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.