Thrilling Thursday!

Wow, Onil and I’s journey is finally complete and if I could describe how it feels in one word I would choose bittersweet. We have come such a long way from last year, and we have developed so many new skills and techniques that we diligently used throughout this year’s portfolio project. I am so excited to share our three components with not only my peers, but my friends and family, as well as teachers. 

After 10 weeks of this entire process, there had been ups and downs. At first, Onil and I were working like snails, because we thought we had all the time in the world and then we started getting back into the groove. Our initial idea was to capture a romantic comedy, but with the unexpected circumstances of COVID-19, this was no longer an option for us. School was cancelled and all of our friends, including ourselves were on house arrest for our own safety and well-being. This was a major shift and I can speak for the majority of my peers when I say that I was shocked and a bit angry. As I’ve worked so hard throughout my high school career, this last year, my senior year was supposed to be the best one yet. As the county has recently made a decision announcing that we will not be going back to school, I was a bit upset. I didn’t get to experience college commitment day, our annual shaving cream fight, prom, and so many more end of the year festivities. Sad, but hopeful we all have been making the most of it and we continue to keep our heads up. 

So, Onil and I decided that it would be a perfect idea to create a short film on the virus that put us all on lockdown. We didn’t want it to be depressing, so we kept the parody technique that we had wanted to include from the beginning to lighten up the topic. Our goal was to create a story about a teenager who used different methods to cope with this deadly virus. We tried to exaggerate and mock some of the things that people have been doing to avoid getting the virus or dealing with it. We in no shape or form mean any harm, and we did not make fun of the virus itself, but we wanted to have fun with the extremes people have been going to during this time. 

Our short film took up the majority of our time as there was a lot to edit. I personally had to create a script to narrate the entire film, and this was not an easy task. To come up with the words, as well as time it correctly and record till I say it correctly, I was surprised with how much more time it took than I thought it would. Additionally, Onil and I had to spend some time hand making and gathering some of the sound effects to play throughout the film. We managed to find the perfect soundtracks on our editor, WeVideo, which was an important element to shifting the mood when needed. I was really pleased with how it turned out. For not being able to see Onil and only communicate through technology, I believe we did an excellent job. 

Our website started off quite rocky as both Onil and I struggled to navigate through all the buttons and editing tools, but once we got the hang of it, we flew through it. By working together adding in pictures, links, and designing it the way we felt went well with the theme of our short film, we got it done in no time. We decided to create a color scheme of red, black, white, and grey. Throughout all of our digital components these colors are displayed, which helped with branding. We used Wix and I have to say, I’m now a huge fan of this site! They provided us with so many amazing fonts and templates and I loved how they linked our website to an editor for a mobile version. This process was fun and easy (not too easy of course), but easier than the editing for our short film, laugh out loud.

Lastly, our advertisement postcard was super simple and it turned out pretty cute. We wanted the main picture to be of our main actor, Orian Drore, so we took an up-close portrait of her with a mask on. We manipulated the color of the photo, washing out the saturation and vibrancy, which gave it a dull effect that we used within our short film. We included our social media platforms, and made sure to advertise that it is coming soon. If we were to give these out to our target audience of teenagers at Chipotle or school, we feel this would definitely appeal to them. 

Overall, I’m super relieved that it is all over, but super sad as well. I’m going to miss Tina with my entire heart, but I will never forget what she has taught me and what I have to bring with me.

Enjoy,

Amanda :)