Faz decided to make a narrative music video; he wanted to tell a story about how good kids in Buffalo can end up making bad decisions and even end up in jail.  He chose the song “Drop the World” as the backdrop for the movie in which he served as both the lead actor, director, and editor. We were impressed with his meticulous planning for this project, and it is evident in the variety of shots and angles, and in their composition.

As a “break” of sorts before our final project, the students were asked to work in groups to make a music video; they were allowed to choose any song they wanted and tasked with either creating a narrative, pretending to be the band singing, or some combination of the two, and editing to create a finished project. This group of students chose to show off their dancing skills, using a Karen hip-hop song as the backdrop, and using some new Final Cut skills- like slow motion and color filters- to create a very entertaining music video.

For his film, Sella interviewed his older brother and made his documentary about his older brother’s experiences as a refugee in Thailand. As with the other students’ stories, Sella’s documentary is an opportunity to catch a glimpse of one person’s remarkable history and experiences. It is also an opportunity to hear firsthand about the everyday life and courage of those who are living as refugees in other countries, waiting and working toward a time when they will be able to return home, or be given the chance to come create a new home in another country.

Mondip’s documentary talks about the conflict in Bhutan in the 1990’s, when Nepalese people living in Bhutan clashed over cultural differences with the Bhutanese government. Many of the Nepalese were forced to flee because of violence, and Mondip’s documentary chronicles this conflict and one families journey towards becoming refugees in America. Mondip had the most editing to do out of all of our students- the interview he was working with was half an hour long- and he did a great job of capturing the essential details while staying inside the time limit.

Maryan made her documentary about what she saw and felt when she and her family first came to America as refugees from Kenya. Her story is moving; she is one of our most determined and dedicated students, and she hopes at this point to become a social worker when she grows up, and move back to her country to help people the way she has been helped here.

Htoo decided to document his day-to-day life in this video, especially focusing on one of his favorite hobbies: soccer. Note that, even though soccer is always waiting in the background for Htoo, he makes time for homework, as well.

For his documentary, this student chose to have his brother interview him about his life in Buffalo, called “The City of Lights” around the turn of the century because it was one of the wealthiest, up-and-coming cities in the nation. Now, as Faz notes, “It’s a city full of refugees, just like me.” Faz’s video is inspiring, especially because you can see his determined attitude about his education and future shining through, as well as his sense of humor.

Some of our students didn’t get around to making a documentary, so we had them work together with those who had finished their projects on a challenge incorporating the Final Cut skills we learned over the past few weeks during the documentary project. They filmed and edited this montage, which shows five different emotions (see if you can figure out which ones!) and added music, text, and transitions. This is one of the staff’s favorite videos- watch it, and you’ll see why.

*watch without sound*

As the students continue to develop editing skills in Final Cut, we created a project to allow them to experiment with adding text to their videos. Since English is a second language for all of the students, it’s especially important to know how to create subtitles for parts of their videos. 
This project, however, was 100% fun. They were split into two groups and challenged to create a 45 second silent film, complete with “title cards,” similar to the silent movies of the early 1900’s. They had 15 minutes to film, and the remaining session to edit. The results not only demonstrate the sense of humor these students have, but also their ability to work as a team- with little time to film and edit, good communication and a willingness to critique honestly but kindly helped the teams to finish the task.

*watch without sound*

As the students continue to develop editing skills in Final Cut, we created a project to allow them to experiment with adding text to their videos. Since English is a second language for all of the students, it’s especially important to know how to create subtitles for parts of their videos. 
This project, however, was 100% fun. They were split into two groups and challenged to create a 45 second silent film, complete with “title cards,” similar to the silent movies of the early 1900’s. They had 15 minutes to film, and the remaining session to edit. The results not only demonstrate the sense of humor these students have, but also their ability to work as a team- with little time to film and edit, good communication and a willingness to critique honestly but kindly helped the teams to finish the task.