decorations that could be used for more creative projects. The downside of this tool would be that it is not especially professional, but this is not a problem for a student or amateur photo editor.