Zenith

Introduction

The Zenith project is a final project to demonstrate all we have learned at Freestyle while still expanding our skillsets. It is defined as the “Ultimate Freestyle Project.” As film students, we apply our knowledge of pre-production, production, and post-production to make a video that we have complete creative freedom.

My Zenith Project is an experimental documentary that incorporates animation and digital camera footage. I loved the documentary unit, and I wanted to try a new documentary mode while also learning how to do animation on Procreate. Reaching out and interviewing over forty high school seniors and hearing their experiences and stories from childhood to now led to a product that hopefully portrays the message that although we have many differences, we all have common passages of life.

The biggest challenge throughout this process was learning animation. I had never done anything even close to animation in the past which made this project a great final challenge in my Freestyle career. Drawing each frame was extremely time consuming, and blending the different visuals was an added difficulty, but I am happy with the final product.

I incorporated my production class skills into my project. During pre-production, I wrote out interview questions that I thought would be the most thought provoking. I learned this through our past documentary project and tried to implement what worked and what did not work during the interviews. During production, I used my knowledge of film techniques, and camera angles while interviewing people, as well as getting b-roll. Finally, in post-production, I used Premiere Pro to edit footage, animation, as well as audio to create a unique blend of visuals and sounds.

Behind the Scenes: Procreate + Premiere Pro

Completed Project