Not so Easy

“Happy birthday!” my friends chorused.

It was my birthday and we were going to watch Paranormal Activities. Nadja, Kaitlyn, Erin, Noor, Sabrina, and I were huddled in front of my T.V. After 1 and a half hour, the movie ended. We were all staring at the blank screen, hugging each other close.

The next day, on the way to school, Kaitlyn and I talked about the movie.

“Why don’t we make a parody?” I suddenly exclaimed.

Kaitlyn was in on this idea, and we both started working out a script for our parody, ‘Apple-Normal Activities’.

Arriving at school, we quickly filled out names of our friends for roles that would best fit their personality. We explained our ideas briefly to the rest of our friends. With all the excitement exploding like an eruption, they all still agreed to help, hearing only: “We are filming a movie”. There was a small discussion of the roles but as the bell rang, we were ready to practice.

“Nadj — uh — Nikki, what’s wrong?” Kaitlyn said, correcting into our stage names.

… Silence.

“Nadja! Your line!” I reminded her.

“Huh? Oh yeah! Um, uh… Nothing. Nothing’s wrong”

5th time through, they were still forgetting their lines. Recess was over, and we only practiced the first two scenes.


The next few scenes were fine, making only minor mistakes. Though when we got to the fighting scene, we were all messing up. Nadja wasn’t getting the sequence right.

“No! The first blow comes around and you’re supposed to duck! No, not yet!” I tried correcting her.

Soon, a few of the cast started wandering off to play with other people. When they were called back, none of them would be into the script or the acting. Eventually, we grew tired.


Little by little, like a creeping cat, the day of filming came. It was to be filmed at Kaitlyn’s house. When everyone arrived, I looked over at the camera, then at the tripod. Kaitlyn shrugged and so we hastily tried to piece it together. The camera wasn’t stable and there were a bunch of levers everywhere. We finally pieced it together after 10 minutes.

“Okay, guys, first scene. Sabrina, you — GUYS!” Kaitlyn yelled.

The camera started.

“Ooh. This looks cool.” Chaitri said expressionlessly.

“CUT! More expression! Restart!” I cut her off.

She sat back down and got ready to start.

“Ooh! This looks cool!” she exclaimed.

That short little scene already took away 15 more minutes from our 2-hour film time.


“Nikki, what’s wrong?” asked Kaitlyn.

“Nothing. Noth —” Nadja burst out laughing.

“NADJA!” we all yelled at her.

She apologized and Sabrina started the camera again.

“Nikki, what’s—” This time, it was Kaitlyn who started laughing.

20 minutes already passed and we were getting nowhere.


“We should do this first,—” Nadja said.

“But shouldn’t we —” Sabrina interrupted.

“Yes, but how about —” Erin tried.

“Guys, guys, stop! Let’s just stick with our plan!” I huffed.


It was the time for our fighting scene and Sabrina quickly set up the camera. Nadja and I began. First, she kicked and I dodged. Then my hand went for her head, but she wasn’t ducking.

“No, no, no!” I stopped. “You’re supposed to DUCK!”

The camera began rolling once more. This time, Nadja and I were in sync, not missing a beat. Suddenly, like waking from a dream, Sabrina’s voice cut in.

“Shirley, you’re not in the scene…”

With an exasperated sigh, I shifted the camera back a bit.

“There. Now let’s finish this scene with no more interruptions” I said.


Step by step, we finished one scene, then 2, then the whole movie.

“I am soo good” Chaitri finished off the last line and pivoted away.

“And we’re done!” we all yelled triumphantly when Sabrina stopped the camera. After a big hustle of clean up, Kaitlyn gave the memory card to Nadja for her to edit.


hey guys! i edited the movie and heres the final result!
Apple-Normal Activity – Medium_1.mp4
-nadja :)

That was the email Nadja sent us a few days later. I clicked on the link and watched our 15-minute movie unfold.


At school, we asked our teacher if we could show the class the movie. We received laughs, whispers of awe, and compliments afterwards.


That night, we all went home and slept soundly, proud of our success.