Film Company Helps Westminster Seniors Celebrate Graduation Virtually
WESTMINSTER, Colo. (CBS4) - Virtual graduation can't compare to the real thing, but it's better than no ceremony at all. One Colorado high school is using every tool it can to provide the best virtual ceremony possible during the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's like, well, what are we going to do? Because I think we just we had this idea and we saw the trend, that there's probably not a way that we're going to be coming back, and be able to get 5,000 people in a stadium together to celebrate our seniors, and so we began thinking about it on day one of the closures," said Jeff Colebank, the media manager for Westminster Public Schools.
He began to document everything. From the gowns being carefully distributed to the signs the students were asked to put in their front yards. From that, he made a video, asking students to send in photos. Lastly, he had teachers, the class valedictorian and others who had planned to speak on graduation day record their speeches.
"To try to recreate it as much as possible, the name readings, the speeches, all of that and so instead of all of us going to a big stadium together, they'll all sit at home with their families," he said. "A production company reached out to us and allowed us to have a way to stream it versus the way that we were just going to kind of release it to people. So it will have more of a polished look by having a professional Hollywood production company kind of finish those last polishes for us."
CBS4 was treated to a sneak peek of the production Wednesday and had the chance to speak with students about how they were feeling.
"We thought that we were going to come back eventually, but to have everything canceled just kind of sucked, and we couldn't really do like all the senior traditions that we really wanted to do," Vivian Che, Student Body President, said. She listed a few events and then chuckled, "our senior skip day, which kind of got extended to the whole year."
Che says overall she's okay going with the flow. She laughed again when CBS4's Jamie Leary asked who was more upset about no traditional graduation, Che, or her parents?
"I feel like they're definitely more upset then I am ..."
In some ways, Che believes the circumstances make it more special.
"It's obviously something that no other class has had to experience, but we get to have our own new thing just for our class."
The school is in the process of gathering all the elements and will send them to Hollywood-based VEGO Pictures, which will produce a final product families can live stream on graduation day -- May 16. While not ideal, it's the first time families from around the world can watch nieces, nephews, granddaughters and grandsons graduate, from the comfort of their homes.
Westminster High School has been planning and still hopes to have some type of in-person commencement sometime in August.
Should ongoing restrictions prevent an in-person ceremony, they will have this production to remind them of their senior year when, despite the odds, many could still see what was really important.
"I would just say to appreciate what you have and to appreciate the little things because it's going to be different for everybody and we're obviously not going to have the same experiences as every other class has had, but just enjoy what we do have," said Che.
WEB EXTRA: Watch part of Marissa Alejandra Martinez Suarez's Valedictorian speech:
