“Creating a Short Film Portraying a Teenager’s Mental Health Journey throughout Quarantine.”

Sharing my personal problems with others wasn’t something I did often, as I feared judgment. I often bottled up my feelings and went on with my day, which increased the number of problems I had. As I got to talk to more teenagers my age, I realized that I wasn’t the only one facing these issues. I realized that I wasn't facing this alone and it felt good to know that others are experiencing similar issues as me. I know that reaching out to someone or acknowledging the fact that I wasn't alone could've helped me during that difficult time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of that back then. ​Now that I know, I think it's important for other teenagers to be informed of this fact. Especially since quarantine began, more teenagers are having difficulties with their mental health. It’s also important because many people feel uncomfortable discussing these topics, since many still view it as “taboo”.

According to a survey I conducted, one of the questions was to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 - 10 before and after quarantine. 37.7% of the responses for before were an 8 out of 10. Most people answered with either 5 or 7 out of 10, in regards to their happiness after quarantine. Seeing different reasons and perspectives from those responses made me realize that at a time like this, it would be nice to know that you’re not going through this alone.

With these survey results and research from other sources, I want to create something beneficial for the teenage community. With my interest in film-making, I plan on creating a short film portraying a teenagers mental health journey throughout quarantine. This short film is going to be inspired by interviews, research, and my own personal experience. After many drafts, I’ve decided my final goal is ​To research and interview teenagers regarding their mental health journey throughout the pandemic. Then, write and produce a short film and showcase a teenager’s experience. ​To put it simply, I want to create this film to give teenagers a voice and send the message, ‘you are not alone.’

Having to record this short film during quarantine will be highly challenging as it will affect my lack of inspiration and the filming process since we have to follow the protocols. It will require in-depth research and a lot of time to formulate ideas, write a script, and record the film itself. The first thing that came to mind when I thought of a personal project was filmmaking. I was always interested in creating my own short film with a beneficial purpose. I want to create a captivating and relatable film for teenagers to watch, or anyone else struggling during this difficult time.

Global Context

The Global Context my personal project focuses on is Identities and Relationships. This global context focuses on inquiring who we are and our relationships with different people. Identities and Relationships correlate with my project as I am going to show that every teenager has a different mental health journey. Throughout the creation of my project, strands I'll be further exploring include identity, human relationships, and mainly mental health.

Product

As planned, I made a short film regarding a teenager’s experience and mental health journey during quarantine. No teenager’s story is the same, and not all would be able to relate to the character portrayed in my film. But in this film, the message “you are not alone” needed to be clear. In this film, strands from the global context ​identities and relationships are clearly involved as the character is still finding herself and her relationship with others. The short film consists of scenes showcasing a few days in the life of a 16-year-old girl in quarantine. She struggles finishing her exam, loving her body, loses her trust and overthinks, but she experiences happiness, growth and understanding.

The script of this short film isn’t too detailed as I feel that it’s better if the actors improvise more as they are also teenagers living during this time. An ATL skill I developed was ​thinking skills as I had to critically think on how I could make a realistic and relatable short film. My aim was to spread awareness on teenagers' mental health during quarantine and hope many feel heard and understood by this film. It isn’t only teenagers who go through this but people of all ages, which I tried to show through a small clip of the main character’s mom, a therapist, calling with one out of her many adult clients. I wished to improve this film with more actors and time, but due to the Covid protocols; it was best to keep the time and cast to a minimum.

Reflection

The process of creating my short film “KAIA; it’s all part of the journey” has taught me many valuable lessons and helped me gain a deeper understanding regarding this topic. Referring back to the global context for my project, ​identities and relationships, ​I learned a lot about teenagers' challenges and ways to overcome them. Especially during quarantine, their lives took an unexpected turn and many things changed.

When it comes to identities, there are a lot of things to unpack starting with the challenges and the ways they cope or defeat them. Each teenager has their own struggles, with their mental, physical and personal health, with finding a hobby or talent they really enjoy and constantly questioning “who am I?”. I often wonder if I’m the only one struggling with a problem, and discussing and interviewing other teenagers really helped me understand that most of us are going through many of the same problems, just differently. Almost everything revolves around technology and social media nowadays.

Us teenagers rely on it in both positive and negative aspects of our life. We rely on these gadgets and apps to help us study with online school, entertain ourselves through various medias and also discover new things online. Though, we often find ourselves comparing our lives, looks and identity to others on social media which is mentally harmful. It can damage one's self-esteem and make them feel the need to change who they really are. Many cope with that by taking social media breaks and doing something they enjoy. It’s beautiful, the way teenagers cope and express their feelings. Some express it through a form of art, by sculpting, sketching and writing lyrics. Some find it relaxing to clean their space. Some rely on prayer and religion, which brings them closer to their families. There are so many different coping mechanisms teenagers use to face their challenges so they can continue living their lives.

Even though they know it’s true, the saying “people come and go in your life” is one of the most hated saying to most teenagers. The thought that your relationships with your family, friends, or significant other, won’t be perfect or long lasting, is difficult to grasp. It’s hard to really believe that a relationship you have with someone that’s been there for you for so long doesn’t work out or that people just slowly get distant.

For some, staying at home with just their families for about 11 months has caused feelings of loneliness, unsupported and has caused many disagreements. As much as they love their family, some don’t feel understood and heard in their homes and miss physically interacting with other people. Although, some teenagers who consider themselves as an “introvert”, don't feel as affected during quarantine because they often feel at peace when alone. So many relationships have changed and sometimes I feel alone, but I learned that it’s totally normal and that the only person who will really be there for me and solve my issues is myself. No matter what anyone says, it has to come from me.

IB Learner Reflection

As an IB learner, I’ve reflected on a few IB Learner Profiles throughout my project. These IB Learner Profiles develop overtime as I learned and achieved new skills. A few of the IB learner profiles that I connected with includes ​reflective, inquirer, communicator ​and ​open minded. They’ve developed ever since I brainstormed the idea for my project until I finished the creation of my short film.

When I was deciding my topics, I showed my ​reflective trait as I was able to assess my strengths and weaknesses and choose a practical topic that I was truly interested in. “They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience”. I reflect about my experiences and my plans for the project by questioning myself

“Will that experience be beneficial when I direct this film?”, “If I was the actor, would I be able to act this out perfectly?” and so much more. These questions are also asked because I’ve acquired more skills to conduct purposeful research by being an ​Inquirer.​ I got to understand more of my concept through interviewing experts and teenagers and hearing their experiences during quarantine. I had to think critically and keep growing my curiosity on the topic of teenagers’ mental health during quarantine.

To be a ​communicator i​s to be collaborative and work with others by starting discussions and asking for their opinion. To respectfully listen to their opinion and see from their perspective. I had many discussions with my friends regarding my vision and ideas for this film and how I want it to look like. Listening to their opinions really helped, sometimes, they would suggest amazing ideas that I loved. Communicating with the camera man and the actors is very important so I could bring the script to life. It was crucial to successfully convey my message and thoughts through the script and visuals. Just like an inquirer, an open-minded person respectfully listens to people's inputs and suggestions. I showed that I was open-minded through seeking and viewing things from a range of point of views. Growing out of my bad past habits and trying new and better things is a trait of an open-minded person, which I somewhat developed. Throughout the months of creating this project, my time management skills have improved drastically, as I’ve made more organized weekly to-do lists/schedules to follow and keep me on track.