Coming into my upper class-men years as a Junior, I had heard so much about how this year was going to be the hardest year I would ever experience in high school. I brushed off those comments not giving them a whole lot of thought. High school was always so easy for me, and going through another year with advanced classes would just be that: another year. Well high school had other plans for me.
At my high school, Olathe Northwest, I am in a special program called e-Communications. In my program I am apart of the specific strand of Entertainment, and in Entertainment we do a lot of client work-it's where I get a lot of my experience. Specified strands are only meant for upper class-men, so my junior year would be the first year I would be taking this class. Being the person I am I tend to have a bit more faith in my abilities, the wrong move honestly.
With my misguided faith, I decided to take on the task of making a documentary. Not just any documentary but the documentary for the ONW Raven Pride Marching Band, in the first year it's ever been created, in the first year I've been in this class. So, I have no real experience, no game plan, and this gigantic project: no pressure, right? Wrong! Originally there was supposed to be about 15 people working on this project; within the first week of the first band event 9 people had dropped out. Fun. The first event was their March to Meadow Lane. With around 5 people filming it was simple enough to get footage and it wasn't too stressful to do. There was a lot of walking with heavy equipment for about a quarter of a mile. I had the simple job of getting interviews which we didn't use in the final production, but it was good practice with interviews.
Within a couple of days after filming Meadow Lane I had one of my camera operators drop right before the first parade of their season. I had around 4 people filming what is called Old Settler's Day Parade. This parade was just a community event where all the school's participate and some local businesses promote their work and such. It was about a mile and a half of walking which for a person as unfit as I was equals hell. It was kind of humid and I was in jeans and a hoodie, and I couldn't imagine what the band was going through with their heavy jackets and dark pants. It wasn't too bad of a film and we had gotten a lot of footage which was really nice. Old Settler's Day, as great and smooth as it went, couldn't prepare me for the horror that was the Owasso Festival.
You want to know what sucks? Being stuck in a bus for several hours, filming with only two people (one of which was more unexperienced than I was at the time), running more than three miles in 89 degree weather with over 10lbs of equipment, and then missing finals by a little over a point. That's the Owasso Invitational in a nut shell. It was the worst competition that I had to experience in the season. I felt like I was the only person who vaguely knew what they were doing. People in the band were fainting because it was so hot in their uniforms. I was sore and tired, I didn't get back home until about 3 AM that day, and to top it off I almost lost all of the SD cards with all the footage on it. Ask any band kid about the competition and they will groan in disgust. That competition was up against nationally recognized marching bands and to see that they had scored so close was definitely an interesting way to start off the competition season for them.
One of the coolest performances of the season that I've always had the pleasure of seeing up until last year was their annual Glow Show. I unfortunately couldn't go because I had my sister's wedding but I was really happy with how my team was able to film the show. They got really good footage and it was probably the most enjoyable thing to edit during the whole time. We ended up using the song Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) as the song to edit to just to make it more fun (we had to look up some serious copyright laws to make sure that we wouldn't have to pay money to use it in our video).
There was this slight break where I didn't have to film which was absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, I couldn't be on vacation forever and I had to go back and film another competition at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensberg, KS. Warrensberg wasn't as far or as bad as Owasso. Festival of the Champions was definitely a way better competition there was a lot more free time and to top it off I got to spend a lot of time with the band and get really good interviews. Now my feet still hurt and I actually was the only person filming this time. At this time I really felt like I knew what I was doing and they made finals! Which was the first time in ONW Marching Band history and it really was amazing to be apart of that with them even if I was just a spectator. Unfortunately, nothing really came from making finals they didn't place which was really disappointing, but it was a step in the right direction. Even with the current disappointment it made me realize that the best had yet to come.
The last and final competition of the season: Neewollah. Newollah (which is Halloween spelled backwards: pretty cool, but we have no clue how to pronounce it) is a marching festival that takes place on Halloween day where there's a marching contest in the morning and then a performance at the evening. There were three of us filming which was A-MAZ-ING! During the marching portion we had gotten a bunch of great footage and awesome interviews with the seniors since it was their last competition for high school. There was a lot of down time between the marching contest and the show performance. It was a great time to actually get to know the band and see what they like. It was interesting to get to know so many people in such a short time. Usually when I film I feel like an outsider, but during that specific competition it really felt like I've known these people for the longest time. I think the best part of the whole experience was being there for their firsts. Warrensberg was their first time going to finals and for Neewollah that was their first time winning. They didn't just win, they swept the competition. They had won first in their division, overall, and percussion.
Even though I was only with them for maybe a month or two filming it felt like a life time. Filming with them was an amazing experience just seeing a sneak peek into the lives of these people and to be with them through their victories and trials. It really meant a lot to me to be with them and to realize how hard they work and how little recognition they get. These kids spend hundreds and hundreds of hours on this show to get not a whole lot of student body appreciation. Being so invested into theatre it helped me understand just how hard these kids work on one thing for this extended period of time. I'm just glad I got to be apart of their journey through it.