Yet Another Roadblock...

So this project, which was supposed to be completed by now, is put off until September. At my rough cut meeting with Mr. McKinley, which went fantastically, we realized we had goofed on the dates of the presentation. The Chamber's July meeting was scheduled for the 18th and we thought it was the 25th. We thought an easy fix for this would be to just reschedule the presentation for the August meeting, but my professor can't make that meeting as he will be on vacation with his family. So now it looks like I will have to wait until September to present this video. I'm still waiting to hear back from Mr. McKinley as to whether or not that will work.

Until then, I'm still making corrections based on the rough cut meeting I had with Mr. McKinley July 16th. He liked the video so far, but did make some very good suggestions about more video, different audio effects, and adding some sports that I had in the first draft. Although the date for the presentation is being moved I'm hoping to have everything complete within the next couple weeks. I want to have it all finished and "forget about it" until the actual presentation gets closer. 

Something I'm also looking into as another way to post this video is with something called a "YouTube Channel." Not really quite sure how it works or what it does, but a friend of mine, Chris Norris, is using this to promote the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the team he's working for. I need to look more into it, but this is something Mr. Weaver had suggested and it sounds like it might be another great way to bring more attention to the New Wilmington area. 

Now comes the real challenge...

Out of all the aspects of putting together a video, I would have to say editing is my favorite and my least favorite part, all at the same time. I love putting sequences together and I could spend hours making sure everything flows well, but at the same time it can be such a tedious task it drives me crazy. This is monster I've dealt with the last couple weeks. 

It's bad enough trying to put this thing together, but having to learn a new editing system has brought a new challenge in itself. Although Final Cut isn't that much different than Adobe Premier, there are a few differences, mostly in the shortcut keys, that makes the process take a little longer. Now that I've got the basics down, I can really start to play around with all the different features Final Cut has to offer. Again, most of it is the same as Premier, but there are some differences; that's what makes this project fun. I love seeing what I can do with the film in the editing stage of the process. The most difficult thing for me to figure out was how to get the text in there; that was a good hour long process.

The thing people don't realize about projects like this, is the time it takes to edit everything down. The final product may only be 3 minutes long, but it may have taken 3 weeks to get it to that point. I have a really hard time, and always have, trying to cut stuff out. That was my least favorite part about putting together news stories. With this project, I essentially have the freedom to make it as long as I want. But I can't make it too long or people will lose interest. I heard somewhere that 2-3 minutes is the average length of a promo video, because any longer and people will lose interest, but any shorter and they won't get the point. 

I'm at a point now where I'm just tweaking some stuff and making sure everything flows. I meet with my client next week and I'm a little nervous. He's been extremely helpful in this whole process and I'm sure he will have excellent suggestions for the final product. The rough draft will be up sometime next week...

Filming Day One

So I finally went out to shoot some stuff this week. I had two consecutive days off so I figured that would be the perfect time to go up and get stuff on film since I didn't have any time to do it the last time I was up that way. Well, I didn't make it up to New Wilmington Wednesday, but I did go up Thursday. I was really worried about getting everything done because I got up there later than I wanted to, but I got quite a bit accomplished before it started STORMING! There are still a few more shots I need to get, but the weather is an uncontrollable factor in this whole process. I'll have to get back up there probably this coming week (although it's a holiday weekend) to get the rest of what I need. I was able to get a really cute shot of one of the people working at Mugsies. I think it really displays the quality of service you can only find in a small town coffee shop. I did fill out release forms for the person appearing as well as the location. 

I was curious about something though. Let's say I wanted to get a MS of a business sign, do I need a location release form? Or is it clear because it's outside? I was wondering about that. When I go back to get some more shots, I think I'm going to just have release forms filled out anyway just to be on the safe side. 

I was looking over my shot list as I was out shooting and had some second guesses about some shots. I'm not sure about the whole fireworks thing. First of all, I won't be able to make it up there for the fireworks so that creates the whole issue of having to credit someone else for shooting stuff for me. Secondly, fireworks are really hard to capture! I can try to capture some from home, but that would be cheating since they're not New Wilmington's. I think it would be a really cool shot, but since I live so far away it's not really plausible. I think I'll have plenty of video and I won't really need it.

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...