Introduction
The narrative unit was really exciting because I could use a lot of pent up ideas I had in the back of my mind or deep in my notes app hidden and presumably never to be heard. It was truly an exercise of organizing my thoughts and deciding which ones were flushed out enough to introduce in class. We explored the idea of telling a story through visuals only written in imagery and no dialogue which is always harder to do well.
I valued the experience of working more deeply with my classmates and the lessons in professionalism and openness on set. I got the opportunity to learn more about myself as a creative; all my strengths and moments to work on became very apparent in this unit and I am forever grateful for that.
Story
The narrative english unit gave us the opportunity to write a “flash fiction” or short story using in depth character development over the course of the couple months. I had a great experience with this because it’s where I can truly let my mind run with possibilities. I’ve read a ton of examples and the ones I found stuck with me were either hilarious or just perspectives I had never thought of, so I chose to write about a boy who’s identity had always been to “be a man” when my life is quite the opposite.
Caught in the Dirt
by julia hayden fung
I could hear the rattling of the engine factory next store, our thin walls sporadically vibrating. It was sweltering, the air thick with the strong scent of beer and cigars mashed into an unpleasant chewiness. I had just one more question to ask before I was to move into the abyss…. College; I’m moving to college and despite all the nerves and awkward nods from the town, the biggest unavoidable obstacle was my father. My lovely. Wonderful. Always awake and definitely fully functioning father. And thus, it was time to ask him for my extenuated permission slip to travel abroad. Our guide, Craig, had been on our ass’s about it for months and I, and with no fault of my own, was the last one.
“Dad. Daddious. FATHER. Yo. hey. Good morning, it’s me, your son. Permission slip…?” I said, waving my faded yellow paper in front him.
Kicking myself for my award-worthy nonchalance, I see his eyes begin to flutter open followed by the world’s grumpiest grunt.
“Yea whaddya want,” drool still falling away from his greying beard.
“Can you sign this permission form please? It’s the last bit of paperwork for the study abroad program. I could have just forged it, but since I don’t turn eighteen for the next 4 months, I’m still a minor.”
“You’re still a minor? Since when?” Finally opening his blood shot eyes to smirk at me.
“How bout since I was born, dad,” I say, worrying my eyes may just roll to the back of my head if this persisted.
“Mhm?”
“Funny, Dad. Now for all that is good and holy get up.” I swerve around his seat in search of a pen.
The creature grunted again as I closed my eyes to compose myself only to open and see his neck spilling over the armrest. So, I snagged the nearest pen and scribbled a messy JB. Jonathan Brandy. Johnny B. As my pen flourished off the page, my goals and suddenly undesirable ambitions could be seen dragging me off like a plane on a runway.
. . .
The streets looked so small. The clock on mainstreet getting farther and farther as the chattering of our cabin quieted down to listen to our pilot. A round of the world’s most random movie marathon later, we entered a vast land of European countryside, endless hills dusted in a thin frost. Even touching down, I felt like a floating feather, ready to let myself be taken by the wind.
The cobblestone streets were filled with tourists like us. Everyone out of place, but somehow creating a cohesive pathway with a goal ahead. The cold of a Stolkholm winter was getting to our group when our tour guide, our lovable Craig, ushered us all into a hole-in-the-wall cafe advertising kaffe and varm choklad. A whole group of 20 loud Americans was sure to turn heads, but I’m especially glad it turned his.
There was something about him. Something about his offensive lineman build, his gaze, his red hair and light eyes. He looked like an idyllic movie character. His quiet power drew my eyes closer and closer till I heard the line forming behind me mumble in words I couldn’t care to understand because I just wanted to understand him.
I couldn’t take my mind off his eyes, his smile. I wondered a whole two months if I’d ever see him again and made my piece that I wouldn’t. Our group’s artful walks turned to people watching, to momentary falling, to elderly men playing funny looking string instruments on the street. Everywhere I looked for him, but I just kept pushing it away. Far, far away.
Thoughts rumbled; obnoxious and unavoidable through my mind.
I loved that jacket.
I should try his hair style.
I wish I worked out more.
The time spent getting him out of sight out of mind was filled with historic buildings built from protest. Music flowing, a breath of fresh air. A group of friends I could finally explore and get to know, yet the biggest surprises lied within myself. His blue eyes. His fiery hair just couldn’t sense its unwelcome presence in my life.
I had just nearly gotten him out of my mind by the last day of our trip when I found my legs leading me to that same coffee shop. Went in to bid farewell to the cute girl at the counter and pick up my last drink before heading off the airport. Turning to leave I must’ve done a triple, quadruple take. There he was. Reading in the little nook by the exit sign. His smile, his jacket. I couldn’t quite describe it, but somehow within him, I saw my plane land.
Illustrator
I absolutely love butterflies. They bring me a sense of calm and my mom always tells me “I love you to the moon and back” and I don’t know if it always brings me a sense of warmth? I knew going into this project I wanted to make something sweet and minimalist so I settled on pastel colours on a white hoodie.
Th exquisite corpse was something I’ve always wanted to, but never knew the name of. We were assigned to a portion of the page to make it look like one continued image and I think ours looks pretty cool not knowing what was going to connect to each slide. My group aimed to have elements of sorts and play with different colour schemes in each image.
Film
This project is likely one of the most challenging processes I had been a part of at the time. It required breaking down the process as opposed to jumping in head first with ideas and mental shot lists. I love creating. But more often than not I tend to just like the making part of it more than the planning part of it. It made me truly think about the importance of a team in bigger productions, and having a whole cast and location that was available. It was the first time I had to coordinate with a co-director and I learned so much from that alone.
I worked with entirely new people for this project and since it was an in class project, we had to bounce ideas off each other really quickly. We learned a lot about the typical shots and orders in which they are added for opening scenes all as a tool for our junior narratives.
Suspense is something at one point or another in my career, I want to totally and completely master. I thought this project was so fun because its timeline forced us to think quickly and go with impulsive shots and other ideas. We made this suspense scene based around the fear of a character not getting home in time for curfew. We built it up using music and cross cutting quickly to instill insecurity to the audience about the main character achieving his goal.
This project was really fun. I feel like it was the first project that really reminded me of why I wanted to be at freestyle. We were given this assignment on a Wednesday and had to have it in by that Monday. I am very fortunate to have theatre friends that were willing to make this happen in the span of two hours and it made me really happy to run around and get the shots. I took this chase scene as more of a “how can I practice existing skills” and it turned into a mini short with some running (the actual chase) and a short plot.
Music Production
The music parody project might be one of the strangest, most embarrassingly entertaining projects I’ve ever had as a school assignment. I absolutely loved it. As a theatre kid, I took a song that I know well from Beetlejuice the Musical, and wrote it about my dog and his love of stealing food from our plates at meals. I challenged myself to dive in head first to the absurdity of it all and in the time given, blurted that idea out to a friend and went with it.