Cinematic Ode to the Days That Were

Senior Elliana Dastici explores the unfolding of the pandemic in her short film, “How I Spent My Senior Year”

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Still of Elliana Dastici's short film

How has your perspective of e-learning changed since March? Elliana Dastici explores this question in her vertical short film, “How I Spent My Senior Year.”

At its heart, senior Elliana Dastici’s film “How I Spent My Senior Year,” is cathartic — for other students, for teachers and parents trying to understand students’ experiences, for remembrance and posterity.

Dastici created this piece for an assignment in Matthew Holdren’s Film 2 class. For the assignment, students were faced with the challenge of creating a short film for the 9×16 aspect ratio, the ratio used for films consumed on mobile devices.

Thus, students had to navigate smaller, vertical screens to tell these meaningful and cinematic stories.

Watch Dastici’s film above. For the best experience, use a mobile device.

For further reading: Social media editor and feature writer Evan Walker explores this topic in his recent piece “A Day in the Life of a High School Senior.” Interested in sharing your perspective? Contribute to our Pandemic Diary.