Film - Changes Due to COVID-19

Reflection

2020 was an interesting year, as well as the adjustments that needed to be made in response to the year’s events. In particular, the pandemic was not expected to be as prevalent in our lives here in the United States. This is the overall topic of my film.

This semester we were tasked with creating films that highlighted change in various areas: social justice, personal change, change due to COVID-19, or environmental change. I decided to focus on the changes due to COVID-19 because of the effect the virus has had on the nation. Although the virus originated overseas, we as people have the ability to the progressing of the virus through the use of masks. If we can recognize the benefits to our health that masks provide, there is a greater chance to slow the spread.

To begin creating my script, I gathered information around the virus, life before it, and life after it. I wanted my film to showcase the progression of the virus and how its effect impacted the nation and world. My script is in chronological order from when the virus was discovered to it entering the United States. The script is free verse because I found writing this way allowed me to be more creative and incorporate what I say into the film. Being that this is a Project-Based Learning(PBL) project, connections to other classes needed to be made. I made a cross-curricular connection to US History by including the phrase “Obey the laws, and wear the gauze. Protect your jaws from septic paws.” The quote was a common phrase that was used to remind the people of San Francisco and later other areas to wear their mask during the 1918 Influenza pandemic. Another important quote from my script states, “Wearing a mask protects you from infection but it shouldn’t have to take you wanting to have some fun to realize it.” Seen in various new stories, people have only realized the severity of the virus after they have become infected. More often than not, they became infected from not following the CDC guidelines to social distance and wear masks.

Filming and video editing was completely new to me so I was unaware of the amount of effort that it took to produce a video. I made a film production plan that outlined what I wanted to shoot and what parts of the script aligned with what. Although my film focused on the news coverage of the coronavirus, I was required to include at least 8 original shots of my own in the video. All of the original footage was captured in my home and I was happy with how they turned out. I did not have access to iMovie, an easy application to use, so I instead used a video-editing software called Easy Video Maker. I read an instruction website that taught me how to use it, though I sometimes had some difficulty finding what I wanted(I believe it was updated after the website was published). However, once I understood how to use the application, using it became much easier. Initially, my background music was Gaho’s(가호) Stay Here(있어줘), but I had to change it because it was going to be uploaded to YouTube.

I was worried at the beginning of the production process because I was not always aware of what I was doing, but I believe that the film turned out good. I’m not sure how I feel about the use of images among the video clips. I may end up changing in the future if I feel like it needs to be changed. The production planning helped me a lot with the creation of the film because I may not have known what to film when I got started. At the end of the production process, I can confidently say that I know how to edit videos more efficiently and effectively.

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