Greek Tragedies
Stop Motion Animation
A SUICIDE, OF SORTS
Project Description
The Greek Tragedy project took several weeks and was our second big project in Humanities. We spent the first part learning about and reading Greek tragedies. Then in partners we picked a current social issue to address (ex. abortion, death penalty, prostitution etc.). My partner and I chose assisted suicide and our stand on it was that assisted suicide should be legal. We wrote plays about the modern issue but in a Greek tragedy format (we did not have to write using ancient Greek language however). Then to show the script we chose a way to visually represent the plays. Owen and I chose to attempt a stop motion animation using clay. Neither of us had ever tried to do it before. I burned the final video to a DVD.
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Exerpt from script:
Scene 1: (A few days later in a hospital, Ricardo awakes, disappointed to be alive. Jeff enters. Jeff was very upset to hear his friend tried to commit suicide) Jeff: The doctors called me. Why did you try to do it? Ricardo: Jeff, I’m 37, morbidly obese, extremely diabetic, have Parkinson’s disease and pancreatic cancer, and I’m gay. I don’t have a reason to live anymore. My body is deteriorating, I’m constantly in pain, and I have no one left but you. Jeff: You do have a reason to live! You’ve got me, and your fish. And we all care about you. Ricardo: My fish died, and you won’t agree to help me kill myself. What kind of a friend are you? Jeff: Look Ricky, I care about you. I don’t want you to be dead. But I do want what’s best for you. I’m sorry. (Jeff turns to leave as Doctor walks in) |
Project reflection
What are you most proud of about your project and why?
I am most proud of the video for my project. I spent a lot of time putting the different scenes and clips together and making everything run smoothly. I think we did a really good job with the clay figures and objects. I also really like my ending slide with the Ricardo Estevez gravestone. I did it in photoshop and it took me awhile as well. I’m proud of the video because it was challenging to time all the scenes out and get transitions worked out.
What challenges did you struggle with working with a partner and how did it impact the project? What did you like about having a partner to work with? Details.
Challenging aspects of working with a partner is that for one thing there are now two of you to get the other one distracted and not accomplish anything. Also it can be a little stressful if your partner doesn’t stay focused or shows up without their part of the project completed when it needs to be. I think it impacted the project in the sense that otherwise we might have had better backgrounds but I also think our voice was better when we did it on my computer at school then if Owen had just done it all. What I liked about working with a partner was that coming up with the ideas and plans for everything was easier and that the work load was more balanced. I also like that it gave us an opportunity to talk to fellow classmates during project work time. Working with partners was fun because Owen came up with some good ideas I would never have thought of and kind of helped me to not worry about the project and the time frame as much as I normally would. I was stressed at times but Owen kept helping me to believe we really did have time and were going to finish fine.
What could you have done as an individual to make the project better? Give specific details.
I could have tried to get Owen to do a little more work on the project. We also could have taken the right number of pictures for every second like we were supposed to instead of just taking a bunch of random photos.
What specific advice would you offer an incoming freshman about how to be successful at project-based learning? Be specific.
Something I would definitely tell people that may or may not apply to each student would be that it doesn’t have to be perfect. I know perfectionists will have been hearing this for a long time, but when each class has a complex project all going on at once, an already impossible task of making something perfect is completely impossible. As long as you try on a project and make it clear you did learn something the teachers will likely give you a good grade. If you spend too long on every project you’re just going to get stressed out and worried. Don’t try to cheat or copy a buddy. The projects are so personal and individual and complicated that you have to come up with your own ideas and do all the work yourselves. It’s not like math homework or notes where you can just copy and the teacher might not notice. Also you have to be willing to embrace learning and understanding material that may challenge your beliefs and principles or force you to critically think an issue through.