I made a near 45 minute pilot episode as my first passion project! And it changed my life in ways I never thought I’d expect.
It was 2022, which was marked as a post pandemic year that followed an era that defined a generation nicknamed ‘zoomers.’ I was a student with nothing to my name other than the contentious label of an art student with big dreams and aspirations.
For what can be considered on the surface level as just a student production became my whole world. My art. My baby. Many creative people can attest that creating your first major passion project can almost feel like giving birth to your own child. You create and put something out into the world that is completely your own. A
In the span of a year and a half, this little idea in my head went from a pitch, to an intense but creatively fulfilling production, to being an award winner at the university’s award show. Another year and a half later, I finally had the courage to release the show in the place where I always intended it to be – on YouTube as a pilot web episode.
I was in my third year, second semester of media school. I remember being on zoom in my tiny box room, living with my parents in the quiet suburbs of Toronto, when it was announced that my pitch had been chosen to be developed into a production. Looking back, it’s easy to dismiss this past as futile, compared to how much I’ve grown as a person and had more professional experience out in the real world.
For many years not finishing this project has haunted me.
Don Qarlo Bernardino 