Film Club

In 6th grade, a friend and I started a club completely based around making movies, purely for the enjoyment and just as something to do in our free time. Over time it grew and we found about ten people in total that enjoy doing the same things that we did. Back then, i'll be honest, our films were rubbish. Recently we've watched them all back and realized how ridiculous some of our ideas were, and i'm sure in a couple years we can look back on the videos we are making now and think they are out there as well. Today, i'm a junior in high school and we continue to make videos, but I like to think that these are much more professional than the work of a sixth grader. In the past, we really only made videos for our personal benefit, but now we try to do so much more. Recently, we entered into the 100 Words Film Festival and actually won first prize in the student category. We also have done several videos around the school to help out as much as possible, plus we enjoy it, so why not put it to good use. 

Relating back to the festival, that was without a doubt the best video we have ever made, however it was much different than anything we had ever done before, so I was surprised at how well it turned out. Most of the videos we have made in the past have turned out as a comedy, whether that is what we planned on making it as or not. Somehow, everything we tried to make always had a comedic element to it. But, this video was different, much different. We did our best to pull at the audience's emotions and try to make the video as memorable as we possibly could. 

After working with this group since 6th grade, I feel like our relationships have grown to be extremely strong throughout the years and we can really work together well and easily toss ideas of off each other without issue. Obviously some of our ideas are not the best, but I like to think that we have had multiple ideas that I am really proud of. I suppose at least one of our ideas was good enough to win a film festival, so I am really proud of that one.

World of 7 Billion

This past week we worked on creating a short video about deforestation, water scarcity, or public health. These videos were submitted to the "World of 7 Billion" video contest. I chose to create a video on deforestation, I thought it would be interesting to learn more about how quickly our forests are depleting. I learned a lot of new information about how severe deforestation is and how it is imperative that we spread awareness and find a solution. As for my video, I wish I could have found a better song to play in the background and maybe added some sound effects to the beginning rather than just a song. 

I think my video definitely could have been better if I was not working in such a short time period. I probably would have been able to find the song I was looking for and added sound effects to the beginning. I would have liked to make it a little longer and add text to clips rather than just black screens, but I wasn't able to find and other videos to use. I liked working alone because I was able to use purely my ideas, although I like being able to combine ideas with others. Overall, I was very happy with the way my video turned out. It was pretty close to how I had imagined it would turn out. I do wish I could have added more detail to sounds and a better song, but other than that, I thought it turned out just as I had wanted it to.

Service Via Video

As I have written about before, I am doing a video project for a local animal shelter. We are trying to promote it as much as possible and hopefully we will be able to get some donations and volunteers at the shelter. My group and I are going today to film and interview two employees of the shelter. After we finish editing, our whole class will be entering our videos into a competition entitled Service Via Video. Hopefully we not only do well in the competition, but mainly I want our video to impact the community and reach out so that the shelter will receive some donations and assistance from the community.  I think my group has a good vision for this video, and I am hoping that it all goes how we plan it.

DigCit Field Trip

We were recently put into small groups and given a non-profit organization to create a video for and promote them. I was given the local animal shelter to make a video promoting what they do and spreading their name so that people will know about them. This way people can give them animals they can no longer keep rather than leaving them out on the streets. Yesterday our whole class traveled to each organization and met several people that worked at each. At the animal shelter, our main goal is to spread the name of the shelter, this way people know that it is there and can properly take care of animals if they are no longer wanted or for some reason they can no longer take care of them. Hopefully after our video is released to the public the animal shelter will have more people coming in and adopting animals. 

There are several other organizations that we are working with such as food pantries and our local rotary club, the goal of our project is to get their names out so that they can receive some donations and hopefully they can be even more successful than they are currently. We are also entering these videos into a video contest about service, hopefully one of our videos can win a prize for our organization.

PSA Feedback

This past week in DigCit we have been showing our PSA projects to our school and hoping to get them out and see some real feedback. We are showing one a day and hoping to get people to watch them and learn something rather than just forgetting what we show them and saying, "Oh, that won't happen to me". My groups main goal was to have people be careful about what they post online as it can and will harm you in the future when you submit college and job applications. As people are paying attention to more social media when considering who to hire or accept, it is important to be cautious regarding what we are posting online. Most of the time when posting things, I personally never think about possible consequences that could potentially arrive in the future just because of one post. 

Overall, I have received a lot of positive feedback from teachers and other students at our school about my PSA. I am glad that some students have come to the realization that they need to be careful on what they post online because after all the hard work we put into getting good grades and being accepted into a great school, nobody wants that to be ruined because of a meaningless post on Twitter. Hopefully, more students have learned something from my PSA than just the few that have said something to me. I know how hard it can be to keep up with everything going on in 7 classes at once and I wouldn't want anyone to have their dream college deny them, not because of grades, but because of a dumb post online.

PSA Project

This past week or two we have been working in groups on our PSA projects in order to spread awareness about our given topics. We worked in groups of 3-4 and my group received a topic concerning digital footprints and why you should be cautious of what you post. Our group focused on the fact that everything you post online will always be there and will always be able to be seen by anyone who wants to. Everything you post can and will effect your future so we tried to drill that into the head of our viewers so that people do not ruin their future because of a post that at the time seemed harmless. In DigCit, we often speak of how what we post online will effect our college applications and job applications. So, this is a topic that we are somewhat familiar with and could easily depict what would happen if you are not cautious. Some of the phrases we used might be seen as a little dramatic or severe (like the one below), but we did this on purpose so that people watching would not shrug our message off and say, "Oh, that won't be me". 

Because it always happens to someone and if you are posting things that could put your future in danger, you are putting yourself in danger and you could potentially be the next victim.

Spreading Word of The Knightly News

Just yesterday, in DigCit, we held a Google Hangout call with a professional freelance artist, Kevin Beaty. He attended our school before the high school was created and we were just a middle school, however our art teacher taught him in high school which is where the connection was made. The great thing about what he does is that this class is mainly describing what he does for a living. He gave us certain advice on how we can get out into the public and spread awareness for our projects. Mainly my goal has just been in person at school and on social media. But now, after talking with a professional, I realize that doing more in person would also be just as helpful as social media. Personally, I feel like social media would be the best for my project because then I could just add the link to my videos in any post that I make about The Knightly News. 

Whilst talking to Kevin, he showed us an informational booklet that he used to promote his work and to recieve new jobs. I think possibly making, almost a commercial for the Knightly News would be helpful in getting the word out all around the school. Also, I think that this way people will know when to expect the next episode and hopefully the will be looking forwards to it. Like I have said earlier, I want this project to be as informative as possible, but in order to make it interesting and have students look forward to watching it, there is going to have to be a comedic element in the videos.