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.

School Creative Challenge

My school set a challenge for all pupils to do something creative. It could have been a piece of writing, artwork, a poem but I wanted to use my media skills and create a short film.

First I brainstormed to think of ideas and plot points for my short film. Next I filmed the footage with my iPhone as I didn’t have any professional equipment or lighting. Then I found the song that matched the pacing and energy of clips and fitted the theme and feel I was aiming for. I only had a weekend to produce this which constrained what I was able to achieve but it showed me how efficient I can be with editing and that I can produce something decent in a short period of time. This allowed me to use the built in short cuts of Premier Pro to save time.