An Ode to the Senior Class

Descriptive Transcript

Upbeat guitar music plays throughout.

Video fades in from white on Victoria Richardson, Class Speaker, Class of 2020, speaking to the camera.

Victoria: "Hello class of Two Thousand and Twenty because we did it - period." She crosses her hands in front of her and emphasizes the last word with a double outwards stroke.

Student-recorded mobile phone video footage plays throughout the video while Victoria continues to speak. There is a filter on all of this footage to make it look like a film running on an old, worn-out projector. We see students dancing, celebrating, and waving their arms, all in slow motion. There are brief clips of students outside at a marina and another at a rally.

We see Victoria speaking again: "I feel like these last four years have been so transformative for me.

The old projector video returns with a sped-up scene of students walking on campus past the libraries and Victoria continues to speak: " And I think if I were to pick one word to describe my Brandeis experience I think I would say eye opening."

We see Victoria briefly, before the projector footage continues with students full of joy, taking a group video-selfie.

Victoria on screen: "I am so appreciative that I was able to find a community at Brandeis who cared about what I cared about."

Projector footage of two students sledding in the snow followed by the final bows of a stage performance.

Victoria on screen: "And I think that will always be in my heart. My outlook on the world - I was able to learn so many things and meet so many people and have so many experiences that quite literally, changed my life."

Victoria speaking throughout footage: "Where I met so many people who had the same passions as me."

Projector selfie-footage of students dancing and singing at a formal dance followed by footage of a group of students dancing in sync in a dance class. This is followed by footage of a student practicing jumps on horseback, a student giving a live performance at a mic, and a close up of another student wearing headphones and singing into a studio microphone

Victoria speaking throughout footage: "And I wish, and I hope, and I just wish that you guys can keep blazing a trail. Keep running, standing, fighting, jumping - whatever you need to do - to make the things that you want to make happen. You can do it." We see several dozen students dancing in lines en masse in Gosman, followed by students outside participating (and falling down) in a giant inflatable obstacle course. Next we see students practicing a dance performance, followed by a student smiling and pointing at the camera. Lastly we see scenes from Culture X before Victoria returns to the screen.

Victoria speaking on screen: "You've done so much already - and keep doing it because this world needs you."

Screen fades to white and back out to another piece of student-recorded footage. Scores of students are gathered at night surrounded by strings of hanging likes. A student looks at the camera and gasps in delight. This fades out to footage of three students in the autumn woods working on a video project.

Victoria speaks over sped-up footage of tall grass blowing on the south-facing side of the hill that is Brandeis campus: "We need you."

Victoria speaking on screen: "So thank you for everything that you've done so far and I can't wait to see what you guys will all do as time goes on." She gestures to the air and we fade to mobile footage of students outside of Pearlman Hall in gowns throwing their caps into the air.

All with the projector filter still going, we finally fade to white with blue text on screen:

Congratulations Class of 2020