jgonzalez-acmwo-capstone

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Final Reflection - ACM Capstone

Thinking back on my research topic in the first semester, I definitely underestimated the amount of work that would have been done for my project, but in the same breath it helped me become a harder worker. In the beginning of the semester I knew what I wanted to do, but it was all about trying to figure out how I was going to tell the story through the interviews and the academic information from my paper which I should’ve started doing even before the start of the semester. My thoughts now about my research topic and project now is that I should have started the pre-production phase much earlier so that my documentary episodes would have been more professional, not to say they aren’t professional now, but it could have been done better if I put more elbow grease into the start of the semester. As a creative, I learned a lot about myself and the process of being a filmmaker because it taught me to open up to being critiqued professionally by our professor and taught me that in order to get a documentary project done I need to talk to people and collaborate with them in order to create something that is insightful for the viewer, but not create anything controversial or make the subjects uncomfortable when being interviewed and these are all elements that I had to take into consideration in the creative process especially when coming up with questions to ask. About the creative and production processes, it was more of trying to assemble the footage into cohesive individual episodes on particular subjects on the workplace relations of a company that viewers could easily follow and understand in three different perspectives what it is like working with others and building healthy relationships with your coworkers. I am very happy that I was able to get experience in what it was like to film a documentary type of project because I do want to be a filmmaker in the future and this was valuable learning for me to gain because I had to work with the times my interviewees gave me for availability and then have to film the interviews with the equipment I hade on hand, but again it was valuable in helping me gain experience with filmmaking. For the new capstone students coming in for next semester, my biggest thing would be to start as soon as you can even before the start of the semester so that you can get a head start and so that you are not struggling and brushing things off later in the semester. This is how I was this semester going through the motions of the entire thing and I do not want anyone else to go through the pain of juggling manny assignments at once and not having a lot of their time focused on making sure their senior projects are what they should be. Where to now? I don’t know to be exact and hopefully I pass this senior project so that I can finally move on and start audulting and go into the world in my own way. I want to get my feet wet in the filmmaking industry so I guess that is the more appropriate answer as to where no, and hopefully I can work for one of the local production studios we have on the island and maybe even get one of my film scripts produced and made as that is the end goal for me as a creative. For the creative media students that are coming into the final semester of their own college careers: do not procrastinate (I mean it), do not be afraid to voice what you want to do for your final project, and do not give up because you will have classmates and professors that are willing to see you ideas and help you get the best out of it. To my fellow capstone seniors, thank you for the wonderful class and hope you all achieve you dreams after graduation. It’s truly been a ride this semester and good luck again to our incoming capstone seniors, you all will do great things as well. Peace out!!!

[jgonzalez-acmwo-capstone]

Pre-Final Reflection - ACM Capstone

In this pre-final reflection, I want to bring up a few points that I have realized this semester while going through my Capstone project. First I want to say that I have gained tremendous experience in what it takes to make a documentary series that is split into four separate episodes. I’m usually used to making projects that are just one video that I can spend all my time working on in all phases of the project, but this is mainly with narrative style films. Since this project was a documentary series, securing interviews was the most difficult part along with scheduling dates for them. Secondly, I would say to my self earlier this semester even early in the summer time to get started and find people to interview so that you’re not stressing throughout the semester trying to figure out what to do and how to get things done. I definitely did procrastinate at times and would have a lot more work to do and wouldn’t have a breather for weeks on end and I would definitely set up more meetings between me and Professor so that I could have more thorough guidance. Lastly, I would have definitely have better equipment to interview with so quality could have been better in terms of my final product, but I worked with what I had on me. I loved the experience I gained through this Capstone class and learned to be more punctual with getting things done on time and hearing all my fellow classmates ideas and how they have come to fruition at the end of the semester was a pleasure because everyone had great ideas and wish the very best for everyone in the coming week and hope to see everyone at the graduation ceremony. Thank you to Professor for being on our butts this whole semester and always wanting us to put our best foots forwards and thank you to you all, my fellow classmates for bringing your best to this class and making it fun when it needed to be (primarily in the comments). Best of luck to all of you in your future endeavors and I know you’ll do great things.

[jgonzalez-acmwo-capstone]

Tumblr Update #10 (sort of) - ACM Capstone

This little video is a small behind the scenes video of what I have been working on for the duration of the semester. It shows that I am or was almost complete with my fourth and final episode of my documentary-series, "The Workplace Relations of a Company", that I need to do just a bit more things to touch up may final episode. The video also shows that my other three episodes were completed and ready to upload to my Youtube. I wanted to show my progress a bit and to say that I am practically done with my capstone project.

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Tumblr Update #9 - ACM Capstone

Some of the biggest hurdles I have have faced thus far in my semester in this class was getting my interviews set up and done because of scheduling conflicts and or time zone differences that my interviewees were in. I even had to change my third interviewee up from my aunt to my dad because my aunt’s schedule was not lining up with mine at all and was hesitant to be on camera, so that was the reason for the change. This is a learning experience for sure because having scheduling problems/conflicts is something that many creators have faced and since I want to be a film director after graduation, it was something to experience both good and bad. I think this could have been avoided or reduced if I had set up my interviews a lot earlier in the year, possibly in the summer time, but now I know that it is something to learn from and think about for future projects.

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Tumblr Update #8 - ACM Capstone

I have reflected upon what each episode has taught me as I have imported my interview clips and started to edit each of them as I go along, that is what we hear in this video. Communication is the basic way we as human beings communicate with one another, empathy is how we find the more personal things about one another, trust has taught me that everyone needs to believe in one another in order to get the job or jobs done, and conflict resolution has taught me that there has to be something in place to make sure everyone comes out of the situation happy. This project has made me reflect on my previous and present interactions that I’ve had with people, whether I was working at my previous part time job or with the classmates I’ve had the honor of being in class with over these last 4 years.

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Tumblr Update #7 - ACM Capstone

As you heard I have just started uploaded my videos to my YouTube channel that I have made for my documentary series titled “The Working Relations of the Workplace” I had some things to tweak and edit before posting them, but I worked them out, whether it was the sound or the visuals or the information I pulled from my paper I did last semester. Even though I am about halfway done with the production of my episodes, they have been coming along just fine and I have not come into any huge problems other than editing some little audio bits and making sure I have the interview pieces I want to have in each episode so far.

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Tumblr Update #6 - ACM Capstone

I have gotten my second interview down and ready to film. This interview will be the second of three interviews that I will record for my four part documentary-series titled, “The Workplace Relations of a Company” I still need to set up my third interview for the series, but I should be able to set it up some so that I can then start editing everything and putting all the best pieces of information forward. It has just been very difficult trying to set up my last interview with my last interviewee and I feel that it is due to my procrastination at times and not checking in with my interviewee more consistently, but I feel like I am making more progress in getting a date set up. This project has been a bit of a pain and I’m not even in the post-production phase, but it is a growing pain which can be seen as a positive thing and I hope to get better as this process goes on throughout the semester.

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Tumblr Update #5 - ACM Capstone

The production phase of my project is going a long just fine in my opinion. I have my first interview completed and should be moving onto my next interview this week or in the coming week for my documentary series. I feel like it is going better in the production phase than I thought it would go because I already had my questions written down before I did my interview and my interviewee was able to easily answer each question without a hitch and give their opinions. It was all about asking the right questions and not making the interviewee feel uncomfortable or attacked with the questions being asked. My interviewee was easygoing and willing to answer any and all questions I had regarding the topics I had which made it really easy for the interview to happen.

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Tumblr Update #4 - ACM Capstone

I believe that setting up the interview dates will be a difficult part in this project because everyone that I have asked have their own busy schedules and something may come up that could prevent our interviews from happening once they get set up, but I’m holding out hope that they’ll stick to the dates we will eventually set up and that goes for me too.

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Tumblr Update #3 - ACM Capstone

Each question was carefully crafted to avoid any sort of uncomfortableness when they eventually get asked to my interviewees by me. The last thing I want to do is make anyone feel uncomfortable or attacked, so each question seemingly avoids all those things, at least from my point of view. I have still yet to secure my interviewees and dates for the interviews themselves once I ask the people I have in mind. I am working hard in making sure everything is good and ready to go before I actually secure any interviews because I would like the best product to be put forward and I believe that is what everyone wants with their capstone projects. I believe that all phases should be worked on with the best of detail that we could possibly give, even if it is the smallest of parts within your project, just so that there is not any sort of discrepancy that will loose the viewers of your final product.

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Tumblr Update #2 - ACM Capstone

In getting my last bit of research done, I want the best information to be taken from the research I had already done in the previous semester. With my information taken from last semester and the questions that I am finalizing, I am hoping that everything will come together as the semester goes along and I get deeper into the creative process, which for me will be a documentary-series and hoping that each episode with come together once I get the interviews set up and done in the next week or two.

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Tumblr Setup Blog - ACM Capstone