Before spring break our class was assigned a video project about what Canada means to you personally as a Canadian. This video would later be submitted to the website Here’s My Canada for chances to win big prizes. We started off this project by brainstorming ideas that came to us when we think of what Canada means to us.
Here is what I came up with:
We also watched old commercials from a Canadian beer company that highlighted some of Canada’s properties as well as some common Canadian stereotypes like we say ‘Eh’ and we know everyone who lives in Canada that could help us come up with ideas for our video.
The next class a few people from Here’s My Canada came in to film a 30 second video of each of us talking about what Canada means to each one of us. At first I had no idea what to say but after looking over my brainstorming notes and thinking about some personal experiences that may express what Canada means to me I came up with an idea. For this video I talked about how Canada has given me the chance to go to international camps that are a part of an organization called CISV that promotes global peace and friendship. As well, I talked about how Canada has taught me to be open about learning and experiencing other cultures and how I’m proud to represent Canada at these camps showing other people from other countries my love for Canada.
If you would like to learn more about one of my CISV experiences click here.
After filming the video, we were assigned the making of a new video draft with picture, video and using some of the skills we had learned in previous video projects. I used different videos of the east coast of Canada as well as a video of Deep Cove and some small videos using an app called Explain Everything to add some different clips that keep the audience interested throughout the video.
With the videos and Explain Everything videos I added the audio of me talking about what Canada means to me and completed a draft of my video on iMovie. I felt my video needed some music in the background so I decided to use a audio clip of the Canadian anthem played on the trumpet by my brother as you are not allowed to use anything copyrighted throughout the entire video.
After submitting a draft, we then showed it to one of our classmates and received helpful feedback as to what we could improve upon. The feedback said that the videos were interesting and that the Explain Everythings worked well but I just needed to work on my audio and make it louder.
I took the feedback and edited the sound, here is my final draft and submission of the What Canada Means to Me video:
This was a very fun project that I’m glad we were assigned to do. We were able to express what Canada means to us as well as enter a contest to win big prizes. I’m excited to see what happens. If you would like to enter your own video or look at other submissions click here.