This week was really stressful. I started the week with my original idea, then scrapped it halfway through the week because I realized that it didn’t mean enough to me. That meant I had to start completely from scratch in the middle of the week. But at least it was worth it, no?
To begin this final project, I went to the deepest parts of the internet, searching and scavenging for specific photos that defined my childhood. I needed to find photos that encompassed the “2000’s” feeling from both a Hispanic and American childhood. Once I was able to do that, I had to crop and fix them accordingly to be able to fit them into the video. The most difficult part is what is next: audio editing. Man, this took HOURS. I found an individual clip from a video of a Spanish news show (which is what I grew up hearing on TV all the time), as well as a video of Bob Ross’ most inspirational quotes. I also found some audio of TV static from the freesounds website in order to add the “distortion” effect. I had to cut and edit each clip strategically in Audacity to make the Spanish audio come first, then the English audio and the static audio in unison. I cut the clips in small three-second sections and turned down the decibels in each upcoming clip, to make it seem as though the English audio was initially distorted, but slowly became less and less chaotic. I sort of wanted my audience to feel the effect of slowly being able to understand English more and more as time went on. Once I had my audio finished, I transferred it to iMovie where I added it to my stream of photos, which I had edited so they could sort of “flow” together. Once I put it all together, I cried happily a little bit, then posted it to YouTube.
And now we’re here.
I am finally fluent in English and Spanish.
It took me a while, though 🙂
