The general definition of Zenith is the highest point of a mountain. For our Zenith project, we were tasked with the project of making a creation with most of our previously learned skills. We were able to do almost anything we wanted for our project, as long as it kept us at work for two months. The project was quite the challenge for my because of the quarantine. I had to restart the project many times over because of the changes of situation. With the project, I initially wanted to create a secondary narrative, however as the quarantine grew worse, I rested on the idea of creating two video essays.

With the video essays, I had to create multiple essays as pre-production. As production, I had filmed the video essays almost entirely by myself. With the production, I had edited the scenes together and voiced over the videos. Here is a gallery of my works:

For the project, I only had help from one person. He showed up in my first video essay as a stunt man. I found that working by myself was something I really appreciated. The videos really came out to my visions and I felt proud of them.

I had a lot of trouble with the quarantine, but I am pretty proud of what came out of the last minute troubles I had.

I really appreciated this project in its ability to allow me to really do what I want to do.

Here is my first video essay:

Here is my second video essay:

I had also created a Zenith Reflection video to reflect back on what I accomplished. Here is my zenith reflection essay:

Zenith Essay

For this project, I had to choose between a multitude of different ideas. I chose  from narratives, to fight scenes, to a cinematic, to video essays. I finally landed on the idea of creating two video essays. I found that the Reflections unit in the beginning of the year was a really fun unit. I found a great opportunity to create a video explaining my thought process and my mind. I also was able to work on a lot of skills that I lacked, such as storytelling. Both of them being about the quarantine and how it affects me. I found this to be the best idea because I could do it by myself without the worry of being contaminated with the disease. I would create two video essays documenting the effects of having to stay at home, and the effects of being assigned creative projects at home. My first video had explored what I learned in the quarantine time, and how it may not be as bad as it seems. My second video explored the creative side of my mind and how I find it difficult to think of ideas. I felt that my research of Alfonso Cuaron and his works helped me to create a cohesive story to tell within my essays. Alfonso Cuaron loves to create stories that have a spectacular ending and he loves to create a story with interesting characters. With my stories, I loved to bring the audience back to the beginning in order to enhance the story. I also included a three act structure to my video essays to examine the development of my thinking and my character. My research process allowed me to better understand what makes a compelling story. I felt that I captured a lot of learning difficulties I have in filming through this project. I felt that I was having difficulty with sound design, camerawork, and storytelling beforehand. I felt that through this project I managed to better my camerawork and enhance my sound design. The video essays contain sound that was completely designed by me. I also felt that the video essays contained a compelling story that creates an interesting character out of myself. The camerawork took advantage of the rule of thirds as much as possible and maintained framing. I feel that through this project I had the opportunity to work on a lot of abilities I lack, which is something I appreciate. Collaboration was impossible through this project, but I found that this came to my advantage. I find that another issue of mine is working with other people in projects. I found that working completely by myself was successful and efficient. I managed to finish these projects very quickly and had a lot of time for myself. The work also was created more to my liking and visions which was a lot of fun. There was almost no collaboration through this project, which came to be a strange advantage to me. I think that if I ever were to do this project over, I would focus on my collaboration skills. I want to work with other people more in order to help increase my skills working with other people. Most works are impossible to do without other people, so collaboration ethic is an important skill to have. Even though I am proud of my works, I feel that I should have spent a little bit more time on them. Framing some of the shots better, rewriting some of the awkward parts, or filming more creative shots. I feel that the videos are good as they are, but they could always use a little bit more creativity. I do feel that the project increased my overall skills and allowed me to explore uncomfortable parts of my creativity. Overall, I felt this project enhanced some of my skills that I want to improve on. I also felt that it was a great opportunity to have some fun and create what I want to create without any interference from other people. 

Here is the audio for my zenith reflection if you’d like to read along:

Here is my full reflection video for my zenith: