Shot through the life of a 17 year old girl and what was supposed to be the most important year of her whole high school experience. Taking place in the comfort of her own home, she is faced with the same underlying issue that has affected the lives of everyone in the entire world. A high school seniors dream is to celebrate some of the most unforgettable milestones in their lifetime; the last first day of high school, graduation, prom, the big 18, and more. Like any teenager, this teen is anticipating her last first day of high school, and other important milestones. She is oddly confused when a mask continuously appears on her face. The girl believes it is only a mishap and is in complete denial. As she tries to remove the mask, it simply does not seem to vanish. This occurrence is a dream in her eyes, which makes it more difficult for her to believe it is the “new normal”. This short film is a prediction of what a single mask can do to impact the world. It depicts an endless emotional roller coaster filled with excitement, dispassion, and curiosity of what the year has to come. This relatable story is told for teens to see the possible and impossible barriers that can have a toll on their lives and the lives of others.
Creating films and movies look so simple and effortless, but there is so much that goes on behind the scenes the viewers are not aware of. There are costume designers, actors/actresses, film editors and large film crews that make the magic happen. I had an eye opening experience about what truly goes into filmmaking while working on my own. I was apprehensive about starting this big project and I did not believe that I would get it done. I sat down and was able to break down the process inorder to get everything done accurately and effectively while also keeping an open mind. The first step of the filmmaking process was brainstorming and coming up with a captivating storyline. I then moved onto filming and finding which movie making program worked best for me. Lastly, I got through the log process of editing and creating my short film.
The process of planning and brainstorming was a fairly simple part. I had many conflicting ideas before finalising my main. I started with the idea of involving my friends, then I thought of doing something stereotypical like a “bad hair day” film. These ideas were dull and gave me very little motivation. After seeking feedback and assistance I came up with the concept of using Covid 19 and personal experience as my storyline. My main goal was to create something that any teen can relate to. I have been so invested in the pandemic, each day I pray it will just end and life will just go back to normal. It is devastating, but I believe it is important to capture this time in history through a film. I started with having four main aspects of the typical “senior year” in the film; an eighteenth birthday, first day of school, prom and graduation. This was going to be way too long to accompany the one minute time frame. I fixed this by shortening each scene by a few frames and left only the important parts. Planning out all the scenes in the storyboard definitely helped me. I did not want to go through that process because it involved a lot of detail. But, it worked out in my favour and made everything ten times easier to refer back to during the taping process.
I began the long process of filming after I had my story board set. This took at least half a week to accomplish. On the first day, I filmed three different scenes and felt so defeated. The lighting was bad in every shot, framing was off and camera angles were not working how I envisioned. I got frustrated and felt like giving up on the entire project. Looking back, I wish I could have appreciated the process more. I learned that nothing is going to be perfect or come out just like the big screen movies. One of the most frustrating parts was me trying to explain my ideas to my parents so they could help me with shooting. I never realised how important communication actually is when working with others, especially in this situation. I just assumed they knew what to do and the frustration did show. Going forward, I know now to piece together my thoughts beforehand so I can inform others involved.
Editing my film was a struggle. My initial plan was to use Adobe Premiere Pro, but this took a turn after the audio transferred but the footage itself didn’t. I tried Kapwing assuming it would fix the situation. I took a two day break from everything for the weekend. When I logged back in I was unable to access the video footage and had to pay to get back in (I do not recommend it!). At this point I was stressed, I knew how important this was. I messaged some friends and had them walk me through uploading my videos. After three whole days of failure, I was able to start my editing process on Adobe Premiere Pro. I was finally in a good place and had a lot of support along the way. During editing, I learned so much about patience and taking my time. I did everything very slowly so that It wouldn’t turn out messy and unprofessional. My skills are definitely going to improve after this. I had many successes as well as failures throughout this project and I am really looking forward to refining them next time around. Overall, I am so happy with how this whole film turned out, I worked hard and did the best that I could to show what I know in the final product.