By East, teen author
I hadn’t done any structured experience within the bounds of the arts, much less film, for a handful of years at the beginning of the summer, so imagine my curiosity when I was approached with an opportunity like a film internship for Speak Your Truth: Is AI Your Friend? Due to a lack of understanding of the film aspect, I was mostly allured by that of tech; I was interested to see how other people my age felt about a topic upon which I had strong opinions. And, from the very beginning, opinions were what I received. I enormously enjoyed the fruitful conversation surrounding AI and its cases for use, even before any brainstorming, storyboarding, scriptwriting, or filming began. However, when it did, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it all.
Brainstorming upon indeterminate and artistically oriented ideas within a group of differently minded people has never been a strong suit of mine, but I loved being able to converse with such talented minds with more experience than myself regarding the creative aspects in the process of making a film. This is what much of the first day was spent doing: coming up with ideas.
By the end of the day, both we and the other group had formulated our basic ideas: our story, about a young man recently out of high school in need of funds who finds himself on a ‘Real or AI’ game show, finding out that it may be more sinister (and not quite as real) as he had initially thought, and the other group about an unsuspecting girl who finds herself in a friendship with someone who was never truly real. After helping to write scripts and plan shots, filming at the Renaissance School was an absolute blast, as I got to see first handedly how everything could soon fall into place with the help of our fantastically talented cameraman and director, who already had extensive film experience and expertise.
By the end of the process, being able to see the final steps of development before both of the finished films was the most memorable part of the process for me, as final editing and sound design took place and all the love and passion which had gone into filming could be seen on full display. In addition, I found filming my own role as a game show host in the film to be uniquely memorable, and more fun than I had expected despite time restrictions and my deficiency of experience as an actor (where I now perhaps stand less lacking).
From the experience as a whole, as well as my fantastic mentors, what I gained was this: if you’re willing to be inventive and work with others, you can create something beautiful, even if you feel underqualified or unworthy with the presence of sincere passion and care. Despite my initial skepticisms, the excitement I felt at the end makes me glad that I participated in such a rewarding opportunity.
