“An Important Message” is about a senior in high school whose final project is to create a video message to his future self. While he starts thinking he has all the answers, he ends up with a new perspective.
The background music, record scratch effect, doorknob picture, and backpack picture are Creative Commons assets. The narration, done by my child, and remaining pictures and video are my creations. BandLab was used to record the narration and the door and backpack sound effects. iMovie was used for video editing.
“An Important Message” by Christina Mumpower is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Artist in the Stacks by Karen Jesina 2026, All Rights Reserved
Synopsis: When her father dies and leaves a huge stack of old slides, the protagonist takes on the task of going through them and learns more about her dad’s life than she ever knew before, leaving the viewer with the question: how well do we know anyone, even ourselves?
Production Notes: The video and half of the still photography was shot by the author. The remainder was shot by the author’s late father. AI was used for one image, as specified below. iMovie was used for video and sound editing. The Tintype app was used to edit the final image.
AI image generated using the prompt “show a photo-realistic image of a light box that people used to use to view slides, with a bunch of slides on it. Show it turned ON (with light coming from the bulb inside it)” by Canva March 2026
This silent film is the story of OC (Old Cart), who sits unused and forgotten in a corner, watching the newer, shinier carts being chosen for the daily work it longs to do. When an unexpected mishap leaves the other carts unavailable, OC is finally given a chance to prove its worth, transforming from the forgotten, derided cart into an essential part of the library’s rhythm.
To create this silent film project, I filmed all scenes with props and the staff of my library as the cast, and assembled them in CapCut at 24 frames per second using the “Hollywood Past” filter. I created the intertitle cards and borders from assets in Canva and spliced them into the film. All music was sourced from Incompetech Music and edited into the film using CapCut.
Moon Blessed by Nicole Davis is Licensed as Public Domain
Synopsis: A young woman wakes up disoriented as she recalls the hazy events from the previous nights. Surely werewolves can’t be real, but she will have to come to accept her new reality.
I voiced the narration, and two of the images used, the blood splatter and bloody mouth were originally created by me.
Everything else included is a mix of public domain assets. The citations are separated first by image and audio assets, and then the image assets are further categorized by the main element used from each element. Although, it is worth noting that while I edited the images, I did sometimes take smaller elements (such as the moon from a wolf picture) to use in a separate section.
For this project I used DaVinci Resolve for the video photo editing and some of the audio edits, I initially used Audacity to edit and record the narration, and I used Canva Pro to do some of the photo editing, such as removing backgrounds or the more complicated parts of layering images, such as the wolf heads at the end.
Behind the Page by Troy Mosac, is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This story takes the form of a short, reflective interview with a library book, as it recounts its life through the many readers who have borrowed it and the different reasons they turned its pages. Through a slightly humorous tone, it highlights how books connect people, reminding the audience that every book holds not just a story, but the shared experiences of its readers. I recorded the audio for the Book myself, and two video scenes: the book being thrown into the car and the book being shelved.
For this project, I used several different programs. I recorded and edited the audio in Audacity, used CapCut for video editing, and used Midjourney to animate a couple of photo elements. Finally, I assembled the finished video in Canva.
A Moment in Chai by Christy Heiple is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 The video was created in WeVideo, exported in Full HD (1920×1080) resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and encoded as an MP4 file at 25 fps. The final file size is 75.51 MB.
This digital story follows a busy street in New Delhi, India, where traffic, movement, and noise fill every moment of the day and night. In the middle of the chaos, a newcomer finds peace when she buys a cup of chai from a chaiwala.
Most of my assets were free to use (some rights reserved) from Pexels and Pixabay. Two of the video clips were created with AI. I used WeVideo to create my video and recorded my narration in SoundCloud.
AI Generated Content: “Woman dancing in Sari” AI Image generated using the prompt “An Indian woman wearing a red sari slowly twirling. She should look happy and like she doesn’t have a care in the world” by MagicMedia. March 2026
“A Cup of Chai” AI Image generated using the prompt “A cup of chai with steam slowly rising out of it. The setting is a busy street in New Delhi, India. The scene should show the camera slowly circling the cup of chai with the busy street in the background” by MagicMedia. March 2026
“The Skin and the Flame: The Vanishing of Amara” by Kelly John-Strate, licensing under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Synopsis: When a defiant Trinidadian teenager dismisses her grandmother’s folklore and leaves her window open to the night, she inadvertently invites a predatory Soucouyant into her bedroom. Her skepticism ends in tragic irony when she is consumed by the mythical blue flame and transformed into the very monster she refused to believe in.
Content and Creation:
For The Skin and the Flame: The Vanishing of Amara, I used a mix of stuff I made myself and things I found online. I recorded my own voiceover and shot some of the video clips too, like the indigo jungle lighting, the peeling skin sequence, and the shot of Amara rolling her eyes. For the rest of the look and feel, I made some custom character and background pieces (saved on my Google Drive) and grabbed the historical photos, video clips, and background noises from free sites like Flickr, Openverse, and Freesound.org.
When it came to putting it all together, I used Capcut to edit the video, arrange the clips, and get the timing just right. Audacity for recording my narrative, and inviting a sense of connection to the content. For the really specific parts of the story that I couldn’t shoot myself or find online, I used Gemini for AI image and video generation. Finally, I spent a lot of time on Freesound.org picking out the perfect sound effects to make the whole thing feel creepy and immersive.
Field Notes on the Office Tribe by Viviana Mendiola is licensed under NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Synopsis:
This digital story presents a humorous anthropological field report on modern office culture. The narrative follows an anthropologist documenting the behaviors of “office workers,” interpreting everyday activities—such as meetings, emails, and workplace interactions—as cultural rituals.
Content & Creation:
This project combines original narration, AI-generated visuals, Adobe Express stock media, and third-party content used under fair use principles. Visual assets include stock video clips and images representing workplace environments, as well as original images created using ChatGPT to support the anthropological framing of the narrative.
The video was created using Adobe Express, which was used for editing, applying a consistent mahogany color treatment, integrating stock media, and incorporating motion effects such as zoom transitions and animated elements. ChatGPT image generation tools were used to create original visuals, including the title slide, anthropologist self-portrait, field notes, email imagery, whiteboard diagrams, meme content, and closing slides.
Narration was self-recorded, and additional audio elements—including ambient music, office chatter, and dialogue clips—were sourced from Adobe Express stock tools.
Dialogue audio clips – text-to-audio tool (“synergies,” water cooler conversation, and vending machine conversation)
Closed captions were generated using Adobe Express to improve accessibility and ensure clarity of narration.
Third-Party Image (Fair Use):
Lion meme image (“The lion does not concern itself with Microsoft Teams notifications”), from Instagram (account: garkuwan_matasa01; original creator unknown).
Under the CMSI’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, this image is used under Fair Use for purposes of commentary, illustration, and educational storytelling. It supports the analysis of workplace communication and functions as an example of memes as symbolic cultural artifacts. The use is transformative, non-commercial, and does not affect the market value of the original work.
Away from Home by Latasha Harrison Created with Canva, exported as 1080p Subtitles/Closed Captions Included
Synopsis: Something went wrong on a routine space station visit, and a group of humans must find a way to survive on an alien planet while trying to find a way to return home.
Content & Creation: The websites Unsplash, Pexels, Canva, and Open Verse were used for all my visual content. Canva was used for all my music and sound effects, and I voiced both characters by self-recording through Garageband. This video was edited using Canva.
