What does it mean to be Canadian? It can mean a lot of things for different people. It could mean certain sports, places, or sometimes even stereotypes as everyone seems to have a different view for this place we call home. At first, it seems like an easy question. “What does being Canadian Mean to you?” But when it comes to actually thinking about the question, finding an answer may be harder than expected. That seems to be what we learned when the Flight class was asked that as we all seemed to need a few minutes to come up with a viable answer and none of the answers were exactly alike.

For more context on why we were asked that question, we’ve recently been tasked to make a thirty second video based on our answers for what it means to be Canadian. It’s part of a competition for Here’s My Canada where kids/teenagers can submit their thirty second videos on what it means to be Canadian and display their opinions using creative visuals, narration, etc. The videos can be whatever the creators want them to be, given the specific guidelines of course, and can show the different stories of each kid whether it’s a fun and lighthearted video, or a little more serious. For all I know, someone’s probably making a video just on maple syrup, that’s how open the competition is, which I really like because it can really allow us to use our creativity freely.

Speaking of the videos, here’s mine and the creative process I went through to make the video.

I first had to come up with the idea for my video, so I took some time to think about it and I thought about the things that I love about living here and what I would be missing out on if I didn’t live here in Canada. I didn’t want a serious overtone for my video, so I aimed my video towards the positives of living here and things I like to do. I thought about my favourite sports and creative outlets, and I eventually turned those thoughts into my thirty second video shown above. For me, the creative process for my video wasn’t all that challenging. Where it got interesting was filming and putting my ideas into motion.

For starters, I really wanted to find somewhere to film that was very simple and not very distracting. I almost wanted it to look like one of those professional shoots where it’s just the person being filmed and a blank canvas behind them. Fortunately for me, I found one area of my house where I could try my best to recreate that effect and it was this mess right here which I emptied out as you can see in the video. 
I then set up some lamps in my room and lights to fill in the darkness so the video wouldn’t have a “grainy” quality. I had also borrowed my sister’s camera and tripod to record the whole video. What I ended up with was a makeshift filming set-up which, in my opinion, didn’t turn out so bad.

I then collected all the things I would need for my video, (Props, different sporting gear, clothes, etc) basically anything I would potentially need for the video, and as soon as I had that in-check, I got started on filming the video. I started with all the clips of me in my different outfits because I knew that I would have to change a bunch of times so I thought it would be better to get it out of the way first. I then moved on to the parts where I just talked to the camera, and all though I didn’t do a lot of talking in the video, it was challenging for me to summarize my thoughts and ideas into quick sentences, so I did spend a little bit of time on the intro and outro. I also went out to a few “Canadian oriented” stores just to add a little more of a Canadian flair.

I had finally finished all my filming for the video and when I put it together, I had about twenty extra seconds of footage I would need to cut out from the video. That made me really disappointed because I really liked all of the clips I had, but I had to make the thought choice of removing some clips and cutting the remaining clips to be shorter. I edited the video and cleared up any small mistakes I made during the video, and I finally had a product I was happy with.

This mini-project had been a great learning experience for me as I feel a little more in-touch with my connection to being Canadian. I also feel like it’s good to think about the importance of where we live and to embrace the different cultures. I really enjoyed making my video, and I’m excited to see who comes out on top for the competition, but until then, thanks for tuning in!