For my Capstone I collaborated with Jave Kelman to host RocketFest, a film festival dedicated to putting a spotlight on films made by Philadelphia high schoolers. The goal of this Capstone was to create a platform that gives these films and the youth the recognition that they deserve.

For my Capstone project, I created a documentary film comprised of three interviews with individuals who work in careers involving the end of life. I interviewed a funeral director, a hospice social worker, and a ceremonialist. I asked them a series of questions to learn more about their perspectives on death because of their work. I learned the importance of talking about death and its intricacies and working with other people to better understand it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q05KlQsuI2tCBYGUCDkp-fcLFObIODuN/view?usp=sharingusp=sharing

The Stigma on Mental Health is a documentary I made for my capstone that questions how a person’s sociocultural background affects their view on mental health and access to care. This documentary follows three subjects: Samira Pope, John Henkel, and Lorraine Ustaris. I questioned them on their experiences with therapy, their thoughts on generational lines of trauma and bias, as well as what they believe the stigma on mental health is, why it’s there, and how as a society we can work to reduce it. My documentary idea came to me after working on a unit in science and society with Mr. Henkel that was about our sociocultural perspectives. That is when I realized I wanted to create something similar to that for my capstone project. I wanted to raise awareness of how limited the knowledge on mental health care and access is and find out what the contributing factors were to that disproportion of knowledge. This documentary is a safe space for people to learn and connect with. Not everyone is taught that mental health is health care or that it should be. And with this film I think the stigma surrounding the so-called ‘requirements’ for normal mental health care can be questioned, challenged, and possibly changed little by little if people continue to spread awareness to this tainted view on what it is to have a healthy mind and how to get there.

Link to my documentary-> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H5r95V-hic9-nWcTbhFcl44A_HrMHyPl/view?usp=sharing

I wanted to show people how beautiful soccer is and how much it means to me because it plays a significant role in my life. In the beginning, growing up as a female and playing soccer was really challenging for me. I had people tell me soccer wasn’t for girls and that I should try something different or that I shouldn’t play sports at all, but I didn’t let any of it get to me. I kept on working hard throughout the years. Soccer has brought me so much happiness and has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I kept getting better, which makes me incredibly proud. I want other people to feel the same way about pursuing their dreams or anything else in life. By completing this capstone, I hoped to show that women can play sports, sometimes even better than men. Everyone should be able to play soccer because it is known as the most beautiful sport. There shouldn’t be any favoritism in sports at all; everyone should receive the same treatment and compensation. Although I know that many people won’t agree with me, I hope that my initiative will show that just because we are women, that doesn’t mean that we can’t participate in sports.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g-sou8lYHqIcNjgAGHen6Hly8f41xku0/view?usp=sharing

My capstone was centered around doing nails for people at the school of SLA. The initial goal was to make people happy and give them the same satisfaction that I get when I either get my nails done or have done them myself. I thought that with my certain skill set that this would best display how I have progressed in this area in my life and wanted to share it with those around me.

Slides with all the nail work I’ve done throughout the year

My process paper

Annotated Bibliography

The capstone I made is the intro to Engineering video. The video is an introduction to the CTE engineering program in SLA. The goal of the video is to help invite people into the engineering program and to help people find themselves within it. Because I am in the CTE program, I must do a capstone involving digital video. I chose to do this project because I saw that SLA was lacking many digital media of what our school offers and decided to settle on making an intro to our neighbors, the engineering members. To begin this process, I first had to ask myself how do I show the meaning of engineering, while also making it welcoming?

Process Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CibNV-dfmh0DiWloxT3yKgQQEUN0xaJd8-pEG5wCSuo/edit?usp=sharing

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ljCicHJ93NVDDjrjRDfl09VRPUZPY7dx/view?usp=drive_link

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p3t3U-wtS7Js58-tVM3S4Tc7GZxy2tqiILdY3Yyh_Do/edit?usp=sharing

Through months of exploration, confusion, struggle and eventually accomplishment I finished my capstone. The main focus of my capstone is expression. I sought out to find ways to express feelings through art, specifically photography. Oftentimes expressing feelings can be hard and visually expressing them is even harder. So I decided to tell the subjects of my project to write out exactly how they felt and what they wanted to say. I had them design a shirt or, in one case paint on their body with the words they felt needed to be said. After that, I photographed them and then interviewed them. I decided not to ask any guiding questions besides “What do the words you wrote mean to you. And why are they important?”

LINK TO CAPSTONE MATERIALS

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HWT9amhNgpfNDUy7ERaFI93HbdcZvXXd?usp=share_link

For my senior capstone project, I created five short films. Each were written based on the five core values of SLA. I took those prompts with varying degrees of literality: some were written based on another meaning of the word, some ended up having very little to do with it, and some were more obviously inspired by the value itself. After finishing my scripts and sending them out for feedback, I shot all five of them over a month. In most cases, I was able to shoot an entire film over a few hours in one day, but I did have to pick up extra shoots a few times. I wrapped shooting and edited my films using Premiere Pro, a software that we learned how to use in Digital Video. I knew in the early stages of my project that I wanted to collaborate with the wonderfully creative community at my school. The cast and crew of these films are composed almost entirely of SLA students and staff. I enlisted the help of close friends, as well as students whom I hadn’t even met before. Directing people who I didn’t know was one of the biggest challenges for me throughout this process. It also was one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience. While these films are my writing, directing, and editing, they wouldn’t have been possible without the people who graciously helped me. Filmmaking is a collaborative art, and as I intended, my capstone is proof of that.

Link to my capstone films: https://vimeo.com/829258891

Link to my process paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iSmtpCZKVmKGEFCN071qQClwVuXpa6ET7MkgkxKS59g/edit?usp=sharing

Link to my annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PkOrFW2-bA_fDqIQMiKCT88cypTZok_iqPDRUHGQWyI/edit?usp=sharing

How are stop motion movies made? How do you effectively tell a story with stop motion animation? What materials do you need to do it? Guillermo del Toro once said that stop motion was probably the, “purest art form,” due to the artist’s ability to control every aspect of the film. In order to create an immersive experience, the animator has to perfect imperfections; such as a child forgetting to shut a door, or an old man trying to grab a cup but missing it on his first try. A full feature film, with teams of dozens of animators can take months just to film a single scene. It’s no wonder that del Toro also remarks that, “stop motion is an artform kept alive by madmen.”

For my capstone project I created a stop motion short film. This art form isn’t entirely new to me, I’ve made stop motion films before. What made this film different was that I wanted to move beyond what I had done before. My goal was to design and build puppets from scratch, build and decorate a set for them, and use them to tell a short story. I wasn’t as focussed on telling a story with this film, so I could focus more time on the puppets, so I used a dream I had last year where Mr. Kamal made an army of evil robots to take over the school. Overall I am satisfied with what I created, and through this capstone found a new appreciation for stop motion animation that I didn’t have before.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/iYt2Jzn62EE

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mK3SAK3pwn-f9BEXQoL1Hsf9PM9Y2MUfUo6wMVwEc4c/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone project, I aimed to dive deeper into the field of animation. Animation has always captivated my interest. It has played a crucial role in my life since childhood through various animated movies and shows. Eventually, I decided to initiate a learning program that I managed during an internship course to help others learn about animation and how it’s done. During this animation ILP, I thoroughly guided the participants through the animation process. We were able to create some amazing animated objects while learning. However, the achievement wasn’t complete without fostering a safe and diverse learning environment for my team to thrive and establish new friendships.

Here’s the Link to my “Process Paper”: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XGmqnSt73YNbgi5TATkgi_-optg6ipG8p4CGxZAFlEM/edit?usp=sharing

Down below ill attach a little animation I made! <3 (click it to see it move.)