On the 11th of January, Ethan, Jeannie, Nathan, and I were in a little pickle. We sat in our little group, racking our heads for a new package idea. It’s sad to say that we were already experiencing a little burnout already, which isn’t ideal for this class. We looked around the room, desperate for inspiration… until we landed our eyes on a pair of airpods, wedged between the two ears of a fellow BBN member.
So airpods… What next? At first, we didn’t expect nor want to make airpods the main focus, and instead, Nathan suggested doing a package based on Bandersnatch. However, due to the video game package having come out a mere 3 episodes ago, doing another choice-themed package was too much. So, we just settled on making a creative revolving around these darn airpods and we got to wondering what an eye-catching and gripping plot we would have to come up with in order for the student body to relate to and be impressed by our package. Minutes upon minutes, we sat in our seats, heads propped on our hands with eyes trained on the airpods that we could see sticking out of people’s ears. Finally, the light bulbs lit up on top of our heads. What if the airpods were controlling the humans? Oh my gosh – it was brilliant (at least in our minds)!
“So what would the focus statement be,” I asked.
“We’re teaching students to… to use airpods at an appropriate time. Yea, that’s it.”
Focus statement – check. Plot – somewhat figured out. Actors – that’s going to be a problem.
Since we were going to have to film during finals week, the probability of finding someone who would want to give up their precious study time in order to act in the package decreased exponentially. We also had to consider whether or not we needed the actors to have airpods (the budget for this video…). First off, Jeannie and I spent a couple of hours developing a complete plot line and writing the script in order to gain a better understanding on the types and number of actors that we required. The list is as follows: MC: April Ma, Student 2: Kevin Hinh, Student 1: Nathan Tran, Delinquent Student: Parker Johnson, Teacher: Mrs. Chaicharee. Props to all our student actors for giving up time out of their day to help us out!
As usual, the shot list came next, which again, took a couple of hours for Jeannie and I to develop. It may sound intimidating, but it definitely helped us in the long run since we had a rough idea of the types of shots we wanted to take and at what angles. However, there were minor setbacks here and there with lack of communication and understanding, which is not unlike other group projects, but we pulled through by the time we had planner checks. The moral of that: communicate with your group members!
Planner checks went by as usual. Questions were asked about the plot, whether or not we contacted actors yet, and a brief analysis of our shot list. It was greenlit.
While we had people in mind for actors, we had to double-check whether or not they were truly free during the week of finals. While we had Mrs. Chaicharee in plan, she, unfortunately, was not available when Jeannie and I asked during passing period to 6th, and we defeatedly walked to bio. Oh wait, bio. We then had the idea of asking Mrs. Barro to be in our package and luckily, she agreed! Oh, the relief that spread through our bones.
After having verified the dates and times, we promptly got to filming, determined to finish by Wednesday. However, right off the bat, we hit some snags. On the first day of filming, Mrs. Barro was unfortunately unavailable, where the substitute did not feel comfortable letting us use the room by ourselves. Therefore, we sped over to the BBN room and quickly asked Mr. Ziebarth if he would step in for us as we did not want to keep our actors waiting after they had dedicated their valuable time to us. Luckily Mr. Ziebarth agreed since it was a matter of emergency, where BBN members and Mr. Ziebarth should not be asked to be in videos unless it pertained to them or if it was an emergency, like our case. This is due to our a duty as BBN to include our diverse student population in our packages.
Even though we got Mr. Ziebarth to film with us, a lack of communication between group members caused filming to take a bit longer than expected since we spent quite a bit of time debating over the shot list.
The second day of filming occurred with all the actors being present, where she shot all but one scene in that after-school session, of which our actors did an amazing job at staying consistent with their lines and actions even if we had them repeat the lines multiple times. After that, the final day of filming took place during the week of finals and it goes without saying that we were all stressed out, especially since we still had to complete the editing process. Even if a package is shot extremely well, bad editing can mask all that.
In the end, we managed to finish on time, but in my opinion, the package definitely had room for improvement. Lack of sound effects in certain places and the message of having appropriate times to use airpods getting lost at some point didn’t make this the most appealing package. In the end, we all put in our best efforts while attempting a daringly complicated package for our final, so to complete it felt like a victory of its own.
