I thought long and hard about what I could do for perspective. Last year, I started a paranormal investigation project. I was still missing answers and I wanted to know more. I then decided to make my second project this year a continue of paranormal. This project, I will take the look into the different perspectives of how people view the other side, and how the other side is.
Thinking Skill:
Perspective
Our second thinking skill is perspective. To put something into perspective is to take something and focus on people's points of view. I decided to take paranormal and find people's point of view of how they react and think to the paranormal world. A lot of people either believe or they don't, and they all have unique answers to why. My goal was to get more answers and understand the paranormal world. I wanted to learn why we react to this, why people believe or not, and to see if the other side is real or not. I gathered a lot of people's point of view to hopefully get my answers. I did a lot I can in these 3 weeks of working, although I still have some questions, many were answered.
English
The Interviews
For English, I wanted to get as many people as I could to interview for my documentary. Before I contacted and made questions, I had to get my research first. I started with watching Ghost Adventures, not only for English but for art too. I took notes on the different questions Zak and his team were asking the people they interviewed and during their investigations. I took notes on what they did and how they did it. I wanted the interviews to be similar to real-life ones, like on Ghost Adventures. Next, I looked up paranormal investigator teams and mediums in PA. I emailed at least six of them hoping to at least get one reply, but I didn't hear anything for a week. This put me behind in my project because I was waiting to interview before I do my investigations. Luckily I had a plan B.
My mom does a lot of paranormal investigations in Gettysburg and she is friends with a lot of paranormal people. Together, we messaged seven people. Three were paranormal investigators, two were mediums, one was a numerologist, and another was a psychic. We video chatted with a paranormal investigator and a numerologist and had a medium email us with her answers to my questions. Video chatting with Bob, a paranormal investigator, and Michelle, a numerologist, really helped me with my whole project altogether. Without Bob's advice, I don't think I would be ready to do my investigation. Bob and Michelle answered all of my questions that I had for them. I asked Bob about his experiences with doing investigations and things about spirits. And for Michelle, I asked her about what it is like being a numerologist and a sign of 23, what it can be. Over email, the medium, Michelle, answered my questions of how she can make contact and when she first started making contact. After I video chatted online with Bob and Michelle, I was ready to investigate.
As well, I also interviewed four students in Central and my mom for my documentary. I wanted a mix of people so it wasn't just "professional" people who deal with paranormal. Having the students' input and my mom's helped me build this perspective. It also helped me with the psychological state for history. Understanding everyone's perspective changed my perspective in the end.
My mom does a lot of paranormal investigations in Gettysburg and she is friends with a lot of paranormal people. Together, we messaged seven people. Three were paranormal investigators, two were mediums, one was a numerologist, and another was a psychic. We video chatted with a paranormal investigator and a numerologist and had a medium email us with her answers to my questions. Video chatting with Bob, a paranormal investigator, and Michelle, a numerologist, really helped me with my whole project altogether. Without Bob's advice, I don't think I would be ready to do my investigation. Bob and Michelle answered all of my questions that I had for them. I asked Bob about his experiences with doing investigations and things about spirits. And for Michelle, I asked her about what it is like being a numerologist and a sign of 23, what it can be. Over email, the medium, Michelle, answered my questions of how she can make contact and when she first started making contact. After I video chatted online with Bob and Michelle, I was ready to investigate.
As well, I also interviewed four students in Central and my mom for my documentary. I wanted a mix of people so it wasn't just "professional" people who deal with paranormal. Having the students' input and my mom's helped me build this perspective. It also helped me with the psychological state for history. Understanding everyone's perspective changed my perspective in the end.
Art:
Filming
The most important part was learning to film. I needed to know how to film, what transitions, the angles, subtitles, etc. I watched a lot of Ghost Adventures and took A LOT of notes. After watching five different episodes and taking notes, I started to begin my "documentary structure" document and the film document. This was important so I knew what I needed to do. On the "to film" document, I noted what I needed for filming. I listed the devices and the help I would need, what I would edit on, and the locations. I then transitioned to the "documentary structure" and started to break my documentary down on that. I broke it down so I know what I would need to do, it also had a suggestion for filming angles. I wrote a mini script for each section. I knew if I did not have some sort of script written, I wouldn't have known what to say. I only wrote scripts for the part I film myself. As well, I had a Gettysburg Script that had ideas for where I could go, how I could do the EVP Session, and what information I needed to include in the documentary.
I filmed the videos on my iPhone. I used a tripod for the videos that I filmed myself with, and the rest of the video footage I took by hand. I tried to get different angles and perspectives, like for the online video chat with Bob and Michelle. I tried different transitions to make it creative. The overall video length is 45 minutes long, which I think is appropriate for a normal documentary length. I included pictures and video edits so it wasn't just myself and my video footage. I edited the documentary on my MacBook on iMovie.
You can view the documentary below!
I filmed the videos on my iPhone. I used a tripod for the videos that I filmed myself with, and the rest of the video footage I took by hand. I tried to get different angles and perspectives, like for the online video chat with Bob and Michelle. I tried different transitions to make it creative. The overall video length is 45 minutes long, which I think is appropriate for a normal documentary length. I included pictures and video edits so it wasn't just myself and my video footage. I edited the documentary on my MacBook on iMovie.
You can view the documentary below!
Self In The Modern World:
Psychological View
I wasn't sure how I wanted to do the history part. I had so many ideas I wanted to do, and with the help of Mr. Wimmer, we created the psychological view of the spirit world and why people believe or not. I wanted to put the perspective on why we create these noises and images of spirits in our minds. Is everything we hear and see real, or is it created in our minds? That was the goal that I wanted to get out of this.
I did a lot of research to learn about how our brain works and responds to fear, as well as understanding other people's views on this. I read Myers Psychology Textbook for the AP Course and took notes. The notes I took, I googled to get more information. I wanted to learn and understand why our brain does these things when responding to fear. The first thing I did was research on how our brain and body respond to fear. To work with this, I needed to grow my knowledge in this area. I learned what our brain does in the amygdala and why. I took notes and started to create a whiteboard video on explee. I wrote a text and had an online voice generator read it. In the minute and a half clip, it explained what our brain and body does, and why. After that video was created, I sent out a survey for students to take. I was curious to see their perspective. I had four questions, the last question was "Do you think it is the psychological state that we create these noises and voices in our head? Why?" All of the answers were different and unique. I had interviewed four students and asked them the same questions to get it on video. It was important for this area to get a different perspective in the video.
I did a lot of research to learn about how our brain works and responds to fear, as well as understanding other people's views on this. I read Myers Psychology Textbook for the AP Course and took notes. The notes I took, I googled to get more information. I wanted to learn and understand why our brain does these things when responding to fear. The first thing I did was research on how our brain and body respond to fear. To work with this, I needed to grow my knowledge in this area. I learned what our brain does in the amygdala and why. I took notes and started to create a whiteboard video on explee. I wrote a text and had an online voice generator read it. In the minute and a half clip, it explained what our brain and body does, and why. After that video was created, I sent out a survey for students to take. I was curious to see their perspective. I had four questions, the last question was "Do you think it is the psychological state that we create these noises and voices in our head? Why?" All of the answers were different and unique. I had interviewed four students and asked them the same questions to get it on video. It was important for this area to get a different perspective in the video.
My Perspective
Over the three weeks of working with this topic, my perspective had changed from the beginning to the end of the project. When I first started this project, my perspective was set on spirits that are real and we don't create these noises or images in our mind. I wanted to prove that spirits and their world are real. Instead, I finish the project unsure. My perspective changed the more I researched and did investigations. What we see from shows like Ghost Adventures, they hype everything up and exaggerate a little too much. By talking to a paranormal investigator and mediums, I realized it isn't all that hyped in real life. Even from my own experiences, it is nothing that crazy like it is in Ghost Adventures. I plan on doing more research and investigations to grow my knowledge and understanding of the spirit world. I talked with a lot of teens my age, who all gave unique reasons to why they believe or don't. I think that started to question my own beliefs. I have always been afraid of the spirit world. Anything I heard or saw, I was quick to blame it on a spirit. I feel like I stood up to my fears and overcome this. That doesn't mean I don't get scared still, because I do. I just think it isn't as much. I am starting to understand the concept and perspective. And as Bob told me, you can't be afraid and you can't show the spirits you are afraid of. That is what they are attracted to and if you show them that you are afraid, they will cling to you.