First Class Back! (Sep. 2nd)

Today was the first class back after a long rejuvenating summer break. Notwithstanding, I was unable to join the class in person, and have to relegate all my learning to online platforms. Nonetheless, my kind teacher and friends were able to set up a zoom so I could participate from home. Watching my friends in the classroom made me reminisce about the ambiance of the classroom since it has already been 2 months from when I last was there. Regardless, while Mr.Paterson rapidly covered what we learned in previous years to the new students, we watched videos that our peers put together, on Mr.Paterson's YouTube channel. Prior to the class, I had watched a substantial amount of the videos from the last PIE event when I took part as a presenter. However, all videos had been enhanced and condensed with more information from how I remember them. Additionally, the videos showcased were all diverse and compelling due to the producers' driven passion which is portrayed through the films. Our duty as viewers was to drop a like on all of the videos so it can psychologically push judges for a better review in the upcoming contest. 

I had contemplated submitting a video to this contest but was never able to decide on a message or sensation I wanted to strongly evoke in others. Seeing my close peers finding a passionate topic they wanted to convey and painting the facade throughout the video was so awe-inspiring. In my opinion, the significant majority of videos were about issues where young generations' voices were of paramount importance. For instance, body appearance on social media, littering, Japanese traditional dancing, friendships and etc are all topics that matter to teenagers. These are never the major talking points for adults, but after hearing what my peers had to say, I felt a strong need for young generations, specifically, to show interest and passion towards these issues at hand. Subsequently, using dominos to express environmental destruction, incorporating social media filters for showing the cons of photoshop, implementing unique editing techniques were all vital elements of the videos that complimented the content and augmented the video in general. All of the videos I watched today were thought-provoking and undoubtedly had areas that I could relate to as well, and for those that were extra manipulated left me sentimental. After experiencing the difficulties of fabricating a video last semester, the respect and admiration I had for my peers who depicted such defined images in their films, enlarged. To sum up, this enjoyable task today had me reflecting on themes/subjects I am passionate about that do not necessarily have to be on a global scale. Alongside meticulous mis-en-scenes I could utilize to portray that in a video for the future.