Juniors Audrey Baybay and Davis Glynn stand in an empty elevator in the Petersen Automotive Museum located in Los Angeles, stealing small glances at each other before intertwining hands and leaving the elevator to explore the flashy race cars of the museum. The camera shifts to another part of the museum, capturing juniors Sheyn Sino-Cruz and Joaquin Rhys Evangelista walking down a flight of stairs, taking pictures as they admire the retro interior of the museum before meeting up with Baybay and Glynn.
These joyful moments are scenes in the promotional Instagram reel for this year’s prom, “The Grand Prix,” which was inspired by the race car displays in the museum. The video, posted on Instagram on Feb. 23, 2026, has since then amassed 104,000 likes and 1 million views on the social media platform, highlighting the dedication that the student actors put into capturing the exciting atmosphere of prom.
Although Baybay and Glynn, along with Sino-Cruz and Evangelista, acted as couples in the reel, a sense of lightheartedness is dominant throughout the video that captures the preestablished friendships the students had with each other prior to the video.
“It was really fun being with my friends. I’m glad I was able to [contribute to prom through the reel],” Evangelista said.
Preparations for the video started in September 2025 when junior Mia Veneracion, president of the Class of 2027 cabinet, reached out to senior Arvin Chau regarding the making of a promotional video for prom. Before that, the officers discussed the details and vision for the video, proposing ideas such as the opening elevator scene of the video. After communication with the officers, Chau chose the video music and made a storyboard with visuals to establish the playful mood and tone of the reel. Then, the officers decided to reach out to various cabinet members to star in the video.
“We were hoping to have different kinds of diversity in the video,” Veneracion said. “We [wanted] everyone to feel represented in the video, so that they didn’t feel like prom was catered to one set of people.”
The video was filmed on Feb. 7 during public hours at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Due to the presence of other visitors, the students had to wait numerous times during the filming of scenes to avoid capturing them in the background. However, they aimed to capture the diverse attractions in the museum.
“It was a little awkward at first because I [had] never acted before. As the day went on, I got more comfortable. We tried to have actual conversations as we were filming to make it seem more natural. It was a fun experience to get to have together,” Sino-Cruz said.
Baybay and Davis were friends prior to the reel, which helped ease the awkwardness of acting as a couple. For the filming of the elevator scene, Baybay and Davis both encouraged each other to focus on perfecting the scene to avoid reshooting numerous times, bonding over bloopers and the time they spent together. Baybay’s favorite part of the filming process was when she tested the museum’s car simulator.
“My reaction when filming [the car simulator] scene was real because I was laughing the entire time. It was a good experience and it was cool to see the venue with all the cars,” Baybay said.
Overall, the experience was an opportunity for Baybay, Evangelista, Glynn and Sino-Cruz to bond with one another.
“It was really funny, we [were] trying not to laugh during filming,” Glynn said. “I felt really happy to be able to bond with my peers and I definitely felt it was a great [bonding] opportunity.”
Link to Arvin Chau’s article: https://whshoofprint.com/2688/feature/campus-life-rolls-out-in-videography/
