This is something that I created for myself when I was graduating High school.
All of my friends were getting their senior pictures done, but I didn't like the work that I was seeing so I resisted hiring a photographer. I have grown up around cameras, and I had video production as a hobby but at this point I did not want to be a multimedia specialist professional. I had the idea to make a Video Scrapbook of the year that everything about it would be uniquely me with the skills and emotions of the time. The Motion Graphics, Music, and everything involved with the production was created by me. I wrote the script and preformed it myself so that as I get older I can see and hear how I develop.
Some of the techniques used in this piece make me cringe now (March 2021). I would not call them wrong, just an earlier state of development. I did end up having a senior picture after all. It is screenshot of a video clip that inspired the selective color motif that is present in the entire video. It is why I like this project so much.
I talk about my faith journey in this project. This is the main point of the project, because you can not separate my creativity from my faith. My faith is my fuel that impacts everything I do. Recording my thoughts at the time is what brings me back to this year after year.
I created a teaser trailer for my personal Instagram, because IGTV wasn't a thing in spring of 2018.
Script for Senior Snapshot 2018
"This was made so that years or months in the future I could look back at this and think, “Wow, I really knew nothing didn’t I?”.
As of the time of this recording I am seventeen going on eighteen, I’ve almost officially been graduated from my high school, and I didn’t think I would make it this far. My freshman year was the hardest, to be sure, but in general I didn’t think senior year would come. It was always so far away. Then there it was, and now here it goes.
Right now I am analytical, artistic, and eclectic. I’ve really enjoyed studying small business and the online video industry this year; I’ve started volunteering more, and I have rediscovered passions for teaching and influencing people.
I like details. A lot of them. It’s the technical details I like because they help me create art. I’m a very thoughtful person, but I wouldn’t call myself an introspective thinker. I just have kept a journal sine I could write about my thoughts and feelings.
Right now I am having the strangest feeling. I don’t know if it has a name, but it’s the feeling of ‘being prepared and knowing what to do but also of not being prepared and not knowing anything.’ Basically, I have no idea where my next step is. I’m just walking. I know I need to follow the signs, but I can’t always see them. I’ve been the way before, but I can’t remember it. I can see the end, but I am blind to even what is right in front of me. But as crazy as that sounds, I am never alone.
I am in the midst of a guided tour, with many friendly but clueless people around me, but what makes it better is the guide Himself who knows my name. So it’s not as scary or as frightening as one would think.
I’ve learned a lot this year, but it didn’t really start with this year. The foundation was already built, but now I have the walls installed.
I break everything down. Every piece of media, story, picture and other mitral, all in it’s small parts. My brain never turns off. Not because I want to judge a product, but because I want to learn from it.
I am technically creative, or creatively technical. Which ever. Both apply. All of my hobbies are very detail oriented. Astronomy, baking, video production, all need practice and skill.
Is learning all that stuff hard? Yeah, a little bit, but I started most of that when I was much younger. It’s just that this year I have a deeper understanding, and therefore a grater appreciation for the craft.
I’ve learned a lot this year, but it didn’t really start with this year. My high school career is book ended with two very important lessons. The first was learned in freshman year, when I learned to seek God. The second in senior year, I learned to trust God.
I now know the difference between the words, truth and truthiness. This year I learned to study the Bible for myself by myself. Before I would just read parts of it, now I learn from all of it. I studied apologetics in a deeper way this year. Which has made my walk with God even more excited about Him. Before I would just believe the person who taught me, now I trust God’s word.
I don’t know what the future holds. But God does. Is my future bright? I would say yes, because it’s not about the circumstances or situations of living, which will always have dark moments, but about the Star-Breather, Mouth-Filler, and Master, that is God."
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