Video… Movie… Film. 

As we learned during a previous project, titled “Vibrant Video“, there are certain differences between the aforementioned words. Our focus during this Maker project was on creating a film. More specifically, we were to create a documentary about a topic we know a lot about, or are interested in learning more about. Our documentaries were also displayed at 💥IMPACT!, the PLP Spring Exhibition of 2022. (Scroll to the bottom of the post to read more about the exhibition!)

How can I engage and entertain an audience using my video and storytelling skills?

I hadn’t initially known what I wanted to make my documentary about, akin to many of my other peers. The obvious choice for myself personally would have been to create a documentary about art, especially since I seem to be generally known as an artist inside the PLP classrooms. Despite my love for art, I don’t necessarily consider myself enough of an expert on the topic to be able to provide an insightful message regarding it – and I hadn’t even known who I would interview for my documentary if I was to choose that topic. These thoughts lingered inside my mind as I completed an “Interest Brief” and an “Exploring You” sheet provided by our teachers. 

In the end, after a conversation with my friend, Sabrina, I decided to make my documentary about COVID-19. More specifically, I decided to make my documentary about how youth were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, I was deciding between either that idea or making my documentary about music. However, due to the influx of my peers who were also creating a  music related documentary, I opted for the COVID-19 topic.

In order to prepare ourselves for a later step of our project – interviewing people – we practiced interviewing others within a small group. Each of us went home and interviewed someone we knew outside of school. I worked with Ava, Noah, and Max for this activity. Unfortunately, I was sick throughout the beginning of the project, so I hadn’t really communicated with my group members, other than Ava. Additionally, due to recent circumstances in my personal life, I had a limited amount of people I could interview outside of those I knew through school. Due to such, I had instead decided to “interview” my tarot deck. You can watch our video here:

Throughout the duration of this project, we watched various documentaries and also took notes on various filming techniques the creators used to tell their message. If I recall correctly, our teacher, Ms. Maxwell, said something along the lines of how she hoped that through exposing us to various documentaries, we’ll be able to produce something of a similar quality of our own. I’m not entirely sure if it works quite like that, but it’s hard to argue with that logic.

Anywho, after I had my topic approved, we were introduced to the good ol’ plan, my man, named Stan. This is Stan in his entirety.

Since you now have been acquainted with my man, Stan, the plan… you can see that our next step was our treatment and log line. A treatment can be defined as a short and concise summary of a film, video, or movie in story format. Meanwhile, a log line could be defined as a blurb, typically 1-2 sentences long, designed to tell the main story ideas. You can view my treatment and log line below.

Thus began the research and planning stage. I generally knew who I wanted to interview, though I first had to email these individuals, requesting for an interview with them. I emailed Dania Herrera Dominguez (my French teacher), Maribel Moroni (a social worker), and Ava Robertson (my friend who is also conveniently a teenager). You can see my emails to them compiled in a document below:

As I waited for their responses, I began to write my screenplay. Click the image below to see my whole screenplay:

Then, I created a storyboard to accompany my screenplay. Click the image below to see my whole screenplay:

After my interviews with the previously mentioned individuals were confirmed, and I had my storyboard and screenplay approved, I went on to the filming process. Then, I compiled my rough cut… or in other words, a draft of my final film.

I received cool feedback from Teva, Max, Sabrina, and Ava about my rough cut. Max had actually filled out a peer critique sheet for me, however I didn’t get to see it. Luckily, Ms. Maxwell remembered some of the points he had made. I then went on to revise, and created my final film, as shown below:

To my knowledge, there weren’t any particular competencies for us to reflect on when it comes to this project. However, when it comes to the criteria we created in class, I am under the impression I did well and met the requirements. Although people keep telling me that my final documentary was “good”, I have difficulties actually believing that. In my eyes, although I met the criteria, I feel that I could have done better, and I ultimately am underwhelmed by what I managed to produce. Despite that, I am proud of myself for managing to complete a project while still prioritizing myself and my mental health. 

How can I engage and entertain an audience using my video and storytelling skills?

From my understanding, like many other things in PLP, it required a process in order to utilize my video and storytelling skills in order to create a documentary. It was interesting, seeing my work evolve from a mere idea, to a story-spine, to a storyboard, and finally… a film. To answer the driving question, I used my video and storytelling skills in order to interview others, film footage, plan out and execute and idea, and tell a story that led up to my documentary. I have always found video editing difficult, and I was honestly oftentimes uncertain or lost throughout the duration of the project. Executing a process that you’re not necessarily used to is, in my opinion, frightening. Even though it was not my best work, I’m glad that I can grudgingly admit it isn’t too far off.

…

WAIT!

HOLD UP.

I’m not done yet.

Unfortunately, the morning after I had originally finished this blog post, we were given the instruction to make our blog posts for “Your First Film” and the PLP Spring Exhibition of 2022 into a singular hybrid blog post. This exhibition was titled 💥IMPACT!

Poster made by Ava, Sabrina, and myself

How do we make deeper connections beyond the classroom?

For this latest exhibition, both the 8th and 9th graders worked together. In particular, I collaborated with Ava, Dana, Fraser, Mickey, Sepaus, and Ben in my grade. When it came to the 8th graders, I worked with Kira, Sydney, Gwenyth, Frankie, Hayden, Jackson, Dylan, and Tom. Our group told the story of our learning Beyond the Classroom™, through a series of slideshows, activities, media, and questionable consumable(?) liquids.

Through a series of heavily revised planning documents, annotations, and maps… we managed to produce something.

On the night of, I created a highlights clip for our group displaying the essence of our room. You can check it out here!

Additionally, if you would like to view a tour of the exhibition, check out this video, made by my dear friend, Alicia. Thanks for reading!