Advanced Animation and Audio and Visual Production students worked together to make the visual elements for the Hobby Center’s production of Our Road Home, which lit up the downtown stage on January 30. The students worked for many weeks under the supervision of two Cypress Falls teachers — Mrs. Demi Navarro and Ms. Natalie Rodriguez — and the director of Our Road Home.
“Our Road Home is an interactive journey through Houston’s Freedmen’s Town, told through a powerful blend of dance, spoken word, and rhythm,” Rodriguez said.
The students got to work head on with the director. They earned feedback in real time, and they were able to edit and revise their designs to fit the directors vision.
“Students took on the role of editors, transforming raw footage provided to them into polished videos by following the show director’s specific creative vision,” Rodriguez said.
The students were given the opportunity to go to the Hobby Center, and see their designs on stage.
“The show was amazing, you know,” senior AVP student, Josue Pineda, said. ”It was an opportunity to express black culture itself, and how sometimes we commonly forget it, and how they grew as a community and a home. It was really beautiful.”
It was an experience for all of the students, and for many of them, it was their first time working professionally.
“I was impacted in so many ways,” Pineda said. “It was my first time working with a professional client like that. It was breathtaking; getting to sit down one-on-one with the director of the show itself.”
The students learned the ropes of how design works outside of the classroom.
“I learned how they worked together and how they informed one another about how to do this, and how to do that,” senior AVP student Joseph Lopez said. “They’re really good with communication, and it was definitely a learning experience to have.”
This project, although an exciting opportunity, required students to work many difficult hours and go through struggles and roadblocks.
“The process was harsh because at the start, we didn’t really know what was going on,” Lopez said. “But over time, we all started working together, and we all came to a conclusion. ‘Alright, this works. “Hey, what about that one idea you had? That would also work.’ We all came together, and it was really a team building project, if anything. It just ended up how we imagined it, and it happened as a team.”
