Capstone Reflection

I took away quite a few things from my visit to capstone presentations.  From the interviews, the biggest trend I noticed were people regretting not starting early enough or leaving themselves more time to complete their capstones.  That is something that I already knew would be a problem but it reinforced my belief.  I thought that people, for the most part, had a good visual presentation to their capstone area.  This is something that I hadn't put too much thought into.  I now see it as important to have something to take away with you from the event.  I noticed when showing a film, the capstone format can be very limiting.  When showing a film in a classroom on loop in the dark kind of discourages people not to talk.  This seems like something to keep in mind and try to address in the future.  I also noticed how important it was to address the people visiting your booth with enthusiasm.  If you don't have enthusiasm for your own project, then why should anyone else?

Capstone Interviews

Capstone Interviews
1. Kenny Van Velzen

      Why did you choose this for your capstone project? He says he as an entrepreneurial dream to create an urban agriculture company.  He chose to put his 3D and 2D designing skills.  

     
      What are some of the changes that you had to make between your original idea and what you are presenting today? Kenny originally wanted to make a video for his capstone but instead worked it into a print campaign still using his designing skills.

    
      What is your opinion of the timeline for your capstone? Was it helpful or a waste of time? Why?  He thinks that you have to stick to your own plan but that it is helpful.

    
       If you could change anything about your capstone, what would that be?  The only thing he would change is starting it early.

     
      What advice would you give me in planning for my capstone?  Kenny advised me to start right away instead of putting it off.

2. Santiago Casar

      Why did you choose this for your capstone project? Santiago chose this project because jobs that he is applying to in LA are asking him for a reel.

     
      What are some of the changes that you had to make between your original idea and what you are presenting today?  He originally was going to do a documentary but the scope of it was too large and required too many people.

What is your opinion of the timeline for your capstone? Was it helpful or a waste of time? Why?  Santiago thought it was a waste of time because it is too restrictive and things would take longer than planned.

If you could change anything about your capstone, what would that be? He would try to get more feedback from people as he was completing his project.

   
      What advice would you give me in planning for my capstone? Try to do something crazy and try to learn.

3. Jesse Praeuner

     Why did you choose this for your capstone project? Decided to take a shot at writing music because he had trouble coming up with an idea.

What are some of the changes that you had to make between your original idea and what you are presenting today? Nothing.  His original idea was to write, mix and produce music which he did.

  
      What is your opinion of the timeline for your capstone? Was it helpful or a waste of time? Why? He thought it wasn't useful because he is a procrastinator.

 If you could change anything about your capstone, what would that be? Jesse said he would have started it earlier.

What advice would you give me in planning for my capstone? His advice was to try to plan a light semester during your capstone.

Timeline Discussion

Since Brandon, Claire and I are working in a group for our capstones, we came up with the timeline together.  My biggest concern was making sure that we had enough room in the schedule to get everything done.  For bigger things, such as recording the music, we made sure to put a couple extra weeks in the schedule even though we may not ever need them.  Having worked on a fairly large project before, I quickly learned that you want to leave yourself plenty of time.  We also decided that we are going to get a significant amount done before the capstone semester starts.  We want to have the music and video completely written.  This may be a little daunting, but I definitely think it is achievable.  In coming up with the timeline, we each focused on a specific portion.  Brandon pretty much planned out the audio and Claire and I planned out the video.  I think that it is a good timeline, but I know that changes will have to be made the closer we get to the capstone semester.

Support Group

I fit best into an Audio/Video group.  The programs that I will be using, as of now, for my capstone are as follows:

-Final Cut
-After Effects
-Pro Tools
-Motion
-Audition
-Premiere

Of course, I probably will be using more programs than these when I start working on the project.

Big Picture - Class Discussion

The grouping up during class ended up being helpful.  When we were first asked to group up I thought that it would honestly end up being a bit of a waste of time.  Unfortunately, I have forgotten the student's names that I grouped up with.  That's the problem with doing these things too far after the fact.  I do remember the ideas, however.  The first person's capstone idea in our group was a website.  He wanted to do it because it's what he's had the most experience doing.  He went into more detail about what the website would contain and it sounded pretty interesting.  The next person's idea was a 3D animated short that would probably run around 3 minutes and also would be in stereoscopic 3D.  This was very interesting.  The story that he had at the time sounded entertaining and fairly well thought out.  I can't wait to see his capstone.  When we heard the rest of the class tell their ideas it both made me not feel as behind and stressed but also made me realize that it's time to get serious about the capstone process.  I didn't feel so behind because a lot of students were in the same position as me by not knowing what they wanted to do.  Some people, however, had a pretty solid plan in place and, in some cases, have already started on their project.  All in all, it was quite an eyeopening class and gave me a good gauge on what people are thinking about.

Capstone Ideas

1. Documentary

I had a great experience in Edgar Huang's Advanced Video class.  For our final project, we were tasked with making a documentary.  Our group turned it into more of an advertisement/documentary for the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana.  It turned out really well and we all had a good time making it.  I honestly feel like the work that went into this project was close to that of a capstone.  I have been trying to think of a good subject for the documentary.  It would have to be something fairly local but would hopefully be able to play for an audience outside of our general area.  The biggest hurdle is obviously finding a good subject which, if I choose this option, is something that I would have to start looking for immediately.  I believe a length of around 20 minutes would be a good starting point.  Of course, the length will depend on what's appropriate for the video. Below I have posted my Advanced Video final from the last Spring's semester.  I wouldn't mind doing something in this vein again, but I think it might be more interesting to film something that isn't for an organization.  

2. Narrative Film

This is something that I would be very interesting in attempting.  I haven't had the chance to film many narrative things and a capstone project would be a good time to build experience.  I'm not sure what the film would be about but it would probably run somewhere around 15 minutes.  Since it will be such a little budget, I was thinking about trying something in the romantic comedy or comedy drama genres.  I don't have much interest in doing a bunch of special effects.  From the student films I've seen from this school, the effects usually seem not to play that well.  This will rely on the writing and the way it is shot, which will be a good way to showcase the skills that I have acquired during my stay at IUPUI. I have to come up with an idea for a story, but this is something that could potentially be quite fun and rewarding.  For my inspiration, I am posting the trailer for the movie Broken Flowers.  I choose this because it is a very low-key and subdued film but still has a strong emotional core.  It seems like something doable on a small budget.  What I would make wouldn't be a feature, but it might give you a better idea of where I'm coming from.

3. Sound Project

This is something that could go in a few different directions.  I wouldn't mind taking a try at doing someone's sound for their film project.  It would be interesting to put a mix into 5.1 and try my best to make a professional sounding mix.  However, I'm not sure if this is enough for a capstone in both the eyes of the school and myself.  I was also thinking since I have a few friends in bands that it might be interesting to try and record an album.  I would record, mix and master to the best of my ability.  This is something that I would have to work at seeing as I've never recorded a band live before, but I believe it could easily be a worthwhile endeavor.  I also understand the principles behind completing the task.  The album would have to be long enough to make it feel like a complete package.  I could potentially also film a video for a song or a video that simply goes along with the album.  That way I could incorporate some video work as well.  The music would definitely be the focus because it will be the most time consuming.

This is the inspiration for the music video that would potentially go along with the project.  The original video can't be embedded but this is a performance of it.  I'm sure most people are familiar with it.  It was a simple but very effective idea.

Those are my three ideas. They are very vague at this stage but writing this has helped me to start deciding on what I will do for my capstone. 

What is a Capstone?

I believe that a capstone is something that puts on display what a student has learned throughout their time in college.  It doesn't have to portray every little detail, but it should  at least give a good general since of what they have learned.  It should be something that an employer could look at and get a sense of what the student has to offer.  In my case, I will try to focus on video and audio production because that has been my main focus in school.  However, I can also work in Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, etc.  I don't think that these should be forced into the project, but if there is an opportunity to show my ability in other areas I will try to take advantage of it.   I'm nervous about the capstone but I don't view it as just a hoop to jump through.  I view it as a necessary evil.  I think that it will end up being a great portfolio piece and be something, at least it should be, that I can show off a little.  I think that the school wants the students to spend two semesters on the project so they have plenty of time to complete their vision.  I think that it also is so the student simply has plenty of time to plan their project.  This shouldn't be something that feels rushed in any way.  I'm viewing it as a semester of planning followed by a semester of execution.