Start Of Final Task

    Hi, I'm Aidan, a 12th grader at Fort Lauderdale High School in the Broward County school district. I am 18 years old and ready to graduate from high school. I hope to move onto university in the Fall of 2020. I plan on majoring in either Criminology or Business. Additionally, I am thinking about minoring in Film Production on the side, mainly because of the experiences I've had in this class so far. I find the process of filming and editing different productions very interesting, and I want to learn more about it. I hope to attend school at FSU (Florida State University), as this is my first choice for college. However, my fall back option is FAU (Florida Atlantic University), as I've already been accepted there. For the final task, I am working by myself. I decided this is a better option for me as I believe I work more efficiently on my own. Additionally, I can concentrate better and have a greater range of options on what I want to film as my final project.

    In this class, I have been able to learn so much, in such a short amount of time. To name a few things, I have learned how to properly cut and replace clips in editing software. I've learned how to add music/score to a compilation of shots that I previously filmed. I now know how to add text into the background of a shot, for example, a timestamp in a movie to show when a shot was supposed to occur. I have also learned how to fade shots in and out of each other, and how to fade them either in and out to black. All these things help a project's finished product look more smooth and more like a real film, music video, commercial, etc. Real filmmakers and producers have to go through these steps every day, however, they do it on a much larger scale. While we may have had two or three people working on a project at a given time, real directors and producers may have a team of over
100 workers, performing different tasks to ensure that everything is done right. However, either way, most filmmakers use these basics in almost all productions. I am so excited to create this final project, and I'm most excited to use the skills I've acquired to create a beautiful film in the end. Although the final is only about 2 minutes long, I want it to really keep the viewer engaged and on the edge of their seats.

    A pitch is a Hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. It is usually with one sentence. My first pitch is a suspense/drama that revolves around a group of friends that are put to the test when they are selected to take part in an unknown "experiment" that they found on a new part-time job app. My second pitch is a horror/slasher revolving around a boy who is tormented by his family to the point that he decides to gain revenge on them and anyone else in his path, through a series of sadistic pranks and traps. Finally, my third pitch is an adventure/coming of age about a teen and his friend who want to leave their current lives for more opportunity and adventure; little do they know, it will be much harder than they thought.