One Positive Thing: Family

I created a video that highlights the most positive thing about my Pandemic experience. The first few weeks my family and I spent in isolation were filled with uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and sadness about everything that was going on in the world and in my own country. Furthermore, adjusting to mandatory isolation that lasted almost three months was a challenge for all of us. After being in lockdown for so long, I started to acknowledge that there were positive things that came out of the Pandemic. The main thing that I was thankful for is that all my family was together, safe, and healthy.

After living over a year in this new “reality” that the Pandemic has imposed on most families, I can say that spending so much time with my family has been the best part of the Pandemic. As a family, we have learned to appreciate the simple things in life and enjoy each other’s company a lot more. In my video, I decided to interview all of my family members to demonstrate that family quality time is the most positive thing about our Pandemic experience.

In the first half of my video, I show pictures and short clips of the family activities we have done for the past year with a voice-over of me explaining what I think the most positive thing about the Pandemic has been. In the second half of the video, I include recordings of my family member’s interviews. The interviews of my family members are the A roll in my video and the pictures and short videos of the family activities are the B roll of my video.

What I learned in the process of being a video content creator is that recording small clips of activities is more complicated than I thought. Pointing at the right angle and making the right movements while recording was something that I definitely had to practice. Furthermore, this is something that I still need to work on for future projects because I think that the videos of family activities I took could have been better. One way in which those clips could improve is by showing my family playing and not just the game itself.

Something I found surprising being the producer that I didn’t realize as a consumer is that finding the appropriate background music is crucial for the overall production of the video. I spent a lot of time trying to find a good song to play in the background and that is when I realized that a song can change the overall tone of the video. Also, when being the producer you focus a lot more on detail than when you are the consumer.

Even though there were several challenges in the production process of my video, I had a lot of fun creating it. I really enjoyed hearing my family member’s perspectives and this project was a great opportunity to look back and reflect on the positive things that the Pandemic has brought to me.