IM Launches Virtual Artsfest Site
Written By Donovan Ellis
Interactive Media Team Member & DHS Senior
Tabitha Toney, Trevor Pierce, Lainey Castilgione, Jaselyn Guidry, Colin Plaisance, A’Zealzya White, and Donovan Ellis: the members of the Satellite Center’s Interactive Media with collaboration from St Charles Parish Schools were able to bring the first official virtual Artfest to life at scppsartsfest.com.
Needless to say that Covid 19 has proposed a lot of challenges. So many plans for the parish had to be interrupted or changed to fit the mold of social distancing. This included the annual SCPPS Artsfest, an event hailed at the Satellite Center that is usually celebrated amongst the community as a chance for family members to gaze upon the full display of their kid’s love, talent, and determination for the arts. With such an important ideal, it was only natural that the Interactive Media course of the Satellite Center decided to bring a virtual Artsfest to the community after a year of compromises.
With such a massive undertaking before us it was only natural we had to start early to complete the April 22nd deadline. During mid-March, we quickly set up a list of know/need-to-know lists to establish what we already knew about the project and what we needed to explore next to achieve our goals. Combine that with Slack and as we chugged along we managed to find our pace while maintaining communication the whole way through. A week later we jumped on fast with 2 teams (Web Design and Photography) and one untied cause of seeing this through.
To say the least, both teams had their work cut out for them. Team Photography had the immense job of capturing, recording, editing, and lighting over 100 artboards in a uniform pattern to Dropbox with all their names on display. Meanwhile team Web Design had the responsibility of designing the overall layout of the website while also making sure all of the sent videos were submitted. Saying it all went smoothly would be a lie but luckily we made up for the sum of our parts.
Once the Photography and Web Design were relatively done, we decided to go the extra mile or as our facilitator, Mr. Gough would put it on the “Pixar Plus” where we improved and checked each other’s work right before sending it out like the animation studio of the same name. After all, what's the point of creating when you can innovate? With that, I could safely say that our effort made the results as we zoom out to soak it all in.
I think like most people we all wish we could change a couple of things when we send it all out. That being said I don’t think we regret it. Because like so many other activities in Interactive Media we gained a taste of working together on a company project, learning more about websites like Wix and Adobe, etc. While we are collectively exhausted from the project, we also know that giving St Charles Parish the chance to experience the full Artsfest at the comfort of their home is well worth the wait.