College Films Starring My Family

My brother recently told me how much he enjoyed watching some of my old videos, videos I forgot that I had even made. So today, I figured I would share the journey and some of those school projects, particularly the ones that star my family members.

My filming debut began in 2004 when a childhood friend, Megan and I made a series of shorts titled "Attack of the Angry Penguins". In middle school, once we had camera phones, my friend Maddie and I used her Juke to record "Holmes Foster News" segments. I began shooting and editing recap videos, birthday videos, food eating competitions, etc.

When our parents didn't believe Catherine and Megan that their new coach didn't know anything about coaching, they asked me to secretly film a practice. Not only did the coach find out and yell at me, but I couldn't even show it to our parents. Turns out, I filmed over our trip to Paris, and they couldn't find that out (surprise, Mom and Dad...).

After High School, I began distancing myself from video making. I chose to focus on my Hospitality Management Major and working jobs in the hospitality field. I would still become "memory chair" of clubs (aka video and photo taker at events), but nothing too serious. It wasn't until my Mom's 50th birthday, my sophomore year of college, that I decided to make a video again. It was after this that my Aunt Kathleen would convince me to pick up another major.

In the Fall of 2015, I got into Penn State's Film/Video Major, and declared a second major. This was when I really had to do projects. Whenever an assignment was made, I made the most of breaks and holidays, making everyone that was home be in almost every production of mine.

Meet my brother, cousins, grandma, great grant parents, childhood friend, aunt and uncle. After I bought a tripod from WalMart, I sat them down in our sunroom and told them that they would be in my first documentary. This would be a doc on their mothers. What they didn't know that my real goal was to see how people would react to an awkward interview.

Unfortunately, I exported the video at the wrong settings and WITH spelling errors... I didn't have the chance to fix it though, because shortly after I made this, my hard drive was stollen :( Thankfully, I recovered this video from Penn State's archives, and I learned the importance of backing up my footage early on.

During my junior year, I took an experimental filmmaking class. This project required us to work with projections. I used it as an excuse to have some fun with my family.

Pouring water onto my siblings and directing Mauvette to "whack" them with a broom? Sign me up!

Continuing this experimental class, we had another project that required us to focus on an emotion. I decided to do a contrast of emotions, fear and joy.

If you know me (and know of Breakfast Thursday) you know that I love spooking people. I think it's hilarious, and I love that it makes others laugh when they watch it. I could watch these laughs all day, This is a favorite video to watch for when I need a laugh or smile.

My third and final project of our experimental film class was to be a performance-based piece. I think this was during blue and white weekend. Like I said, the only time I could complete big projects like these were when everyone was back in town. Shoutout to these brave souls and thanks to whoever chose to sing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".

The other students' projects featured a lot of really talented and amazing performances... so did mine! Real shoutout to our family friends, Tommy and Debbie, the true MVPs of this performance.

Next came other class project. This was an English 202D project that required us to make an infomercial. Fun fact, I found this shredder was in the basement! After I brought it up for this project, we actually started using it! Talk about an effective infomercial!

Sadly, I didn't have a call to action and got points deducted... BUT I think I had the best actors. This English 202D project features our family friend, Neal, my friend, Bryan, my sister, Mauvette, and is narrated by Evan! I had to make a cameo appearance myself! Shoutout to my WalMart tripod again!

In my last year of school, I made two final films. This one was for a directing class, and shared these true-stories of cross-generational friendships.

I never got to hear how this one did in class. But it made me cry a whole lot while editing it. This project is probably one that lies closest to my heart.

Before making this blog, I thought about re-editing a lot of these, but decided against it. All of them could use (probably a lot of) editing, but I think it is fun to see the original projects as they were, spelling errors and all! I had to do many other video projects while in the major, but sharing all of them would take up your Thursday! So, I hope you enjoy these few. I am so thankful that the Film/Video Major forced me to do these crazy projects, and that I can now cherish these short videos forever.

If you have any family video projects you want us to do, share your ideas! Or if you have any crazy video/ photo projects that you've done in that past, let's hear about them! HAPPY THURSDAY!

Love,

Samantha

PS. Enjoy these last two clips of my cousins. The first one of Sean, because HIS WEDDING IS IN 9 DAYS! And the second one of Lucas, because he was always too busy working to be featured in my other school projects! LOVE YOU GUYS!