Ugh, this is almost a week late.
Over the past few weeks my life has been incredibly busy with editing a project that was for my Leavers Assembley. It was another collaboration with my friend Lucas and we wanted to do something special which would mark the conclusion of five years of education; in our book that would be to take the piss out of everybody.
It was a rocky road. The film went through multiple different shapes and structures in the four-month-period in which we ran around school with my camera filming people and I then edited. Well, truthfully, the majority of the editing was done in the past three weeks. When we started, we wanted to make something which really did rip into both the school and the students because that was far more interesting to us than ‘keeping it PG’ and making something emotional. That would be boring. What we also weren’t interested in doing was producing something which focused solely on a few people – our friends, basically. This had to be inclusive of the entire year and a celebration of all of us in our own snarky way, and I feel that we did that successfully.
Due to common sense and advice from the powers-that-be, a lot of the more offensive material had to be cut. When it was done about a week ago, we showed it to our Year Leader who loved it and held a screening for the Senior Team. Most of them seemed to like it, and the Headteacher only had a few small concessions which we felt were fair. We were actually pretty surprised that the version we showed to them was almost the exact same as what was screened at Leavers.
The editing process was painfully long, but also the only editing experience that I have actually thoroughly enjoyed. Despite spending about 40+ hours rendering and re-rendering I loved coming up with all the jokes, finding the right music and cutting all the clips together to create something which evoked a nostalgic and warm feeling for everybody. When editing I knew we had something special. Truth be told I don’t actually like any of the sketches we have made. I think they’re all deeply flawed and I can’t really enjoy them. With the Mockumentary. even whilst doing the painful task of adjusting sound frequencies I could tell that this was gonna be great. I think that came from the lack of script; with the others we have been tied down by a narrative and script. While that is my absolute passion, this was an opportunity to try something new and ended up being far more successful than my narrative efforts.
I think the great thing about it is that it has rewatch value. That really is the key to making great film, and it’s something which you can’t master – it’s lighting-in-a-bottle. Pure chance. Both me and Lucas know that we can’t top this in pure fun or enjoyment at all so we’re not going to try. There are lots of films throughout history with this quality, and every time the director has tried to top it they have failed. Obviously I’m not gonna go about comparing myself to the likes of Whedon or Spielberg but it’s the same sort of idea, just on a much smaller scale. Even rewatching it now it has a sense of nostalgia to it; Prom was three days ago and now school is officially over. Done. Fin. This video is basically the only thing we all have to watch again and again and remember us all, and that just hit me. *sniffle* Despite that, I feel incredibly proud to be 50% responsible for producing that.
Neither of us expected the reaction we got at Leavers.
It was Wednesday afternoon and me and Lucas had decided to wear our school uniform – more on that later. It was absolutely boiling outside and we were especially hot for a different reason, so by the time we finished the 20-minute journey to school we were sweating like pigs. We waited around for a bit, chatted, sat down, listened to the speeches and watched the opening acts and then we were on.
First order of business was a thanks to Lucas. He is the one who presented the entire Mockumentary; as I said on the day, he could have easily not showed up for filming each day and instead have gone to talk and play football but he was (almost) always with me filming and contributing ideas. It’s especially shocking since he never learned any of his scripts for the sketches until the day. Then he thanked me and yada yada.
“Now, Leavers Assembley is obviously a time for endings, however it’s also a time for… revelations. We’ve got a few revelations which we’d like to make to you all, haven’t we?” -Me
“Yes, yes we have.” -Lucas
“First off, I would like to reveal that I actually weigh 6 stone and I’ve been wearing a fat suit for the past five years.” -Me
*applause and laughter*
“Me too!” -Year Leader
“And I would like to reveal that I actually am fat, and I’ve just been hiding it in my trousers for the past five years.” -Lucas
*applause and laughter*
“However, we have something else which we would like to reveal. We’re not actually Jasper&Lucas, are we?” -Me
“No, no we’re not.” -Lucas
“My name is Bruce Wayne.”
“And my name is Dick Grayson.”
“HIT IT!”
The classic stripping theme blasted out of the speakers. Our ties came flying off into the audience, shoes were flung to the back of the stage as we ripped off our clothes and flung them out to the rest of the year. Slowly fading in (thanks to my editing skills that morning) was the classic Batman theme, as me and Lucas fumbled with the costumes which had been hidden underneath our uniform and stood heroically back-to-back as the music came to a conclusion.
*applause – lots and lots of applause*
“That was the joke incase the Mockumentary sucks. Enjoy the film!” -Me
Me and Lucas ran off stage, round the school and to the back of the hall where we slid in on a slippery floor wearing just our socks. The Mockumentary was just about to begin.
What followed was 20 minutes of laughter, cheering and applause – so much more than we could ever have expected. It was really fucking beautiful. Like, we could never have even guessed it would have gone down that well with everybody. When it finished we ran back on stage and took a bow to rounds of applause. Then we sat back down and our Year Leader led another.
After and during the assembley we had other students and teachers coming up to us and praising us, saying how amazing it was, and then people on Facebook messaging me saying how they loved it and thanking me and Lucas for making it. The post with the YouTube link in the whole-year Facebook group has notched up about 80 or so likes. My Year Leader emailed me saying he’s watched it any number of times and praised it once again, sending it to every member of staff in school – and a lot of them emailed back to praise it. At Prom he was praising it yet again, listing off his favourite moments in a 15-minute dissection of the video and telling us how he burst out laughing at all these different parts. Other teachers came up to us and congratulated us, some had shown it to their other classes and some have watched it dozens of times. It was so, so heartwarming. If you’re one of those people or you just watched it and enjoyed it and you’re reading this then I would like to give a massive thank you once again.
The video is unlisted on YouTube which is why those of you who follow this blog and my channel hadn’t seen it already this week, but regardless it has already ratched up almost 1100 views in five days, and my subscriber count has grown by 22 people to 140 subscribers. I was debating whether or not to post it here but I thought, ‘fuck it’.
You guys will definitely not get all the jokes, however I think there is enough in there which can make you chuckle and you all will hopefully enjoy it. If not then that would be sad, but oh well. Here it is.
Jasper | CH 
THIS IS GLORIOUS!
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