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.
38. Throw A Surprise Party
My mom's birthday is tomorrow, and she warned us not to throw her a surprise party. So, she headed to Bistro Mediterranean thinking that I was going out to babysit and that my dad was taking her out for a nice dinner. When she arrived, she found not only her five kids but two of her sisters and their husbands there to surprise her. My mom is usually the person who knows everything that's going on in the house and the family, so it was entertaining to fill her in on the nearly eighty e-mails and jokes sent in preparation for this party.
Here are some photos from dinner and a video of the surprise and present opening:
My mom's brother and my brother worked together to bring three cakes to the ouse after dinner.
My mom was the most surprised to see her family at the table.
36. Meet an optimist and hear her story.
As Rachael and I stressed throughout this project, not all of our tasks had to be planned. We expected the unexpected - for people to suggest a few tasks that could become vital to our project And that's how I found myself interviewing Tracie this afternoon at Norwalk Community College.
My mom works at NCC teaching students how to become medical assistants. She knew all of the obstacles Tracie has recently faced, and she suggested that I interview Tracie as part of my Project Explore. Because teenagers are considered the most self-absorbed generation, my mom believed Tracie had valuable advice and experiences to share for my project. And she was absolutely right.
Though this is the only part of Tracie's life that I learned about and this was the first time I had met her, I could see how amazing she is. My mom told me how great she would be to interview, but I had no idea what to expect. Since I didn't know her, I didn't have a lot of specific questions to ask. Luckily, Tracie knew exactly what to address, and I could form questions as the interview went along. She was very open about all of her experiences.
This interview was an incredible experience for me. Her grateful attitude despite the hardships she has faced was refreshing. I am often surrounded by people complaining about how tired they are or how unfair life can be, but Tracie was not at all bitter even though she faced a cancer typically associated with people over the age of 50. Tracie was only 37 when she was diagnosed. Her advice about being able to push past anything with a good attitude was invaluable.
A huge thank you to Tracie for being so open and willing to share your story. I loved creating this video.
31. Volunteer at the Bear Flop.
I completed this task last month at Norwalk High's annual Bear Flop fundraiser. This fundraiser raises money for a specific type of cancer each year through the Bears' Beating Cancer Club. This year, the focus was all childhood cancers. I sold tickets for this event at lunch, placed flyers around the school, and convinced several teachers to participate in the event. During the Bear Flop, I collected tickets at the door. I ended up being in a great spot to film the bellyflops. I had trouble uploading and editing the videos from this event right away because my computer has a storage problem, but I was recently able to figure out a way to do it. This event is a fun and unique way to fundraise; students love to come watch because it is comedic and competitive.
Here are some of the best bellyflops of the contest:
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).
My dad recently purchased a gopro which first became popular for their ability to film underwater and Kim and I thought it would be a hoot to try it out. Since I don't like to get pruney and Kim is on the swim team we thought it best if she dealt with this task hands on. I got to watch from the nice, dry bleachers as Kim swam and dove.
It took a few days (weeks) for me to figure out the program and pick an appropriate song but I hope everyone enjoys the final product!
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:
