In the process of creating my first ever PSA in sixth grade, I thought, "Wow, this will be pretty easy. It's much shorter than a news story." I thought that it'll be really simple to make, just film a couple of shots, then place it in order in post. You wouldn't have to call people or do interviews, or anything else for that fact. Plus, the shot list wouldn't be that long, I mean it's only 30 seconds. While it is true that the length of a PSA is shorter than a news story, that 30 second duration doesn't define its difficulty. Sure, it's only 30 seconds worth of space to fill, but then again, it's only 30 seconds worth of space to fill. You have that short amount of time to get a message across to the audience, to make them continue a healthy habit, or to make them stop a negative one. You only have 30 seconds to change their style of thinking, or at least place an idea for them to think about.The lesson to take away from this is that you shouldn’t jump to conclusions that a video will be easy to make based off of how short, or long, the duration is.
First, it was the matter of having an idea. During the fall break prior to the third quarter, I brainstormed an idea. An idea, one. That's where I made my first mistake. I thought just because I had one idea brainstormed, I was set. I was ready to go, I was ahead, and it would all be easy from there on out. After my idea wasn't approved during the pitch party, I realized I was in quite a predicament, and that it was not easy at all. Always brainstorm as many ideas as you can, and get backups. I learned that the idea was the hardest part of it all. The idea had to be original, and clever. I looked up to the well known PSA's, "Angry Words" and "Try Again" created by former CKTV student, Lia Yamasato. Today, my opinion remains the same, those PSA's are so creative and will always be an inspiration. But as I was saying, I had no idea, literally, for what I was going to do about my PSA. Inspiration didn't come easy, and I found it really difficult to think of something creative. At first I just assumed that, again, it was only 30 seconds worth of footage, so the idea didn't need to have a lot of depth. While the best videos come from simple ideas, the idea I thought of was too simple. It lacked creativity and overall was quite boring. I learned that you needed a good idea to base your PSA around. Without it, everything else wouldn't be as great. Today I still find myself faced with that challenge of thinking creatively, but I hope I can get better with it as time goes on.
After coming up with an idea, creating the shot list wasn’t that hard. After creating the shot list and getting it approved, it was time to film. I thought it would be easy, the hard part was done, and that I’d just shoot according to the shot list, right? I was wrong. There were many logistics that I hadn't thought of. Who will act? Where will you film? When? All of these questions that I had no answer to. I didn't know many people who'd agree to act, and I had no clue where a good location would be. So, again I waited. I thought that overtime it would magically come to me. Like the answer would just appear. Nope. If you want something done, go do it because no one else will. Depend on yourself, and never rely on others, because when that third quarter comes around, it is just you, and only you, responsible for getting the project done. Ask your classmates if they would be willing to act, ask family, friends, just already have people in mind before you get stuck like how I did.
Having that mindset in my sixth grade year, thinking it was so easy because of how short it had to be, I waited. I procrastinated. I had the whole quarter and I decided to wait until the last minute to film. The thing I promised I wouldn't do, I did. Fun story, I even had to re-film the whole PSA, and on that day, it poured rain. I laugh about it now, but that PSA turned out really bad. As the saying goes, "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor". Although the project didn’t go well, It taught me some of the most important lessons I know today. Don’t procrastinate, learn from your mistakes, and don’t jump to conclusions. I hope you enjoyed this constructive response, sharing this experience with you all. No, this is not a blog to make you fear the third quarter, but it is a blog to help you avoid making the same mistakes I made in sixth grade. Well, that is it for this week’s constructed response! Thanks for reading! Bye!