Claymation Reflection Essay

The first project I had this year was in Mr. Bergquist's class. We had to make a claymation video on a famous explorer. I did research on Amerigo Vespucci, but I decided to do it on Henry Hudson. My partner was Sienna. I learned a lot doing this project.

My favorite part of the project was finishing it and watching it. Even when I watched it I realized there were a lot of flaws it was still turned out OK. I liked the ending the best because it seemed we were more relaxed when we were talking. I also liked the end because it had different music than the video had for the rest of it. The second scene was my least favorite. I think it was my least favorite because we thought we should talk louder at that point, so it sounds like we are yelling the whole time. Also when ever I watch it I don't understand what's going on because you can't understand what we are saying. In some parts it was funny and others it was just stupid. I had a lot of fun watching the video. And it felt good when we were finally done.

The most difficult thing during this project was the computer work. Even though I had a fun time doing it, it was still very confusing. At first I am not that good at using a Mac. I have a PC at home so I'm more used to that. The first thing that I can remember that we had to do on the computer was making the animated map. That was probably the most stressful thing that me and my partner did. First of all the computer we were using didn't have the program we were supposed to use, so we had to a different one that we had no idea how to use. Lets just say it wasn't to pleasant to work with Sienna on this one. You can ask the people that were sitting by us. They will tell you how much we were yelling at each other. During the end of the project though we started to understand how to use the computer way better than before.

The most important thing I learned was... well there was a lot of things I learned. But probably the most important was how to work well with other people. Like I said in the most difficult thing, me and my partner had many problems. Some times it was Sienna mad. But sometimes I was the person in a bad mood. I remember one time, we were making a scene for our video and that day I was in an especially bad mood. So that day everything anybody said made me mad. Another time Sienna was in a bad mood or something, and she wouldn't let me even touch the computer mouse. But as the project went on, we got less and less mad at each other. And at the very end of the project I actually enjoyed working with my partner.

Overall, this was one of my favorite projects. I had a lot of fun doing this project and I also learned many things I wouldn't have thought I would be learning this year. I had to deal with some hard things along the way, but it was all worth it when I watched it at the end.