CPS All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions

Teacher: Donovan Chan
Grade: 12
Materials: Video

Contributors:

All contributed to “The Endless Now Duology”: William Krug, Rowan Harrison, Ivan Hernandez, Jaime Fernandez, Khalin Soorya, Artur Walkosz, Jonathan Garcia, Ezra Blue, Jackson Meyer, Ayan Chandrasekaran, Benjamin Acosta, Joey Rodriguez

Artist Statement:

Inspired by the great fights within Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean, I wanted to create an action flick set in a fun school environment with a bunch of swords. That’s really the gist of why I made it. But it was during the scripting and filming process where I realized I could give a deeper message to the story.

The first problem was setting and props. Because we’re just a bunch of high schoolers I decided to make the story more lighthearted and funny to fit the vibe of the scenery. Then it was props. I’m not a movie studio so I was limited. I also wanted to give the story a grand scale so I needed more people. But with more people the more things I had to take into consideration like time. So I decided to create an endless loop where the characters constantly die but respawn. From there I went onto building the story and stakes. While eating a bag of Jimmy Chips I made the story about fighting for what you love, and to always persevere. To fight for your chip family and your home. It was about never giving up. Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

When filming the original and the sequel I had to plan every little detail. When it came to the choreography, the dialogue, the shooting location, times, and organizing everyone together. It was a daunting task of taking up a large space at school to film a movie with 7 actors but I made it fun for everyone. Then I had to edit the video, cut all the scenes together, sync the sound effects, and add music to spice it up. With around 6 hours of total production time for both films I’d say they turned out great.

This duology means so much to me as its my first big “production” with thrilling choreography and visuals I always dreamed of as a kid. Its a measurement of showing how far I’ve come and what to look forward to in the future.