(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK2PIQpSQrY)
Hey guys! My name is Ivy Gong, and my co-producer Michelle Zhao and I created a comedy mockumentary web series over the summer called Last Period. We are currently high schoolers and with a budget of approximately -1 dollars, we wrote, directed, and edited 18 episodes of approximately 5 minute videos. We want to ask you for the chance to have your support, and here’s why.
Last Period is about five high-schoolers and their trials and tribulations as they attend an English class and a last period Office Aide class together. The series extends through the school year and each episode relates to what students are experiencing at that time in their lives. We’ve always felt that many of the high school comedies we’ve seen inaccurately portray the extraordinary experience of high school; the portrayals are amusing and entertaining, but not completely relatable. We wanted to capture the struggles and successes of typical high schoolers and that was a huge impetus for the production of Last Period.
Something that we’ve experienced for the last couple years as film production became a bigger and bigger dream of ours is how many obstacles arise from the stigma surrounding the entertainment industry. We were told that being interested in this career path is highly unrealistic and completely unattainable and that those who chose to believe otherwise were going to find themselves in a world of hurt and unemployment. Because of course, watching TV and movies is for the lazy - everyone would want to have a career in entertainment, right? This was a depressing thing for us to come to terms with and it was a struggle watching our classmates pursue their love for science and math as we took the same classes, desperately trying to find the same passion for STEM. We questioned the legitimacy of our dreams of going into film production and we put those interests on the back burner. It was when we finally decided that we weren’t going to stand by and let our dreams slip away - so common to those who are interested in this field - that we chose to produce a web series.
On top of that, being Asian and female made realizing our dream a lot more difficult. Michelle and I watch a lot of TV. Like, A LOT of TV. Seeing POC representation on TV has always been extremely gratifying and a huge success for us. It was, however, discouraging as it become more and more noticeable that there was a huge lack of Asian representation, much less Asian females. This fact continued to plague us as we found that in all realms of entertainment, Asians had few to no roles. And with every Asian entertainer that entered our computer screen, there was a glimpse of hope: the wonderful feeling that with hard work, motivation, and passion, our dreams weren’t capricious or quixotic - they were attainable.
This production is built on the all-nighters and endless panics of two high schoolers with big dreams and the desire to work. A thumbs up on our videos, a subscription, a like on Facebook may take a couple minutes of your time, but would genuinely mean the world to us. If you guys could find it in your heart to help us out, we seriously appreciate it so much and would like to thank you for supporting us as we follow our passion.
Our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/lastperiodwebseries?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHku9gNV588X1szO9_Xrwgw
Our website:
www.ermanaproductions.com/lastperiod