Reintroduction - Time for the Music Video

Hello there! I am back from my short break and ready to start my next project! Over this period you have gotten to know me surface-deep. But that is all about to change as I navigate through the next project and get to share more about myself. 

Since the initial introduction, not so much has happened, but it has been incredibly busy. I started my AICE Media Studies journey at the beginning of the academic year so I was just settling into the pace of my Junior (11th grade) year of high school. In this month or so I have gotten comfortable in my classes — found my friends, started study groups, and of course got swamped with assignments and self-study. Outside of my studies at school, my friends and I have decided to start a new club, Girl Up, so we are in the process of getting that sorted. This year a goal of mine is to immerse myself in more clubs. So, in addition to my club, I have joined the Interact Club, Emergency Medical Services Club, National Honors Society, Mu Alpha Theta, and a couple more. I’m not the “sporty” type so clubs give me the space to be part of my school community where I can. 

Outside of school, I have been reading more frequently. My favorite book thus far has been Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Notably, I am currently reading The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi. Back to Sutanto’s book, I loved how it had so many different elements without being overly confusing. The book explores first love, generational curses, crime, and familial trust. This aspect of the book can be directly linked to my hopes for this music video. I want to be able to articulate my thoughts onto my storyboard and then into the final video without confusing my ideas. This is something I struggle with as an individual; I often understand a prompt but slowly gear away from what the prompt is asking and make it into what I want to answer. This was especially a struggle of mine in the commercial project. I made the commercial into something it wasn’t. In the end, this hurt me because I had to redo the whole process from the start. This left me making a new, fresh, improved commercial, but also meant I had to disregard the preexisting video that I spent tons of time and energy on.

Moving past the previous mishaps, in this short time in AICE Media Studies I have learned a lot about developing a piece of media in general. Truthfully, when I got placed in AICE Media Studies I was slightly annoyed. I want to be a Dermatologist, so to keep on track I am taking science and math-related classes. Media Studies was an outlier in my classes because it isn’t a class I would gravitate towards. But, the previous project showed me I liked it a lot more than anticipated. I am a big planner and love to organize. You can ask anyone, I am known for having my agenda ready, color-coded everything, and organize to cope with my stress. Since planning is such a big part of the process, an organizing junkie like myself has a field day in this unexpected part of producing media. Nonetheless, the first commercial project taught me how important this step is because truthfully I dismissed it, not giving it appropriate attention. Additionally, in some of the production blogs I discussed how I enjoy editing. It has been an unexpected twist in my perception of production to prefer editing over filming. Editing got my mind off things, who knows, maybe editing will replace my de-stress organizing? In total during this time frame, not only has the production process been eased but also my resentment of being placed in the class has subsided (And well, it helps that this is my only class with my friend group).

Before making my final remarks, I want to return to my out-of-school lifestyle. In this past month, I got to have my aunt and cousins from London visit, celebrate my mother's 50th birthday, enjoy a weekend with my close friend, Lohitha, who flew down to visit me, celebrate my sweet sixteen, and make a couple stops by the beach and some local restaurants. It was an action-packed month but things are finally starting to settle for the time being. Below I have a collage of some of my favorite memories from the past few weeks:

Hopefully, you have enjoyed this “reintroduction” of myself as I start to conquer the next project! I’m excited to apply my newfound corrections and bring my much-needed lessons with me into this new endeavor.