Elijah's 2 Minutes to Make A Difference Final Reflection

Google Docs:


First video:


Final Cut:



The Changes:

My group and I changed a couple of errors on our first version of the video. For example, the blinking text is now removed, so it will be less disturbing. We made some of the word lengths longer so others would have a chance to read them. We improved on our punctuation, and all of the grammar mistakes we made. We also added in ALL of the credits. We even have evidence of us making a difference.

The comments from our classmates, were very helpful. Because they gave us advices of how to make our video more appealing. For instance, they told us that our paragraphs should go on longer in order for them to read it properly. They also requested that, we have to change the blinking effect into an effect that is more steady and calm.

Interview:


Finding an expert about our topic, was probably one of the easiest part of this project. I don't really know why. But maybe it's because there are a lot of people who care about giving children education. What we did was, we searched for organizations and foundations that are helping out on the cause. Then we emailed them, asking, if we are able to ask them questions that would help us in the project. After an expert emailed us back, we arranged the time and date, to know when we can call them.

Stephanie Cate our expert, pointed out more than 3 things about our video. She said that there are a lot of reasons why girls are not getting any education. It's just that, poverty is the main cause. The other thing she's pointed out was that giving girls education, will be the first step to ending poverty. Because a girl has more chances of teaching what they've learned. Therefore their knowledge will pass on. But a boy can do that too. It's just that they tend to leave their own country to work abroad after getting their education. Stephanie also said that, giving girls education is actually very cheap. It's like pitching in a dollar. Then you tell another person about the cause and they pitch in their dollar. Then that person will tell another person and your dollar will then turn into thousands of dollars.

Our expert, taught us a lot about the girls in Africa. She taught us why we can get education and they can't. She talked about descrimination against girls. And everytime she's answered our questions. Her answers linked to poverty.

Success:


Our greatest success on 2 minutes to make a difference, was probably making the script. I think that our script carried our audience to the point of our video. Like, what the problem is, the cause, and how to make a difference. We used the story arc idea, where we had to begin with what's the problem and carry ourselve's up to the making a difference part of the movie. But the script it's self did not catch our viewers attention. The effects on the texts helped us get more attention.

In the future, I think that I will be using my writing skills again. It was not that easy making the script affective. But I tried to make the script fit in to keep our audience going and understand more of the cause. I will also be using my editing skills in the future. Even though I'm still getting used to it.

Frustration and Strategies:


Through all the things we've done on 2 Minutes to Make a Difference. The thing that frustrated me the most was not having time for my group members to work on the project. Because every week, there is always something popping up to ruin our schedules. The other thing that frustrated me the most was the editing. First of all, I did not know how to put in the music into our Movie Maker program. It took me 2-3 days on figuring out how to put the music in. Also, in the beginning, it took us 3 hours just to get 30 seconds of the movie and another couple of hours to get another 30 seconds of the movie. Then we had to fit the script and the voices in to the right parts and we had to blend them in with the song, to make the movie better.

Although, after getting frustrated with uploading the music. I started searching up on google about how to get music from CCMixter to get it uploaded to my program. Once that didn't help, I asked my sister for some help and then she got the music into movie maker. Then for the rest of the editing, my group came and we started on our video. We decided on what to put on the video, which effects we should put and if the voice fits in with the script.

Why it's Important ?


2 Minutes to Make a Difference is important, because it changes you as a person. We're just grade eights but doing this project is telling us that whatever your age is you can still help. This project makes you think more about other's rather than yourself. It makes you realize how our world should be respected. It also gives you an idea of how you should treat other's equally. We were all given a chance to change an invididual, community, country and even ourselves. Because the whole point of 2 Minutes to Make a Difference was to actually make a difference. And we did make a difference. Just by talking about our topics was making a difference because, it's giving an awareness to others that people around the world needs help.


Future:

In the future, I know that I'll be helping out on other countries that need help by giving money, food, or clothes. But I'll also be thinking of people in our city, community and neighborhoods. It's like helping out a homeless person getting meal's everyday. I would be respecting the environment more, I would throw out garbages in the garbage, recycling, saving energy by turning off lights, walk to school etc. The things I'm doing is actually simple, yet it can still help out the environment and other people. But I was hoping that I will be able to help bigger causes. By having bigger solutions, like running an organization that'll help kids get an education.