Shot List

So to try to help myself be a little more organized, I have created a shot list to follow. When I'm out in the field trying to get stuff filmed (which I'm going to do Wednesday) I'll know what I've got and what I still need to go get. This is something I didn't have the last time and I think it really hurt me. I'm a little scatter-brained, so this shot list will keep me on track. Here are the things that I would like to put in the video. I have gone over this shot list with my client and he added a few things. There may be more shots to be added, but for right now this is what I have.

• Pizza Joe's
• Short Stop Inn
• Mugsie's
• Jimmy's
• amish buggy (with the nat sound of the horse's hooves)
• HS/College sports
• house with people waving and smiling
• WC Old Main bell tower (with the bells ringing...nat sound is crucial)
• horses
• golf course/driving range (possibly)
• Silk Road
• business logos
• covered bridges
• stream in Volant (with the nat sound and hopefully some people fishing)
• churches
• 4th july fireworks
• captions from Pittsburgh Magazine

This is what I'm going to film with Wednesday, more stuff may show up as I'm filming, who knows, but this is a good start.

Much Better Beginning

I'm already feeling so much better about this project than I did in the past. I have meetings set up and I have a timeline established. My first major meeting with Mr. McKinley is set for Wednesday. The purpose of this meeting is to lock in shots he wants, verify my treatment to ensure we are on the same page with the intent of this project, and set in stone the next two meetings. I have a shot list created, but I would like to get Tom's opinions and thoughts before I finalize everything. 

Having already established a working relationship with my client is definitely a huge step in the right direction that I didn't have before. I know how to contact him when I need to and he already has a little bit of an idea of what I am capable of and what to expect. 

While not being close to my client is helping more than I thought I would. It's really forcing me to stick to the timeline I have created, especially with gas prices being so high. I can't afford to make more trips than are absolutely necessary, so that is a big motivational factor in sticking to my timeline. After meeting with Mr. McKinley this week I think I'll be able to really get creative with this video since I'll know exactly what he wants. 

Starting Over

These last couple of months have been a real challenge for me, but I've learned so much about myself and I think it will help me down the road. First of all, I have to take Capstone over again because my project wasn't passable. I can use the same ideas, but I just need to take the project to a new level and really take the time to make it look more professional. In order to help me with this project, which I am fortunate enough to be able to work on from home, I finally broke down and bought a Mac and Final Cut Express. We worked with Adobe Premier at school, but I've heard so many good things about Final Cut and Mac that I just decided to buy it. It was a lot of money, but I think the quality of the final project will definitely benefit from it. Plus I can always use it for side projects and what not down the road. 

Anyway, back to my project. There are really only 4 major things for this project that I need to make sure are complete before I turn it in. Most of these I've learned from experience. 

1. Set up meetings. I need to set up three meetings with my client, President of the Chamber of Commerce Tom McKinley. The first meeting is just to solidify ideas for this project to ensure I'm capturing everything he wants in this video. I have some ideas from the last project I made, but I really want to set some things in stone. I've set Tom an email, but am still waiting for a reply. I'll send him another email and probably a text message by the end of the week. The second meeting will be set up a little later on down the road to show Tom my rough draft of the project. The purpose of this meeting will be to make any last minute changes to the video before I show it to the Chamber. That will be my last meeting. I will present the final video in front of the entire New Wilmington Chamber of Commerce as well as my professor. This meeting will probably be towards the end of the summer. Another detail I have to work out with Tom. 

2. Create a REAL WORKING Timeline. The last timeline I had didn't really do what it was supposed to. I had it set up because I knew I had to have it in order to pass, but I didn't really follow any of it. I now realize that having a timeline and following it is an essential part of this project. I understand that some things can be updated and changed if need be, but I can't use that an excuse to push things back that I just didn't complete. I really don't have any excuses this time around. I'm working about 40 hours a week, but I'm done by 7 every night so that leaves me the rest of the night to get my editing finished. This project is my number one priority.

3. Create a PROFESSIONAL treatment. The last treatment I created was very elementary according to professional standards. Maybe it's because I hadn't created one in a long time and had just forgotten, but I have found the template we are supposed to model our treatments after so that should help. There are some details about the treatment I need to verify with Tom, but I think for the most part I have it all under control.

4. Gather release forms. This was a big hiccup in my last attempt at this project. I was unaware that these were needed for this type of a project. I was under the assumption that I was clear because it was a school project, I guess because I was so accustomed to doing things for The County Line where we don't need release forms. That was a HUGE assumption that could have really got me in some trouble. I know now that I need release forms for EVERYTHING so I have plenty of those printed out.

Other than that I think I have a much better understanding of where this project is going and what I want it to look like. I just have to get used to a Mac system and Final Cut, but I think in the end the money I spent will pay off. 

It's getting close

I've got less than a week until my capstone presentation and I am so nervous. I got some stuff accomplished this week, but not as much as I had hoped. I will be finishing up filming today and tomorrow and start putting everything together hopefully tonight. I have an idea of the way I want this to turn out and that will help out tremendously with editing.

The editing is what's making me nervous. It won't take me long to finish, but I'm so nervous about presenting it to the Chamber. What if they don't like it? What if I get a bad grade on my Capstone? What if I don't graduate? These are all things that have been running through my head the last couple days and it has been driving me crazy. I am confident in my skills as a videographer/editor but I've never been under this much pressure before.

This past week I watched some of my classmates' Capstone presentations and that helped me out a little bit, but I'm doing something completely different than anyone else. The one that really stood out to me was Terese Marszalek's documentary. It was very well done; it was such an emotional journey and I was crying almost the entire time. I would like to congratulate her and I can only hope that my presentation will be as good. I know our projects are different, but the feedback she got was all positive and that's what I'm looking for in my presentation. I guess I'll find out my fate next week...

Crunch Time

The time of year has arrived when everyone has begun counting down the number of days until summer break is official. I have 4 major projects to finish before the year is up.

1. Capstone: The most important project that I need to finish is my Capstone. I've some footage shot, but I need to go do more. That is my goal this week. I also need to get in contact with the people that are in charge of the mission conference to try and get pictures to put in my video. I have all the ideas I need to get this project done, I just need to sit down and get it finished. I only have 2 weeks until my presentation and I need to have a run-through before then. So the big goal for this week is to make BIG progress on my video.

2. Documentary: The next project that needs to be completed is my documentary for my Mass Communications class. This is a group project; we went and interviewed our family last weekend and things went really well!! We have one more interview to do and I think that is being shot this week. Then we have a whole week of class time to work on putting this together. So we will use that time to edit everything together.

3. Resume Tape: I need to do this not only for a class, but also to have it for job hunting purposes. I'm really not sure what I want to do with my life, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. I have all of the stand ups I want I just need to find the right stories to use.

4. E-portfolio: This is another thing that needs to get done for class, but also for job hunting purposes. I have most of the material I need to complete it I just need to get things organized and put together.

Now that Quilters is finished and with golf wrapping up this week I will have much more time to concentrate on getting all of my work completed. I only wish this would haven happened about 2 weeks prior.

Deadline Pressure

This week for my BC Journalism 2 class I had to complete a deadline project. This was a package that had to be shot, edited and dubbed to tape in one day. I decided to do my package on Relay for Life. I knew this was going to be an emotional day before I got down there, but the day didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped. I had a vision of this package before I went to shoot it and it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

I got down to the track about an hour later than I wanted to, so by the time I got down there I had missed the Survivor's Lap and there was only one survivor we could find. I asked her if she would be willing to do a TV interview and she seemed a little hesitant. She did the interview but it wasn't anything spectacular. It was hard to do because I knew she wasn't very comfortable talking about things. But I do have to give her respect for doing the interview.

The next challenge I came across was what kind of B roll to get. There wasn't a whole lot going on while we were down there so I got a lot of shots of people walking. I got them from different angles and such but I just wish I would have had more time. I really wanted to get the luminaries and the fireworks to put in the package, but because the package had to be complete by 6 pm I couldn't get it.

The package isn't what I expected it to be, but I think it's alright. It wasn't the time pressure that I was worried about, it was the expectation for myself to make a great package and I'm not sure I fulfilled it.

Finally Making Progress

This week was super busy for me, but I feel like I got a lot of things accomplished. There were three major things that happened this week.

First, I got to interview Emmy award winning media critic and author, Eric Burns. He is a 1967 Westminster alum who came to speak for the Bleasby Colloquium. I was a little nervous at first because this was a big deal! Mr. Weaver came to me and asked me to do the interview because he wanted someone who was experienced and well-spoken (thanks for the ego-boost). The interview went very well and it also gives me another "celebrity" interview to put on my resume.

Secondly, I FINALLY met with Tom McKinley, the president of the New Wilmington Chamber of Commerce about my capstone project! Our meeting went extremely well and I feel so much better about things. This meeting lifted a HUGE weight off my shoulders. Tom gave me numerous ideas for things he wants in this video and that was very encouraging. He also gave me the names of some other people I might want to get in contact with to get more video or pictures from past events. I now have direction for my whole project and I feel a thousand times better about things. I'm really excited to get started on the whole process. Tom seemed really excited about the whole thing as well so that's encouraging!

Finally, I was also responsible for putting together a package for The County Line this week. To be completely honest I kind of forgot about it until about Wednesday night because of the whole Eric Burns thing. After my meeting with Tom on Thursday I was still without a package and it was 2 pm; TCL starts at 7:30. I was going to do a package about the blood drive, but when I walked down there no one was there! So I decided to take things into my own hands and donate blood myself and take the camera along and try to make a package out of that. It wasn't the best package in the least, but it was shot, edited, and dubbed to tape in 2 1/2 hours. The whole experience of trying to put something together out of nothing made me realize that I do have what it takes to survive in this business. It may be EXTREMELY stressful at times, but in the end it really is rewarding.

I still don't know what I want to do when I leave WC. I have 42 days left to figure it out.