Words & Photos from Elayna S., Steven S. & Diamond H.
Elayna
Day 1: March 15th
The end of Term 4 has rolled around, and it was time for the Grade 10 Experiential Program to start up again! As a student in the small cohort of Digital Storytelling, we had an array of activities and places to explore during the second installment of the program. In the morning, we hopped on the bus along with our BD cohort counterparts and drove the 30 minute drive all the way to Tod Inlet, in Brentwood Bay. It was about a 15-minute trek downhill to reach our destination of a beautiful trail along the water. The landscape and lookout was breathtaking and full of movement to capture from the water to small wildlife to kayakers in the distance. We had a choice of seven different assignments to choose from to incorporate the environment that we were in. While my partner and I chose to do a commercial style video, the finished products of the group included mock documentaries and even recreations of famous movie scenes, but with a classic West Coast twist. After gathering all the necessary footage, our group headed back up the hill to the bus and were on our way back to SMUS for a well deserved lunch break. After reconvening in the library classroom, we began talking about interview and lighting techniques, and small groups were sent around the school to interview up to three people and use the skills we had learned. The day came to a relaxing finish with each group editing and adding finishing touches to their projects.
Day 2: March 16th
The Digital Storytelling Experiential began for its second and last day before the beginning of a well-deserved Spring Break. Our adventure for the day was an excursion to downtown Victoria: a great place to find unique photo opportunities amongst an otherwise bland and overcast day. We still had the seven assignments mentioned in Day 1 to test out, and the choice project today for my group and I was to create a series of fashion pictures to create a portfolio. Now, this came as a spontaneous option so while our outfits weren't runway ready, we wanted to ensure that our shooting environments and backgrounds could be worthy of Vogue. To make the project more interesting, instead of using plain photographs or video to showcase our work, we utilized a high shutter speed to give a “stop-motion” effect when we pieced everything together. We made the decision to match a statement colour from each outfit to the background of the photo. The past two days of the Experiential program allowed us to practice more creativity and editing designs, and these skills will be transferable to other projects presented to us in the future.