Zach Bloom Media

As a young child, I liked to create short films. Initially, I used my iPod and iMovie to create stop animation movies using Lego figures to depict fun storylines set to music. As an older child, I became part of Henry Jenkins participatory culture; a prosumer, wanting to create content for my own YouTube channel. It was during the first lockdown, when my world shrunk and life went online, that I started creating short films. It combined my love of narrative with love of technology and helped me cope with the isolation. I experimented with various video editing software before settling on Premier Pro. I was self taught, watching YouTube tutorials first on the basics, then on specific skills, such as key framing or colour grading.

COVIDMAS 2021

I created this clip to cheer up my family when Covid prevented everyone getting together at Christmas in 2021. It was my first major attempt at key framing. This allowed me to tell a narrative in a different way which I enjoyed as it didn’t rely on me recording and creating videos at a time when filming was difficult.

Here are snippets from the short film I created for my family. It contains references to the political situation at the time, of Boris Johnson’s references to Peppa Pig at a CBI conference and the Government’s promise that mixing at Christmas would be allowed to a sudden U turn that it could not be allowed.