Reaping Rewards

You know how it is when you get an idea or thought in your head, and you say to yourself, "It would be cool if that ever happened to me." Well it actually happened to me!

I actually paid attention to and clicked on a banner ad on Facebook which read, "BYU Meal Plan Video Contest" and it had a picture of a film-type guy with the words, "Win an iPad!" (or something like that.) I don't recall the exact wording of the description.

Anyways, I click on the link which takes me to all the information with regards to the contest. I decide that it's doable, if only I had a good idea, because if I've learned anything about making videos, it's all about the idea, concept, or story. If that's no good, don't even make the video. It's like Thumper says, "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all." Same idea applies to film/video making in my opinion. So great opportunity in front of me, I simply lacked a good idea.

It's funny how most of the time we as college students think to ourselves that this college education will someday be worth it (if it doesn't feel as such at the moment.) We may also feel like we're not becoming adequate for what's ahead of us. I had been feeling like that for quite some time: an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. In any case, when such feelings arise I say to myself, "What else can I do but keep trying... right?" *confidence slowly receding throughout the thought.

One day... or should I say night, my evening film class was coming to an end. It is called Media Arts Topics (I think), focusing on what makes films great. Each week we look at a certain aspect of film that can make a great film. The professor for this class (Dean Duncan) felt it was best to show this through several short films. That week the topic was THINGS... focusing on the benefit that the use of materials brings to film. Material world, materialistic person, and other terms have a sort of negative feel to them. It makes sense how they could be considered a possible evils, but that is not always the case. What about that small box of knick-knacks that one keeps safeguarded as a priceless treasure with each object housing a valuable memory? I can't make his lecture adequate justice in this short blog post, but you can hopefully sense the idea of where he was going with this. One of the many films he showed us was Toccata for Toy Trains. It was then that I received the much desired idea for my video.

What should the video be about? Food! How was I going to focus on it?-by showing the process by which it is made. I'm sure the BYU Meal Plans' big thing is that it makes food readily available for you in the place where you typically spend most of your time, on campus. People make you food, and a Meal Plan takes care of getting that food to you. However, what if none of this existed? What would be the impossible ideal?-food that makes itself, and THAT was my BIG idea.

I proceeded to make the video by taking many many pictures and putting them together, adding music, and tweaking the visuals. Behold the result:



...and yes I did win the iPad.

Feeling of inadequacy? Considerably diminished, but never extinguished. In a way it's a good thing, it keeps us humble....right?