ELIE-Activity 6.2

“From Zero to Submit: A Multimedia Miracle (Fueled by Panic)”

    Let me be honest right off the bat—I didn’t wake up one day thinking, “Wow, I’m going to be part of a multimedia project today!” Nope. It was more like, “Group project na naman? Saan na naman ako kukuha ng app pang-edit?!” And to make it worse, half the time, we didn’t even start on time. Cramming? Oh, that wasn’t just part of the process—it was the process.

     Back in high school, we had multimedia projects for Creative Technology and Entrepreneurship. Whether it was filming, poster-making, or doing some ad for a fake business, it always started with an idea… and then weeks of doing nothing… until boom—suddenly it’s due tomorrow. Somehow, we always managed to pull it off, but not without chaos and sleep deprivation.

     For the filming and advertising parts, we used whatever was available: phones, laptops, and wireless microphones if someone was lucky enough to own one. We edited using CapCut, VN, and FilmoraGo on our phones, and sometimes Shotcut or Adobe Premiere Pro if the laptop was feeling generous and didn’t lag or crash. More than once, I lost my progress because I forgot to save. Pain.

     When it came to posters or menus for our pretend food stalls, we used ibisPaint to design from scratch. And when our minds were blank—because, again, we started too late—we rushed to Pinterest for inspiration. It’s basically our unofficial groupmate. Zero contribution sa group chat pero solid sa ideas.

     Most of the stuff we used came from us—personal gadgets or borrowed from someone in class who had better tools. We downloaded the apps ourselves, and most of them were free. If not, we relied on free trials and prayed they wouldn’t expire the night before the deadline. And yes, there were moments we had to uninstall TikTok just to make space for video editing apps. Sacrifices were made.

     Now let’s talk about using other people’s work. Guilty, but responsibly guilty. We got music, sound effects, and background clips from the internet, but we were careful. We used royalty-free music from YouTube’s audio library, Pixabay, and Bensound, and we only used images labeled as safe for educational or personal use. When required, we gave credits—usually in the last slide or video frame while silently hoping the teacher would notice.

     Looking back, I realize that what we were doing was actual multimedia work—combining text, video, audio, and graphics. It wasn’t perfect, but it was real. And through all the stress, confusion, and cramming at midnight while the rest of the group suddenly “fell asleep,” I learned something. I learned how to work with what I had, how to make things look decent under pressure, and how to stay calm when everything starts going wrong 3 hours before submission.

     And maybe, just maybe, I enjoyed it—right after the breakdowns. So no, our projects didn’t look like Hollywood-level films or Canva pro posters, but they were made with effort, panic, and a lot of last-minute genius.

      That’s how I survived multimedia in high school. And honestly? I’d do it again. But this time, maybe with a little less cramming. Maybe.