Chemistry video Project
In our first project of the year we were tasked with making a video that was between 3 and 5 minutes and contained multiple chemistry concepts in our video. Then, at the end of the video we had to add in our explanation of the chemistry special effects that we put into our video. Our explanation could either be an addition to our regular video at the end, or we could explain it live to our audience. Once we had our project done, we presented it in a film night at our school to any parents or kids that wanted to see our films.
Our group's special effects video
Chemistry concepts
In our video we had three major special effects: Fire from the rocket, acid burning our actor, and the egg-painted Earth explosion. The first special effect, the fire, was used to make the rocket look like it was being propelled like a normal rocket would. We set up a rocket to be hanging from the roof by fishing line, meanwhile, we mixed together water and soap into a solution. Then, with that solution we pumped in natural gas, creating bubbles filled with flammable gas. We quickly brought the bubbles over to the rocket, lit the bubbles, and filmed the flames being created as well as the rocket falling because the flames broke the fishing line. The result gave a somewhat realistic effect of a rocket propelling itself through space.
Our next chemistry effect was the acid that we had an actor fall into. To make a realistic looking acid that wouldn't harm anyone, we combined baking soda and vinegar, which we then spread across the ground. This created a bubbling liquid that looked like acid. If the evil scientist had wanted to really harm his pursuers with an acid he would have used something more like hydrochloric(stomach) acid. The scientist would have made hydrochloric acid by combining hydrogen chloride and water, which results in hydrochloric acid.
The final special effect in our video was the Earth explosion. To do this we first poked a small hole at the end of an egg and emptied out it's contents. At the same time we created a reaction between a solid piece of zinc and 2HCL as a liquid. These combined in a reaction that produced a liquid and a gas. The gas produced was Hydrogen, which we funneled into the open end of the egg and filled the egg with Hydrogen. We used fishing line to hold the egg up when we were ready to blow it up and then lit the open end with a lighter. The heat would touch the Hydrogen and create an explosion that broke the egg, or the Earth for our video.
Our next chemistry effect was the acid that we had an actor fall into. To make a realistic looking acid that wouldn't harm anyone, we combined baking soda and vinegar, which we then spread across the ground. This created a bubbling liquid that looked like acid. If the evil scientist had wanted to really harm his pursuers with an acid he would have used something more like hydrochloric(stomach) acid. The scientist would have made hydrochloric acid by combining hydrogen chloride and water, which results in hydrochloric acid.
The final special effect in our video was the Earth explosion. To do this we first poked a small hole at the end of an egg and emptied out it's contents. At the same time we created a reaction between a solid piece of zinc and 2HCL as a liquid. These combined in a reaction that produced a liquid and a gas. The gas produced was Hydrogen, which we funneled into the open end of the egg and filled the egg with Hydrogen. We used fishing line to hold the egg up when we were ready to blow it up and then lit the open end with a lighter. The heat would touch the Hydrogen and create an explosion that broke the egg, or the Earth for our video.
reflection
Overall for our video we produced a pretty good one that contained a pretty easily recognized plot. This was an achievement over other groups who didn't produce a video with a clear plot. Another thing that our group did well was explain our chemistry concepts. We definitely understood what was happening with each of the effects we used and were able to explain it to others. It was pretty clear near the end of our project that we had not managed our time very well. We thought we had plenty of time to film our content, but we quickly didn't have the time to film decent shots and had to just take what we got. For example, we did the acid scene quickly and didn't realize the baking soda was in the shot until after we couldn't retake it. In addition, the sound quality was not consistent throughout the video and made a less enjoyable video for our viewers.