Rachael Baker and Kim Devine's Project 52 is everything but the kitchen sink.
Project 52 involves trying 52 new things throughout our senior year as an independent project. Rather than focus on one topic, we decided to involve ourselves in small aspects of different activities. We aren't sure what we'll discover, but it certainly leaves room for adventure.
Stop motion: a cinematographic technique whereby the camera is repeatedly stopped and started, for example to give animated figures the impression of movement.
I attempted to film the stop motion video when I created Open When letters for my friend Molly. However, I never posted the video because although it was a learning experience, I didn't find the video to be any good or interesting to watch. Once again, I attempted a stop motion video with the melting crayon art project. Since I asked for a tripod and received it as an early Christmas present, I had the added benefit of the tripod. However, I once again was not impressed with the results.
I have decided to combine the videos and post them anyway to show my improvements. I have learned the importance of keeping a camera perfectly still; even with a tripod I struggled with this skill. In addition, stop motion is very time consuming. Each movement takes about twice as long with the added necessity of pressing the camera button. I think that when done correctly, stop motion can be a fascinating technique. I hope that next time I attempt a stop motion video, I will have learned from the mistakes you see here and succeed.
Ms. Morris is our Project Explore mentor, and she recently underwent surgery for her wrist. In addition, it is almost Christmas. So, we figured it was the perfect time to surprise a teacher with not only a thank you present but a Merry Christmas/Get Well Soon present. Rachael and I had one of our friends ask to take a picture of her for the yearbook. As our friend took the "picture" (which was actually the video you see here), we came in with a poinsettia, flowers, and a present. Inside the present was chocolates, a card, and a Snoopy mug and stuffed animal (Snoopy is her favorite).
I created this task in the summer specifically for my best friend. Although we have never lived in the same town or gone to the same school, Molly and I have been friends since sixth grade. We swam on the same same swim team. Although neither of us swim on that team anymore, we have kept in contact. We talk nearly every day.
The right photo is us in middle school, while the left is us after swimming against one another in one of our last high school swim meets in October 2014.
Because I know I won't be there for every big event in her life, specifically because we both will be heading off to college this summer, I came up with the idea of writing "Open When" letters. I wrote ten letters that she can open at different events in her life, and I put each of the sealed envelopes with her Christmas present.
The Letters
1. Open When: You get these letters (and Merry Christmas!)
2. Open When: You're feeling blue
3. Open When: It's your senior prom!
4. Open When: Graduation
5. Open When: You're about to leave for college
6. Open When: You need a throwback Thursday (memories of us)
7. Open When: You want a laugh
8. Open When: You need inspiration/motivation
9. Open When: Anytime in your first year of college
Time Lapse Definition: denoting the photographic technique of taking a sequence of frames at set intervals to record changes that take place slowly over time. When the frames are shown at normal speed, or in quick succession, the action seems much faster
Some of the tasks on our original list included filming different types of videos, including a stop motion, underwater, and time lapse video. So, I decided to combine the time lapse task with the making crepes because a time lapse video needed to be involved with something that took a very long time. And because each crepe had to be cooked separately and we had so many trial and error situations with the recipe, the crepes took a long time. The crepes task (#9) actually took several hours, but I filmed clips to create a time lapse video just about two minutes long. However, I encountered some technical problems with this task and will share them with you:
1. You need a tri-pod to film for this long a time period. I didn't have one, and I also didn't have a person to film for me for most of the clips. My brother was the other person making crepes with me, and he was too busy making the crepes. So, I alternating between making things with one hand and filming with the other, and putting the camera down in certain spots and hoping the shot worked out.
2. I do not recommend the time lapse feature of the iPhone. The new iPhone update has a time lapse feature, and some of the clips in my video were filmed using it. For my purposes, the speed was way too fast on the time lapse. Slowing it down on my computer created a bit of a blurry effect.
3. In addition, filming with the iPhone means you need to film landscape. However, I forgot a few times which is why some of the clips are so small. This means it is not easy to film one-handed, so that wasn't a realistic goal for me. I also was not used to trying to film in a store, so I didn't realize it needed to be landscape for the best quality video.
Here are the clips I was able to edit into a time lapse video:
It wasn't the simplest recipe to choose because it has three parts to it (the crepe, a filling, and a chocolate ganache sauce). It also had a few things we had never heard of before, like mascarpone cheese (which turned out to be a light, fluffy, and sweet cheese used to enhance the filling).
Because it was red velvet, our batter turned out bright pink. The crepes themselves were the correct red color.
Admittedly, our first attempts went poorly. My brother Kevin described as a trial and error task that was "more error than trial."
This was our first crepe. To say it went poorly may be an understatement.
Our second attempt didn't go much better.
After two failed attempts, we headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to get the supplies we realized we couldn't succeed without: a non-stick pan and a no-stick skillet.
The chocolate ganache sauce.
My dad decided to really over-chocolate the crepe.
But after we had the right materials and made a few mistakes, we were successful. My brother mastered the ability to flip the crepes while I made the ganache sauce, rolled and filled the crepes, and poured confectionary sugar over the cooled crepes.
