Video - End of Year Reflection

Foreword

Back at the start of second semester, I was unbelievably excited to start entertainment, and to eventually continue it through my junior and senior years. Instead, I began the journey of realizing that what I had planned wasn't going to work out. The whole experience essentially led up to that moment in a lot of films with the freeze frame and a "Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation." But I'll get to that.

Music Video

Our first project, the music video, seemed like a fairly easy task. All we had to do was pick a song and create a concept for it, then film it. This was my first project I was really, really excited about. Unfortunately, the film world loves to crush that wide-eyed wonder, preferably captured in a close-up of the victim's face.

Addie and I set out to make a storyboard for the song I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys, choosing a less-than-romantic concept to further prove our Alternativeness™. What we quickly realized is that storyboards take forever.

After we finished that, we got everything else done in record time. We shot almost everything unskillfully in direct sunlight and didn't think twice. Until we started editing. Luckily, Addie is much better at this than I am, so she got extra footage when we went downtown, and put them all in to create what I feel is a much better product than the overexposed mess that I had contributed. (Spoiler alert: this is a pattern with my work.)

High School Trailer

This video will always remain the most memorable, I think, because it was the video that solidified my decision to switch from film to graphic design. Really. I turned this in right before spring break and proceeded to freak out and have a long talk with my mom about what I should do. Having reached a verdict, I came back, switched, and all my problems disappeared.

But back to the project.

We had to choose from a list of high school-based films, most likely because we were supposed to do more filming in, you know, film class. Addie and I chose to do The DUFF. Because, of course, two sophomore film students could easily replicate a professional 8.5 million dollar film. We shot this over an agonizingly drawn-out period of time, due to our lack of organization. I ended up editing this one, which was okay; I'm better at editing than I am filming. Still, this video was so, so awful. I'm taking full responsibility for that. I mean, I'll say it. The feedback for this video was similar. The punishment fits the crime, after all. Half of the class was silent, but not in the way that good film can create. It was more of an "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all" sort of silence. The other half showed no mercy and informed me of what I already knew: it sucked.

I'm not bitter about this project; how could I be? It helped me come to terms with the fact that I'm just not talented in this particular area. Also, it's kind of funny.

Here is the infamous video, for your viewing pleasure.

Short Film

This was a fitting end to my film career. It was an idea that I had wanted to develop for a long time, proceeded to do so, and in the process, ruined it. The concept was actually one of my favorite things I've thought of: based on the Shakespeare quote "These violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume", it was a story of two people who bring out the worst in each other. The boy is a narcissistic sociopath who tricks an unmemorable girl into joining him, and the audience watches helplessly as she slowly turns darker and darker, on a downward spiral of self-destruction. Or, at least, that's what it was supposed to be.

Instead, Violent Delights was a mess of my own creation, another wildly underwhelming technological mistake, produced by Blaise Keasler. Shocker.

When given feedback, the only positive things that anyone had to say were about my actors. I wholeheartedly agree. The only thing that could have possibly made this short film worse would have been bad actors. Being in the top theatre class has its advantages when it comes to casting.

This video was slightly better than my other two, but that was only because of experience. I knew when making this that I wouldn't be progressing to entertainment like most of my classmates. I think it shows. Regardless, here it is.

Applying What I've Learned

Although much of what I've written is self-deprecating, I do still use what I've learned in this class. One of my goals for the upcoming summer, and even for my life, is to take videos and pictures of things. Not just important things, but of myself and my friends and pretty things that I enjoy. We all have the ability to document our lives; our phone cameras are better than ever before. So, why not? Now, I have the basics of how to film properly, and I can use that forever.

Summary

This year has been wild; this semester in particular. I've gone from planning on being in entertainment class for the rest of my high school career to planning on being in graphic design, and even realizing that I could potentially continue with that as an occupation. Video has been a very valuable experience to me, regardless of how good I am at it. It taught me that plans change, usually for the better.

One of my favorite quotes is from the film American Beauty (dir. Sam Mendes, 1999). It's that "everything that's meant to happen does", and this has proved to be true, especially in this case. I will be forever grateful for the lessons I have learned, and although I may not be in class, I'll continue to use what I've learned.