Long Day of Filming
Posted June 5, 2024
As an actor, you have to start getting used to long days. This is probably the hardest part of the occupation, but I believe that this makes it one of the most rewarding jobs out there. On June 1st, I had experience with filming documentaries and interviews with Ann Theis and Elizabeth Holloway, two of the people who work for El Raton Media Works. I woke up at 7:30 to get ready to go to the Visitor’s Center to film a Public Service Announcement about why it’s important to keep Raton clean and beautiful.
After that, we went to Capulin to film an interview with Alain Martin about a documentary about Haiti that he wrote and directed. The documentary, which premiered at the El Raton Theatre at 6:00 PM that night, was about the American occupation of Haiti and what it did to the country. Everyone we met was so nice and supportive of my journey to becoming a future filmmaker and actress.
Once we got back to Raton, my mom and I went to eat at Alfonso’s before she dropped me off at the El Raton Theatre to help set up the equipment to film the Q&A with Alain after the documentary was over. While I was filming my half, the SD card with the film on it started to get down to two minutes left, so Ann quickly went home to get a new one for me. Other than that, the filming went smooth and will be extremely rewarding when the final project is done.
Despite being exhausted from not being used to putting in a 13-hour day, I was really excited to start getting my toes wet in the industry. Doing all of those interviews and documentaries really helped me solidify exactly what kind of filmmaker and actor I want to be. When you get to be in high school, learning about all of the different occupations in the world can make deciding a future career confusing and possibly kind of scary. For all of the people out there who aren’t sure what they want to be when they grow up, know that you don’t have to decide right away. Even if you haven’t decided when you become a Senior, you can use that time to experiment with the things you love doing and decide from there.
Posted April 13, 2024
My Experiences with Film Prize Jr.
By Vixie Zorra
Last 4th of July, I learned about El Raton Media Works’ Film Prize Jr., which is an annual competition where kids in middle and high school across the state write, storyboard, and direct their own films. On April 5, 6, and 7, there was be a Red Carpet in Albuquerque where all of the students’ films was be showcased and shown live on YouTube. There were a variety of film mediums, including live-action, stop-motion, and animation. The films are usually about 5-10 minutes with a full character and story arc.
Wanting to become a filmmaker someday, I was ecstatic to join what was, I thought, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It took some trial and error before I decided what film I wanted to make. It switched between doing a film about a girl going through domestic abuse to a futuristic, cyberpunk film before settling on a storyline I loved about a boy (who was secretly the Phoenix reincarnated) who was chased out of his Utah home and found by the United States military. Looking back, I am SOOO glad I didn’t go through with it. We were all exhausted when we filmed a much simpler film in one day, that we couldn’t even imagine what War of the Phoenix would’ve been like. That, and the fact that Phoenix was becoming less and less like the storyline that I had loved so much.
Out of the whole thing, I would say that the hardest part for me was the storyboarding. I never realized until I was trying to do it that I couldn’t figure out what I wanted. I feel that I was too indecisive when it came to how I wanted the camera shots, where I wanted the characters to look, and how I could do it well without showing any violence or stunts. Other than that, I had a blast being in front of the camera and filming Doubt Defiers, a simpler film that shows two young girls trying to make their dreams come true despite no one believing in them. I would highly recommend the Film Prize to any young person out there interested in filmmaking.
The Doubt Defiers film was entered into the 2024 NM Film Prize Junior Film Festival held Friday, April 6, 2024. The awards ceremony was held Saturday, April 7, 2024. I’ll provide more information on my experience in future editions of Fun with Vixie!
Photos courtesy Ann Theis, El Raton Media Works
