Moving Forward

I'm slowly making more progress on my project this semester. I met with my director again the other day and he and I discussed more little things I can do to make my final project the best it can be. Hopefully I'll be done editing soon and can move on to just working on finalizing the presentation board.

Workn towards the goal

          I’m making some decent progress this semester towards completing this project. Sadly it seems to be a case of two steps forward one step back. I’m doing well at getting all my editing touch ups done and making progress towards my business cards and presentation board, but I’ve missed two submission dates due to outside interference. Hopefully I’ll be able to get everything straightened out soon and get my overall project back on track.

Working towards the goal

Well, another semester of my capstone is off to a bang up start. I still don't have consistent internet access so my blogs are going to be patchy at best. I'm continuing my work on last semester’s project as I previously stated. It’s going alright so far. All my footage is still in usable condition so I don’t have to reshoot anything which makes me extremely happy. In addition to that, I received footage of the final production with all the choreography and costumes. This allows me to splice in this new footage into what I’ve already got to help showcase the finished product.

My editing is looking nice at this point. I’m slowly putting Jakes voice from his interview in the background of the opening sequence in order to introduce the viewer to him a little quicker and help fill in some of the dead audio space I unfortunately had last time. I’m also doing my best to clean up a few patchy spots in the audio track to make it smoother to listen to. It’s my hope that I can get a nice smooth audio track with no pops or hisses and very little background noise. This allows the viewer to focus on the video as a whole and not get distracted by things in the audio.

I’ve also started to find a design for a business card that I’m happy with and feel represents me and what I’m capable of. So far I’ve found three possible designs and I just need to settle on one. It’s important to choose the appropriate design for a business card because this is part of your introduction to the professional world. A childish card can have a negative effect on a prospective employer’s decision.

Hopefully by the time I finish out the semester, I will have a product I can be proud to have made that looks professional enough to help me locate a job after school and be shown as an example of what to do for future classes. With any luck this semester will help me get ahead of people in the job market and make any future positions more secure.

Senior Capstone (take 2)

Well, it’s time for me to try this again, my senior capstone. Luckily I already have a project started. It is my intention to use this semester to not only completely finish my previously started project, but to make some improvements to it. Mainly focusing on smoother transitions between scenes and making it a little more concise. I also hope to improve the title sequence and add a decent end credits sequence. This is in addition to making my presentation board look as professional as possible.

The project in question is a short documentary about stage combat, focusing mainly on the combat troupe I work with closely. This group, Body and Blade Swordsmanship focuses on teaching how to do proper theatrical stage combat, which is both safe and appears real. My documentary follows the group through a single performance season, from beginning of the choreography to the end production. By following from beginning to end like this the viewer gains a little bit more perspective into what goes into making a modern stage fight. It also contains interviews with Jake Priddy, the founder of the troupe and main choreographer, as well as interviews with several members of the troupe who rank in status from novice to adept and scholar.

Having an extra semester to work on this also has the added benefit of allowing me more time to build up my portfolio, both online and hardcopy. I also have a little more time to make my business card look professional. I recently had the idea to include a QR code on my card which would link directly to my online portfolio and resume. This will allow me to hand out my business card at job fairs and let interested parties look at my site immediately from their smart phone or other device. This shows prospective employers that I have the ability to work in a multimedia world and keep up with innovation.

Hopefully by making my presentation look better and improving upon my portfolio and business card I will be able to get a good entry level job upon graduation.