Leif Ericson Claymation

For the past month, we have been working on stop frame claymation movies in American Studies class. My movie was about the first European explorer to step foot on North American soil, Leif Ericson, son of famous Viking explorer, Eric the Red. I learned a lot while making my movie and a lot of what I learned had nothing to do with explorers or Leif. I learned a lot about myself while making Leif Ericson: The first North American Exploration. It was a fun and difficult project.
I had a ton of fun making the sets, props, and characters. I’m a right-brained person, so the artistic part of the project really appealed to me. It was interesting to see how we could make our figures stand up straight and be practical, while still making them visually pleasing. My partner, Kelsey, and I had a very different view on what the people should look like. We decided that one of us should make the people, and the other one would make the sets and props. I ended up with making the people, which proved a challenge, as they always fell down! Eventually, we make the sets and characters look as perfect (and be as practical) as they ever would be. I enjoyed that challenge. But the challenge of making the figures was nothing compares with the challenge of working with Kelsey.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kelsey Crooks to death, but working with her was harder than I’d expected. We fought constantly and it was hard to get anything done. I think that that is why we turned in a few animations late-because we spent so much time arguing and not enough time working to get our project done on time. Though we are the best of friends outside of class, our personalities clash too much to be in the work environment together. Kelsey is very laid back and takes things as they come. I, on the other hand, am very controlling and refused to give her the control and input that she deserved. I think I was a little bit over bearing and lost my temper easily, so that stressed Kelsey out, and as a result, we communicated poorly. I need to let some of that control go and figure out how to be more like Kelsey.
I learned a lot of new things while working on this project, and though I learned a lot about the first Europeans who came to our country, I think I learned more about myself. I learned about my strong points and short comings. I never realized how controlling I could be. I realized that the very thing that made me strong on my own made me feeble in a group setting. On the other hand, I learned that I was good at solving problems. Weather it was problems with Kelsey, problems with our characters, or problems that another group needed help with, I was able to fix it. I think that that made our group stronger. We were able to overcome communication problems and even technical problems due to my problem solving skills.
The stop frame project was a good experience. I had fun doing it and learned more than I’ve ever learned while working on a single project. Technical skills and problem solving are qualities that the students of American Studies class will take with them and use in the future. I’m glad we did this project and hope we do more like it.