Documentary 1

Introduction

For my Junior Documentary Project, we were challenged to find an important or interesting person in our community and then interview with the person to share their story with the world. We used other quotes and research to develop a specific perspective about our interviewee. We incorporated this perspective in our English Profile Article, in brochure, and in our elective final projects. In Design 1 we were instructed to to create a Magazine Ad based on our research topic. This project allowed us to develop our skills of researching, Profile Writing, Video creation, and many different techniques in our elective classes.

Design 1 Visual Production

Throughout my junior year at Freestyle, I have created many visual productions in Digital Media and in my Design 1 Elective Class using Adobe programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Illustrator. Here below are some of the Visual Productions I’ve created this year.

In my Design 1 class, we were instructed to create a Magazine Ad using our InDesign skills to promote our Interview. I choose an advertisement for a podcast interview. My interviewee, Jessica Esparza who watched her mother abuse drugs and had to deal with many hardships because of her mother’s drug addiction throughout her childhood and teenage years. I created a house in Illustrator to represent the main issue. I put the house on top of many stacked books to show how my mother was dealing with all this while also going to school. I also used a picture of a girl who shows sadness and confusion to represent my mother’s emotions while going through all of this. Finally, I used to quote “I was an adult before a teenager” which is something my mother because of the life she lived that many kids her age didn’t.

My Adobe InDesign “One Page Practice Flyer”

Artist Statement

Drug abuse…is something we have all heard from time to time but not many people truly understand the effects it has on a person just from growing up around it. In my ad, I created a “podcast” magazine ad promoting the “Everyday Living Podcast” and their first episode. I choose to do a podcast theme about my mother because it relates to the interview I did with her by adding that feeling where you can feel what’s happening when you listen to it and that’s exactly what a podcast that’s about someone’s life should feel like. I also photos and Illustrator art to show frustration and sadness along with other priorities my mother needed to get done while also helping her mom. Using the text “I was an adult before a teenager” really captures what I am trying to show through this interview because my mother’s life when she was growing up wasn’t the same as any other Mountain View High School student.

 During the process of creating this ad, we created mood boards to figure out what we wanted our final product to look like. I wanted to go with the theme of sadness, frustration, and problems in our world today. Using InDesign I started to put together the ad I used Photoshop to cut out the background of my photos which I ran into many problems trying to do this but eventually, I was able to get the hang of cutting backgrounds perfectly. I then used Illustrator to draw out a house I didn’t find any problems with this besides figuring out what shades I wanted to use along with colors. I added it all together by putting the house on top of the books to represent my mom still being a high schooler while going through all this and I then used a pic of a girl who was showed sadness/upset said to represent my mother’s emotions during this time. I enjoyed this project and I can’t wait to see what else we create.

My Adobe InDesign “One Page Practice Flyer” Creation Process

Digital Media 1 Video Production

In my Digital Media class, we were instructed to create a video using our After Effects skills to create an Intro Video for our Interview Recording. We got to use our skills to add traditions throughout our video along with creating text transitions.

My Intro Video for my Interview Recording

Process

During my After Effects editing process I had to shorten my photos I chose to match with my Intro Video Recording. I also had to add in transitions and text to also add up with my Intro Video Recording.

My After Effects Process

Digital Media 1 Audio Production

Throughout our junior year at Freestyle as well, I created many Audio Productions in my Digital Media using the program Avid Pro Tools. Here are some of the Audio Productions I’ve created this year.

Practice 4 Chord Song

In this unit we also got to learn how to use the Pro Tool Instruments and how they work.

My 4 Chord Song Creation Process

Experimental Music

For this project we got to create a song using the Pro Tools Instruments. With our new skills in Pro Tools I was able to create a techno type beat along with getting to experiment with new sounds and techno related sounds.

My Experimental Music Production Process

English

In English we were instructed to interview someone who was important or interesting in our community. Once we figured out who we wanted to interview we then had to record the interview write a transcript of the recording, find other sources that backed up our topic, and then write finally writing a 3-5 pages article about our interviewee in the profile article form. I interviewed my mother on her growing up around her mothers drug addicted to heroin and the effects it had on her.

Profile Interview Transcript

0:12 Noah: Hi, welcome thank you for being here today, my name is Noah Esparza, and I’ll be interviewing my mom today. Could you please state your name, where you live, and what you do for a living?

0:23 My Mom: My name is Jessica Esparza and I uh… Live in Mountain View, California and I’m currently unemployed and a full-time stay-at-home mom and wife.

0:28 Noah: Tell me a little bit about your experience growing up in Mountain View.

0:54 My Mom: um… I have lived in Mountain View since I was 8 years old so that’s 32 years now I’m 40 currently I’ll be 41 this year and I have a great experience growing up in Mountain View I love the city, I love the culture, I love um… You know the small-town vibes that it provides and I feel very fortunate to have grown up here.

0:55 Noah: Which schools did you attend in Mountain View and did you graduate?

1:42 My Mom: I did… I graduated from Mountain View High School um… Class of 1999 the same school you go to and prior to that I went to springer school springer elementary where I attended 3rd and 4th grade and then um… I went to Castro elementary where I attended 5th grade that was across town and then from Castro I went to Graham Middle School um..6th through 8th grade and then I went to Mountain View where I graduated and I was there from obviously…you know 4 years.

1:43 Noah: Can you talk a little more about your experience at Mountain View High School?

2:13 My Mom: Yeah… Mountain View was great I mean I feel like it was the best 4 years of my life I had a lot of ups and down lot of great experiences I made a lot of great friends I think… You know in high school you really blossom and develop and I was fortunate enough to go to a great school with great teachers um… People from all walks of life and uh… Yeah, I really enjoyed my time at Mountain View I have really fond memories of it and I developed a lot of lifetime friendships while I was there.

2:14 Noah: Awesome!

2:17 Noah: Can you elaborate more on your experience as a high school student living on their own?

2: 20 My Mom: Yeah so.. so basically when I was at Mountain View.. so I went to Mountain View and then the summer before my senior year my mom passed away in an unexpected circumstance where she had an aneurysm which is basically a stroke and she ended up passing away and my mom was a single mom and my dad had passed away when I was 10 years old so when my mom passed away that left me and my younger brother on our own um… It was the summer before my senior year at Mountain View and so this was 1998 summer of 98’ and I had just literally turned 18 2-weeks before my mom suffered from her stroke and passed away so um… And my brother actually it was the night of my brother’s 17th birthday so my brother had just turned 17 the night before I had just turned 18 2-weeks prior to that and here we were on our own so um.. we did what we had to do you know we didn’t really have a lot of options but we both knew we wanted to graduate high school and you know we knew how important it was to our mom that we finish school and so we did what we had to do and you know…. we adjust and adapted and overcame and I was still able to graduate on time and so was my brother.

3:49 Noah: How did you get by in life on your own?

3:51 My Mom: It was difficult… it was really hard because we had no parents and luckily I was 18 and by law, I was able to be my brother’s legal guardian but um… It was very difficult… we had no parents prior to my mom passing I had never done laundry, I had never done grocery shopping, I had never paid bills… So I had no choice but to figure it out uh… We did have my grandma who lived locally… My grandma was also a native of Mountain View and so we were able to depend on her slightly but my grandma was also older she was in her you know late 80’s so there was… she had limited you know mobility and there was only so much she could do to help us but we were fortunate enough to receive uh… Sole secured benefits from our parents you know cause they had worked through our there lives so we received those benefits and those benefits were enough to pay our rent and provide us with some food and then my brother and I worked we worked you know we went to school full time and we both worked part-time plus to be able to provide for ourselves.

5:00 Noah: How were you feeling while going through this?

5:02 My Mom: It was very difficult you know I was a senior in high school I had no parents I was responsible for my younger brother who was 17 and junior at Mountain View at the time and you know we just… we did what we had to do we both went to school full time obviously at Mountain and we both worked outside of school we did have the support of our grandma who was a Mountain View native and lived locally so my grandma helped us as much as she could but she was also in her 80’s so you know there was limited mobility and limited availability for her to really do anything for us so my brother and I had to learn how to you know how to pay bills, grocery shop, and do laundry and just pretty much depend on each other to get by and we were able to do that you know I graduated in 1999 and he graduated in the year 2000.

5:57 Noah: What was the most challenging part about losing your mother?

6:00 My Mom: Um… the most challenging part was just really not having anyone to relate to right? because none of my friends had been through what I had been through nobody really had experienced what I was experiencing there was definitely no other seniors at Mountain View that had no parents that were living on their own and that’s difficult cause there’s no one that can completely understand what your feeling and what your going through but I also felt a sense of obligation because I was responsible for my younger brother so I didn’t really have the ability to mourn be weak or give up because I knew that I had to be strong for my brother.

6:51 Noah: Now how did you maintain your focus and strength during such a dark time?

6:56 My Mom: well to be honest with you I was raised catholic right? I went to church my entire life you know I was tough to follow the word of the lord and to be a good person and there was a lot of morals and values that I was brought up with that were implemented and honesty my faith in the lord and in Jesus Christ and god and my faith that there was something bigger than what was going on for me personally is what kept me going it gave me hope that there was something better out there that there was definitely a future for me regardless like this wasn’t the end and growing up with those morals and values really got me through it really helped me to like push through.

7:46 Noah: Noah did you feel anger or jealousy towards kids who had parents?

7:51 My Mom: Definitely all of my friends had their parents obviously and they would complain about their parents not giving them money or not buying them what they wanted…you know I would listen and I wouldn’t really say anything but in the back of my head I’m thinking god I wish I had that to complain about like you’re so lucky you have your parents you know? Like I wish I could complain that my mom was being difficult you know I wish I could say like oh my dad didn’t give me enough money this week you know? I don’t even have that opportunity to complain about because they’re gone so it was very difficult and it wasn’t so much jealousy it was like I kinda felt a sense of anger towards them because I felt like they were unappreciative for what they had.

8:40 Noah: Did you ever get to have a normal childhood like many other kids?

8:45: Honestly no…no both my parents were drug addicts alcholics they suffered wiht addiction their entireds lives it was never normal and when we moved to california when I was 8 years old nbeacuse ghats where my mother was fromm she grew up in Mountain View California when my parents married they moved to Michigan which is where I was born I was born in Pontiac Michigan and then when they divorced my mom obviously wanted to move back to California to be near her family because they were no longer married and she had none of her mediately family in Michigan her family was all here in Mountain View so we came back to Mountain View from Michigan to be with my mom’s family since my parents had divorced and as soon as we came back, of course, my mom who was a recently divorced single mother she pretty much just did what she wanted and so she kinda just disappeared on us and my grandma pretty much raised me and my brother and 2 years after we got to California when I was 10 years old my dad had passed away suddenly in michigan and then you know my mom suffered wiht drugs in and out of jail she suffered alot she had really strong addiction issues and unfortuantly we saw all of that so I really didn’t have any type of a normal childhood at all but at the same time I never didn’t feel loved I always felt like my mom loved me I always felt like she cared about me I always felt like she was a good person but unfortunately her addiction superseded her ability to be a good mom you know?

10:35 Noah: So you mentioned you’re currently unemployed did you previously have a job?

10:43 My Mom: Yeah…yeah prior to the pandemic I was the catering director for a catering company and before that, I was a catering manager for that same company and when I worked for them I was also was a waitress and bartender at a restaurant and then prior to that shortly after high school I was a bank teller where actually I got robbed at gunpoint so I ended up quitting there and then I worked for a business and publishing company that focused on the staffing industry and I worked there for almost 10 years until I had children and then I went to get into bartending after that because it provided flexibility so I could be home with my kids.

11:31 Noah: Do you see yourself returning to that carrier path?

11:34 My Mom: Uhh catering… absolutely I’d love to be a catering director again it’s so fun to plan people’s parties, weddings, whatever…I really enjoy that but I’m currently hoping to start my own business and if I do that then obviously I won’t be returning to the catering field… So will see what happens.

11:56 Noah: I also want to ask where do you see yourself in 5 years?

12:00 My Mom: Hopefully with my own very successful business, two kids in college, and own my own home and property so where out of state not in California but somewhere where I can have lots of land and a really nice pool.

12:20 Noah: Do you have any long-term goals that you wish to achieve?

12:26 My Mom: Yeah I want to make sure I do everything I can do to support my kids to be productive, functioning, and members of society and fulfill their dreams.

12:40 Noah: Now finally is there anything else we didn’t get to talk or anything you’d like to elaborate on?

12:50 My Mom: I don’t think so… but I would just say continue

Profile Article Outline

My Angle statement: While interviewing my mother it was really interesting to understand how she was able to really stay strong and really keep going in life to finish high school and to be the big sister she was for her younger brother after their mother had passed away. It’s an important story because it shows that although we may go through hardships in life where we feel as if life is over there is always going to be another way…another way to be stronger. My mother could have at any point used these hardships as an excuse to give up in school and fail or to not take care of her younger brother but she didn’t let that happen.

Profile Outline:

  1. Anecdotal Lead: For this, it has to be engaging for the reader so by using a little story or good hook I can lure the reader into finding interest in my interview. A good hook I want to use will start somewhere talking about my mom and how she was left on her own with her younger brother and how many people if they were in her situation as a high schooler most likely would have given up in life because they wouldn’t know how to adapt to these hardships.
  1. Nut Graf: Why does this person matter now? 
  • Many kids her age didn’t go through what she did.
  • My mother adapted to this hardship and stayed strong.
  • Substance abuse is a major problem worldwide and many kids just like my mother lives to see it every day.
  • My mother shows how she got over this hardship which can give many others who may be going through the same problem help and how they can adapt.
  1. III. Scene 1:
  • A little bit about my mom 
  • How she didn’t really have a normal childhood

IV. Chronology:

  • Appearance
  • How was her life every day
  • How she got over her hardships
  • What she had done in those years while these hardships went on

V. Scene 2:

  • What my mother saw growing up
  • How her parents using drugs affected her

VI. What Lies Ahead:

  • What my mother’s plan was after this hardship
  • What was something my mom wanted to overcome?
  • What do you want to do after high school?

VII. Closing Quotation:

  • I will use a quote from the interview that my mom talking about staying strong and fighting through hardships like this and never give up.

Works Cited:

I plan to use quotes from two of these websites

Works Cited

Written by the: National Institutes of Health

Compton WM, Jones CM, Baldwin GT. Relationship between nonmedical prescription-opioid use and heroin use. The New England Journal of Medicine 2016;374:154-163.

Written by: Rachel N. Lipari, Ph.D., and Struther L. Van Horn, M.A.Author Information: cbhsqrequest@samhsa.hhs.gov

Profile Article

Noah Esparza

Jason Greco 

Freestyle Academy Junior English

May 28th, 2021

I was an adult before I was a teenager

As it was time for school, ready to head out the door, the smell….a smell most people never grew up around a smell that was too familiar to me a smell that killed a smell that created an addiction.

In the living room area of her home, Jessica’s mother sat on an old green couch with a yellow and creme floral print with a spoon and lighter in her hands. Her reddish and small pupil eyes focused on the flame under the spoon, her hands had a slight shakiness to them as she heated the spoon. As she held the spoon in her right reddish and brown bubbles started to form on top of the spoon. In her left was the lighter which she let go of once the spoon was full of a dark brown liquid heroin. She put the lighter down and grabbed a piece of thin cloth. Wrapped it around her arm and found what she wanted a vein. Bloody and dirty she picked up a needle and collected the substance.

She layed back against the green couch with a very satisfied and relaxed expression, a high that was slowly killing her made her sleepy, feel not sick, and feel mentally better.

Now one of the most addicting drugs in the world heroin, “Heroin is a drug made up of morphine a psychoactive substance that is taken from the resin of the seed pod of the opium poppy. Heroin comes in white or brown powder and can even come in a sticky form called black tar heroin the color and look all depend on how it is truly made and what it may be mixed with and is a part of a class drug known as OPIOIDS” says the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

My mother Jessica Esparza was around the use of this opioid almost every day of her life. From a young age, Jessica’s mother abused this opioid along with many other people who would come over to get high in the place we call home. These experiences Jessica remembers were going on while she was attending Mountain View high school. A high school student dealing with a drug-abusing mother is one not many could relate to at her age. 

Heroin in the 70s was very easy and cheap to get “In the ’70s, a bag of heroin — enough to get a user high once — cost $30 and was about 28-percent pure.” said npr.org in their story called “Heroin in America.” Many overdose deaths grew because of the low purity and just how easy it was to get overall. 

Drug abuse around kids is something many wouldn’t know how to react to. Jessica represents a person who didn’t have anyone to go to explain her hardships to but managed to adapt showing kids out there living through these hard experiences to stay strong and never give up because there will always be another way to better yourself and overcome. 

As Jessica’s mother continued to use heroin, her mother one day had unexpectedly passed away due to an aneurysm the summer before her senior year and previous to that her father had also passed away when she was just 10 years old. As hard as it was on Jessica an 18 year old with no adult skills and a younger brother she could’ve given up and used this hardship as an excuse but she didn’t, she adapted and overcame and did what she needed to do for her and her brother. As a teen who lived through it all at such a young age there was no one for her to relate to about her life which made it harder for her because she felt as if she never got to live a normal childhood like the many other kids.

“My mother liked to smoke cigarettes after she would shoot up,” said Jessica. In the house, Jessica would see this and know what she needed to do and because of this, her mother would nod off with a lit cigarette in her hand. “Yeah, my mom would leave tons of burnt hold or marks on the couch from smoking a cig after she would shoot up,” Jessica says, and as a child already having to see your mother abuse heroin which had a huge impact on Jessica but now seeing that Jessia was also pretty much in charge of putting the fires out that would start on the couch because of her mother.

As Jessica’s senior year of high school started, she and her brother started to look for jobs. The adulting Jessica was experiencing made it much easier to work. “I was an adult before anyone of the other kids,” said Jessica. Jessica continued with high school “Praying and believing in the Lord and Jesus Christ helped me push through,” said Jessica. To make sure that she would graduate for her mother while also working part-time right after school with her brother to keep providing for the both of them.

Jessica was really on her own and because of this, she adapted to her life where she had no idea how to do “adult” things like how to pay bills, do laundry, or grocery shop. “It was difficult…it was really hard because we had no parents,” said Jessica. Jessica also mentioned that she had a grandma who was there for them but could only do so much for them as she was in her late 80s. They also had received sole secured benefits to help get by with rent and food. 

But as you become an adult it comes with many responsibilities and Jessica found that out very quickly. “Laundry,” Jessica said a responsibility that she didn’t know how to do at all. Everyone knew what laundry was but no one at her age was doing it because well usually their parents would take care of it for them. On her own, Jessica had to learn how to clean her dirty clothes so she could wear them for the next week or two.

“It was difficult at first to understand,” Jessica said. “I wasn’t sure what went where or what products to use.”

After a few failed attempts of doing laundry and figuring out how it works, Jessica was finally able to go to the laundry room with confidence. As she walked in people, laundry detergent, bleach, and machines rattling were around her. She put her basket down with the clothes and got to work she put the whites in a separate machine and the colored in another machine and for the first time, Jessica didn’t turn her whites into red or pink.

“I was so happy to know that I did it right for the first time without help it made me feel like I was grown up,” Jessica said. She finished up and let the clothes dry and went home. It was Jessica’s start at her many responsibilities that she needed to learn how to do but it was also hard on Jessica because her mother never got to teach her how to prepare for adulthood. “Like something was missing,” Jessica said.

Jessica lived a life many couldn’t think to imagine about ever in their life. The effect it had on her mentally really hurt her. But as I look back on my interview I see that she overcame so much as she grew up by taking care of her younger brother, dealing with a death, no parents, seeing drugs be abuse, and many more all before the age of 18 is something no kid should have to go through and 22 years later my mother is still strong, caring, loving, and supportive. Jessica is currently unemployed but hopes that her job gets back up and running so that she can continue being a catering director but until then she hopes to one day have created her own successful business and continue to support her kids and family to the fullest. Despite how hard it was to overcome these hardships Jessica believes that “you know don’t give up like life is crazy you know things happen but we are all built to accept, adapt, and overcome and if you can do that you can thrive.”

Works Cited

Written by the: National Institutes of Health

Compton WM, Jones CM, Baldwin GT. Relationship between nonmedical prescription-opioid use and heroin use. The New England Journal of Medicine 2016;374:154-163.

Written by: Rachel N. Lipari, Ph.D., and Struther L. Van Horn, M.A.Author Information: cbhsqrequest@samhsa.hhs.gov