Horror Film
So in honor of Halloween, our teacher gave us a very unique assignment, we had to create a trailer for a film based on a prompt that our teacher provided to us. Then we had 60 minutes to plan the film because in the next class we would be given 90 minutes to edit and film.
Due to this project, my team and I were able to gain many skills, especially improvisation skills. I was the actress, Sofia Lander was the director, and Gerardo Leon was the editor. We created a very funny trailer about a girl living a normal life until she got haunted in her school bathroom. This was very fun and my group and I had an amazing time recording. It was super stressful since we had to do everything super quickly however when we finished it was so interesting to see what we created as well as seeing what other people were able to create in such little time.
Documentary
As well as creating silly fun films, Sofia, Gerardo, and I also made a documentary about teachers who were previously students at my high school. We had to plan, record, and edit the document. I was the director with Sofia and then Gerardo was the editor. Previously to starting this project we discussed documentary conventions as well as viewing two very interesting documentaries called "Exit through the gift shop" and "American Promise" here we were able to gather real knowledge of how different documentaries come out in the end.
To begin, we started thinking of our subjects and we came up with Ms. Pinzon and Mr. Calderon, two very wonderful teachers who were previously alumni at our high school. We contacted them and asked them if they would like to participate and fortunately for us, they agree to be a part of our project. Later, we began to brainstorm different shots we needed and also came up with a list of 20 different b-roll shots we had to include. Our main question was "How does the perspective change from being a student in Cypress to working at Cypress?" Then came up with a list of 8 different questions to ask them:
1. When you graduated did you want to come to teach in Cypress?
2. Have you ever had a student that reminded you of yourself when you attended school as a student?
3. How have these generations developed differently?
4. How has your point of view of the school changed now that you experience everything from a teacher’s POV?
5. How have security measures changed from when you went to school?
6. How do you think technology has affected the way students interact and develop themselves in school grounds? Compare with your past experience?
7. What's something that you wish you could bring back from your days as a Cypress Student?
8. Do you think you are the teacher younger you would have liked to have?
The process of interviewing them was super fun we got to know a different aspect of our teacher we didn't know before. We gathered a bunch of information and after interviewing we would walk around our school looking for nice shots to include as b-roll. Later we sent everything to Gerardo so he could edit. After, we critiqued our documentary as well as the documentaries our classmates created. We were able to see where we went wrong and how we could improve next time we were placed in the situation that we needed to create a documentary.
Link to documentary planning:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eG70mo2ugPETcpFUS_bhKG_t9j6a_nq8/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103323302799741278093&rtpof=true&sd=true
