My group had met together online using Zoom on Monday at 5:00 pm EST to discuss the video format for the project. Since it was a documentary, we decided to do a documentary format by having Lilian, Lewis, Kyle, and myself record and submit footage of ourselves talking to the camera about how we each in this future survived the virus, what life was like, the economy exploding, and the toilet paper scare by Wednesday night/early Thursday morning. James would then edit the footage together, put in the credits, and add sound effects.
I sat down with the laptop to record at 4:00 am on Thursday morning, and I was glad that the web cam worked, since I had never used it before. If it had problems, I would have tried using my old 2007 HP’s camera, then if that didn’t work my cell phone on low battery. My younger brother who recently graduated from high school enjoys buying old military surplus clothing and gear, and happened to have a gas mask and a full hazmat suit lying around. He allowed me to borrow the gas mask for the filming, but without the filter for the gas mask which makes it usable as a gas mask. He only had one of those filters, and they aren’t reusable after being used, so it would be a waste to use it for filming, but I think the mask without the filter still gave off an ominous appearance that worked effectively to enhance the atmosphere. I shot it by the lava lamp, which I thought added something interesting to the background, and I was sitting in my great aunt Bessie’s 120 year old chair to provide an antique feeling of an old man recalling his experience of a historical event. I’m not sure what exact year the chair was made in, but she was born in 1899, and I think the chair was made around that time. It was strange talking through the gas mask at first, but after a few minutes I got used to it. Unlike the audio where I could record several clips and combine the best ones, due to my lackluster video editing software, I had to record the entire part in one go, so if I made one messup, I’d need to restart entirely. I was awake until 5:00 am recording my parts.
I tried to paint a darker world for my recollections in the documentary, many economists before the virus sprang up were predicting that we were in a massive bubble that would burst into another recession, but with the virus now completely destroying entire industries, I think it’ll serve as a catalyst for a far greater depression, akin to the 1930’s, which will cause massive political turmoil and upheaval throughout many countries. Political Polarization has drastically increased in the last 10 years, I remember back in middle school how no young people cared for politics, and it was seen as lame, I was always called crazy for liking politics, but now it’s the primary thing that fellow young people care about, and people on both ends of the spectrum are becoming increasingly intolerant of eachother’s political views. With people out of money and jobs from this depression, I only see that intolerance increasing. I predict that during the 2030’s or 2040’s, fueled by the political polarization and this depression there will be a second civil war in our country between those who can no longer tolerate eachother’s political differences. I tried to recall the world after these horrible events, as an older, broken man, recanting the catalyst which brought everything down from utopia to distopia. I tried to lighten it up a little bit by sharing the story of my great uncle George who had during the 1930’s depression became an underwear salesman and sold underwear in his suitcase. My grandfather still has that suitcase, lol.
