Civil War Project

For my Civil War project, Kylie and I were in a group together. Our essential question was, "How did Abraham Lincoln's decision to change his view on slavery affect the outcome of the war?" We decided that the best way to portray this question through a project was by creating an interview with Abraham Lincoln. We went through the process of writing a script, filming, and editing which was tough to learn and we also discovered new ways to make our project more interesting with things such as fun facts. Throughout this experience, I learned many things about creating an interview, filming and editing it, and learning about the person we were interviewing, Abraham Lincoln.

When Kylie and I first got together, we didn't know exactly what we were going to put in our interview. We eventually decided to ask President Lincoln questions surrounding things like his childhood, his election, and his personal views on slavery in general. To determine this, we had to research a lot of things that wouldn't normally be on the front of many webpages. We had to delve deeper into our research and find answers to questions that weren't normally asked. Through this, we created an interview that could be controversial and enticing. Not only did we have to find questions to ask, but we also had to answer them like we were Abraham Lincoln. So through this process, I learned how to interview people and also how to cooperate with other people and listening to their ideas as well as my own.

For our interview, Kylie and I were the interviewers and Jordin played Abraham Lincoln for us. We decided that to make our interview look authentic, we should film from two angles. Shortly after we made this decision, we learned that it was going to be a harder task than we originally thought. Through the editing process, we learned that by having two cameras, we would sometimes accidentally see both cameras in a shot. We also learned through the editing process that we forgot to remove everyday objects, since our interview was supposed to be in 1864, so we had a few missplaced items such as phones and lamps. Through filming and editing this video, I learned about the different angles people film with, where the best lighting is, what should and shouldn't be in the film, how to make the video interesting, and more.

Not only did we learn about the overall process of making an interview, we also learned about the person we were interviewing. President Abraham Lincoln changed his public view of slavery during his election, and Kylie and I wanted to discover why, after his whole life believing in slavery, he would be against it. After we searched and read many things about Abraham Lincoln we came to the conclusion that personally, his views didn't change, but to help end the war and stop slavery from spreading any farther, changing his public views on slavery was immensely neccessary. We learned about this President and how he had come to be known as one of the best Presidents we've ever had.

Through writing a script for our interview, filming and editing it, and learning about Abraham Lincoln himself, Kylie and I took a lot away from this project. Personally, I feel like I have a much better understanding of who President Lincoln was and what he believed in. I also learned how to research information to come up with questions and answers for our interview. Through the filming and editing process, I learned how to make a video that people would be interested in watching and from this project, I gained an understanding of some of our twenty-first century technology and how that could help me go back in time to learn about a President and a war that changed our country and our world.