As a short mini project in PLP 10 Humanities we were to research and make a maximum 2 minute video on one location in Vancouver that has been around for a while, or made a difference in Vancouver’s history. We were doing this project since our whole Humanities unit right now is about the history and growth of Vancouver in all its different areas. And to start off the project, this was the list that Ms. Maxwell gave us to choose from:

Keefer Street
Joe Fortes (restaurant / library)
Seymour Mountain – Simon, Reid, Spencer, Calum
Stanley Park – Isobel, Ruby, Hannah
Gastown -Claire, Sydney
Caufield
Lions Gate Bridge – Will, Ryan
British Properties
Robson Street
Kitsilano – Kate, Adam, Aiden
Lonsdale Ave / Quay – Lucas, Micheal, Alex
Waterfront – Kyle, Sam, Robbie
Cambie Street
Nootka Sound
SFU / Fraser River
Blood Alley – Willa, Ethan, Sofia

We were in either a group of two, three or four, and my partners were Kyle and Robbie. And since all the locations we wanted to do were taken, we asked if we could do Waterfront Station, and we got a go-ahead.

So me, Kyle and Robbie planned to go across the sea bus to get some clips of waterfront station for our video. We decided on getting a few time lapses of going across the seabus and pulling into waterfront station, a few timelapses of all the people going through, some clips of the trains, the buses and also just of the building. So the next day after school, we headed out to the seabus.

By the time we were getting in the seabus, it was close to 4:05 pm, and the sun sets at around 4:37 pm, so we had to get our clips fast. We timelapsed the seabus ride over, and the sun was just behind the skyline of downtown Vancouver, making for an amazing shot.

This was was the most enjoyable part of the project for me. I really liked this shot of the ocean, the setting sun, and the skyscrapers of Vancouver looming over us as we pull in closer and closer.

Then, once we got in we ran over the bridge across the train tracks, through the station, and went outside to get our shots of the exterior of the building before the sun set. We looked around at the busy street and Kyle had a great idea of going to the top of a parkade to get a great  shot of the building.

We then also filmed the back of the building, and then got the rest of our shots inside. Once we finished we headed back home.

After we researched Waterfront station, we put our research into a script that we would add to our video as a voice over. I actually learned a lot from this research, as I didn’t know that Waterfront station was built so long ago, and that it’s apparently haunted!

Then, the next step was to do the editing. We used the app iMovie to put all the photos, video and music all together into one product. I really like iMovie for this exact reason. You can even record the voiceovers into the video wherever you want them, which makes it super easy to create this type of video. In the end, our video was done a few days before it was due, and after critique from our teacher and the class, we just had to balance or re-record some audio to finish it.

I really enjoyed this project because it was looking at something in our home town, the Waterfront station. And since I’d been through it many times, I was interested in it’s history and I was determined to make an engaging video on it. I think that being able to go to the location is really helpful because it helps me understand what I want to show in our video.

Overall, my group worked together well, even though Kyle went on vacation halfway through, and we produced a great video together.

That’s all,

See you