sholtiscapstone

[sholtiscapstone]

Final Update!

Hey, everyone!

So, this is the final update of my capstone page... NICE!

Below I've linked my reflection video answering the questions given to us. I've also linked the playlist to my project episodes, so check those out if you'd like!

Anyway, it was great getting to work alongside all of you. Best of luck with your other finals this week, and also best of luck with what you do after this semester ends.

See ya! :)

[sholtiscapstone]

For Future Capstone Students:

Hey, everyone!

So, I figured it would be a good idea to write a sort of “letter” to future pre-capstone/capstone students for one of my final posts, just in case any of you check out my Tumblr. I wanted to give you all some advice that I would have liked before I started my senior experience. It’ll only be three main tips, nothing major, but they should give you some ideas...

Don’t go too big if you can’t handle it

Going into this, I wanted to do a documentary. Granted, it would have been short, but the process of filming and editing would remain the same. After shifting my project, I felt so relieved, as that past version of me would have been in way over her head with the workload she was giving herself. Remember, you have other classes and personal things, and most importantly, your mental health to worry about outside of capstone. So, do something you know is measurable with your life and free time. For instance, I wish I had brought a social media aspect to my project, as that way I could constantly access it on my phone to work on it or grow my account, as with a talk-story series, all of my post work happened on a laptop which I couldn't bring everywhere. 

2. Have a back up plan (and people!)

HAVE A BACK UP PLAN, ALWAYS! This piece of advice came to me when I thought back on having to scramble for another interviewee on the day I was finally filming because someone dropped out only hours before, and like a dozen people declined me to fill their spot. If you’re doing something that requires help from other people, always plan for them to drop. It never hurts to communicate with others asking for them to just be on standby, and it really helps you know who you can trust. With the project itself also have a back up plan for anything that might not pan out if you have those resources available to you. For example, if you’re doing a film or video and can’t record somewhere, look for stock footage online. That’s just an example now, but you get the point! 

3. Timing, timing, timing! 

Probably the biggest piece of advice I can give -- always be aware of your timing. I thought I had everything planned out for myself and then weeks flew by in a flash. Even 15 minutes can feel like 1 when you’re under enough pressure. My flaw with timing was not making enough room for outside factors that might hold me back. LIFE HAPPENS, YOU HAVE TO ACCOUNT FOR IT. You might get sick, busy with other classes, or anything else you just can’t control. Even if you think you have it all planned out, never think the universe won’t throw something your way to test you. 

Anyway, if you’re a future capstone student that reads this, I really hope this will help you in some way. Best of luck on your project! 

[sholtiscapstone]

No. 7 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone!

So here’s a small update, I am currently working on finishing up my editing for my capstone episodes. It’s been really difficult to find the time to finish it this week as I’ve been working on finals for other classes, but since our projects are due Friday, I’m prioritizing capstone over everything else! 

Nothing major has happened, though I will say a surprising setback for me, besides running out of time, is that I accidentally washed my earbuds today. That definitely set me back as I couldn’t edit while at work or anywhere public, as it’s a bit of a disturbance without earbuds. I’m obviously home now so I can edit freely, but that was a huge mistake on my part and one I didn’t expect to make so close to the finish line lol. The moral of the story -- check your dang pockets. 

Now, I’m not sure what else I can say except I hope everything turns out well. I’m having some issues with lining up my separate shots in editing so that’s what’s been taking me so long, but I’m getting it done. 

Anyway, for my visual component of this update I figured I’d share some more behind the scenes images! I don’t have anything else at this point in time since we’re at the end, so please enjoy those lol. Once again, thanks to Gabby for the BTS shots! 

I also hope you are all doing well on your projects. We’re almost there! 

Best of luck, everyone! :)

[sholtiscapstone]

No. 6 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone!

Another update for you all -- I’m wrapping up editing all of my episodes! I was rushing to try and get them all done singularly, but then after some discussion with some other CM students I know, they told me I should edit them all in tandem and turn them in at once. Honestly, it has helped me, as I feel like each episode fits together more, and I wish I had done this from the start as I feel like I would have been done by now. 

I’ll admit, I have fallen behind these past two weeks. Unfortunately, personal timing for me has not been the best. My best friend’s father passed and helping her through that sudden grief has been hard. My best friend and I have been close since we were kids, and this loss is one I share with her deeply, and the efforts that go into planning a funeral can be a lot to deal with even with a group of people. I’ve always tried to find a balance between personal and academic life, but that has definitely tested me as I pride myself on taking care of my friends. 

Looking forward, I’m just trying to get everything done before Wednesday. I’m planning to have it all done by then officially, that way I have at least a day to fix anything I might have missed or messed up on. I wish I had more time, but we persits anyway! 

For my visuals on this update, I’m providing some images from the production of my project. Shoutout to Gabby for taking them! I’m glad to have his b-roll for my media assets and just to have some backup footage. I’m planning to use them in the trailer of my project so they were really a blessing. I just wish I didn’t look so grumpy in the earlier videos lol, but if you read my previous updates you’ll know this day had not been the best for me mentally, and also I just have the worst 'concentration face' you've ever seen.

Now, I’ll be seeing you guys with another update on Wednesday or Thursday, and then my final reflection following that last update. I’m very excited about my reflection, which is weird to say, but it’s the truth lol. 

Anyway, best of luck to you all. This is the last week, we’ve got this! If anyone needs some last-minute help, feel free to reach out to me.

[sholtiscapstone]

No. 5 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone! 

I hope you’re all doing well with your projects so far. Time is flying by and we’re almost at the end. For me, things haven’t been exactly what I wanted them to be in terms of timing but I’m still feeling confident I can get this wrapped before our last week deadline. It’s been taking some hours away from my sleep but that’s all worth it lol, and not that big of a deal. 

As for any hurdles I’ve faced, I’ve had some personal things take me away from my time on the project. I’m putting the time back into it though, and I’ll get everything back on track in no time. Realistically, I believe we still have so much time left to accomplish things, so if you’re stressing over our time frame, don’t worry about it. It’s better to be patient and finish the race a little bit later than you expected you would, then to give up and not finish at all. 

I’m also feeling more confident I can get things done quicker now after my check-in meeting with Sharla today. Lately, I’ve been gathering footage from the films my interviewees mentioned as I was considering adding in the characters they speak about in our conversation, but Sharla recommended that I should avoid doing that, as it takes away from the discussion. Super good advice, and it also helps me just focus on editing my interviewees. I’ve already chopped up the episodes, but the hardest part overall is adding in the different angles to the correct time. It’s a very meticulous task. Also, color-grading them to appear similar has been tricky, as I feel like my eyes have been bugging out on me. Thankfully, I have friends I can use as guinea pigs. 

Moving on, another topic that came up during my meeting with Sharla was my YouTube page that I’m going to be doing my posting on. I made one tonight and plan to upload everything there, so I’ll link it on my account for future reference! 

Then, for my visual component of this update, it’s a little different than a straightforward attached image. Instead, I’m going to link a project I did last semester in a short film class. I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and do a rough draft of what I wanted my capstone to look like back then. It’s awesome to see how much it’s changed since then. Instead of doing one-on-one interviews it’s now a group project, there’s no outside footage, and the questions aren’t the same either, as my new talk story series allows the interviewees to guide themselves more than anything. I can’t wait to do a full reflection on this experience because the change is pretty significant, but I love my current concept way more, which I didn’t think would happen lol. 

Females in Frame - CM 353 cut

Other than that, I’m getting back to work and planning to spend a few more hours tonight editing since I’m off of work tomorrow, so much sleep isn’t required. I hope you all are on track with your projects and seeing the results you want. And again, if anyone needs help feel free to reach out to me for whatever. You can email me through Laulima if need! :)

[sholtiscapstone]

No. 4 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone! (LONG UPDATE!)

For this update, I wanted to say that my production went well on the 11th of March, and since then I’ve been in post-production. Post has been the most difficult process of this project, but I’ll save that for my next update, as I’m planning to send my cuts to Sharla in the coming days for her approval. 

This update, however, is about how my production went… it was HORRIBLE!

Now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but it definitely felt like an accurate word on the day. On the Monday of filming, only a few hours before my interviewees and I were meant to meet, a person I had confirmed since January backed out. It was really hard to deal with that as one of Sharla’s biggest pushes for me with this project was to have a wide age range, and this person who backed out would have been a branch for my other two interviewees, and it’s hard to get someone in a similar age range on a random Monday at the last minute. This person canceling also caused me to miss my bus to campus so that was a whole other issue haha. 

Either way, this cancellation turned all of my plans upside down. The time I had set aside to prepare for my questions and rehearse what I was going to say was thrown out the window. Instead, my time went to contacting every single woman I knew and could rely on, asking them if they could come to film my project for a few hours. It sucked that every single person turned me down, but obviously understandable, though it did mess my morale a bit. 

Thankfully, I had asked for two of my best friends’ help behind-the-scenes that day, and had to sacrifice one of them to be on camera. This threw off things for my other friend as she had to now be in charge of monitoring cameras and checking sound, when I had hoped one could be in charge of each. It also threw off how much time we had for filming itself, as my friend who I put on camera at the last second didn’t have the same time to prepare that I gave my other interviewees, as I had asked them to come with things already prepped. I almost had another person able to take over in the stead of the one who dropped, but they couldn’t make it to campus in time for us to get useful footage. 

As for setting up, Jeff from ACM was the best as he showed my friends and I everything that needed to be done. Also, Lauren from our class was a help with showing us where to go and answering my questions over and over again haha, so thank you very much to them. Going back to Jeff, due to his patience the setup for our production was awesome. We had a lot of issues with the sound cutting in and out once we actually began filming though we got that solved ASAP. 

Now, for the actual discussion part, my interviewees were amazing. Jalen and Professor Sam killed it, and Sophie, who agreed to join only hours before, was amazing. Aubrey, my friend behind the camera, also came through controlling 3 separate cameras along with listening to our sound to make sure we were okay. Things still cut out through the filming but she got that patched in a couple of seconds each time. I do wish that people hadn’t kept coming in and out of the room, though, as my interviewees confessed afterward it distracted them, and the door is also heard on the sound, but at least that’s the least of our issues. 

Either way, I think that filming went well considering I was even able to do it. I’m grateful to have the friends and support system I do to have gotten this done. I had wanted to do a vlog to show you all my prep for that day but my entire plan got shot down due to unforeseen circumstances, but because of my support system I still was able to get things done. 

Below are some images from the set we did so you guys can all see how it turned out, and how it compares to my inspo! Anyway, I'll be posting another update in a few days about the transition from production to post, so I'll see you guys then. You should all be seeing footage by the end of this week too, so yay!

Best of luck to everyone else for these coming weeks. Almost there!! I know it's stressful but it's not as bad as it seems, really. Also, feel free to reach out to me if you need help or anything, I'm always down to support :)

[sholtiscapstone]

No. 3 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone!

To update you all on how my project is going, I'm finally in my production phase! Next week I will be officially filming, and will be using Spring Break the following week to edit a large chunk of my footage. I'm super excited as this has been a lot of work going into making this project happen.

It was a bit of a hurdle to communicate with people over email, as everyone has different schedules and habits, but thankfully nothing presented too much of a problem. My only concern now is getting my equipment form request in and having the approval.

Other than that, my room for filming on campus is secured, my interviewees are ready, and I have people willing to help me behind the cameras. I still have to get my questions approved by Sharla, so I'm going to send her those by the end of the day tomorrow.

For my visuals of this update, I've included some inspirational pictures of how I want the layout of my room to be for filming. I'm thinking if I have a soft circle for everyone to be facing each other it would be great, that way the camera catches everyone but we're not just sitting straightforwardly. This will also help my interviewees connect with each other more and push the conversation.

Hope all of your projects have been going well, good luck! :)

[sholtiscapstone]

No. 2 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone! 

Sorry for the late post-- I totally goofed Sharla’s email and thought it said to post today, not yesterday since we usually have class on Tuesdays. I guess that counts as a hurdle for me lol. Now I know to read more carefully.

Anyway, for my update, these past two weeks have been me getting into the thick of my pre-production phase. So far, I’ve gotten all three of my interviewees finally set (YAY!), gotten a better camera than my own to film with (ALSO YAY!), and have gotten my preliminary questions for my interviewees all set. I’m going to send them the questions next week, that way I can shape more questions for the actual interview to their answers early on. It also assures me that none of them will be stuttering on the day of recording trying to scramble for answers they don’t have, they can think it through.

Also, since the last update I have decided to switch to episodes rather than one solid piece! This is a huge transition for me and has taken a lot of development behind the scenes for me to try and piece together how I want my series to look, as I’ve been imagining something completely different since last semester. 

Another big thing I’ve done is get into contact with Jeffrey for a space to film my project on campus. That was around two weeks ago so I’m going to do a follow up email with him soon as I haven’t heard back from him yet, and I’m unsure if I was supposed to do something for the process of securing a space. 

Now, looking forward, my main goals are to get myself ready for production. This means getting my questions finalized, making sure my interviewees are ready to go, requesting equipment from ACM, and also updating my calendar with realistic deadlines as I move forward. I don’t want to lose track of time, so I think I should stop relying on mental notes and my phone, and use my calendar online as a thing to keep referring back to instead. I prefer not constantly changing it, makes me feel messy in my head, but I think it’ll be safer too as our weeks are coming to a close. Like Sharla keeps telling us, time is gonna fly by.

Moving on, for my visual on this update, I’ve attached a storyboard I did of the outline of how I want my project to look so you guys can get an idea of my roundtable discussion! I’m planning to shoot half of a table with one camera getting everyone, and then having a secondary camera in the room that someone will operate to pan between the pairs on screen. I would have liked to use more cameras for more angles (wider and closeups) but I’m just being realistic with what I have, and also preparing for the worst if I can’t get a camera from the school. 

Anyway, thanks to anyone who read my update, and best of luck with your own projects! See you guys on the next one! :)

[sholtiscapstone]

No.1 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone!

Over the past two weeks I have been trying to get the basics of my project in order. I’ve mostly been focusing on getting my interviewees together as that's what my project is based around. I’ve had a couple of people already agree but they’re close in age, so per Sharla’s recommendation I’ve been trying to branch out! This has been a struggle for me as I don’t have a rapport with too many people outside of my own age range, so it is difficult to reach out to people who are in their 40s and don’t exactly have time for a student film, but I’m making progress so far!!

I’ve also yet to get approval on my project so that’s been a bit of a hurdle as it’s hard to plan when everything is up in the air in my head. I’ve been looking at some of the older capstone projects from previous years to help me with that, comparing what they’ve done to try and find a path I can keep my feet firmly on. 

Other than that, I’ve also been working on my Workback Plan which has helped me with the basic outline of what I want to do, as well as trying to create a calendar for the next couple of months. I attached an image of what I have so far for one month to give you guys an idea of it!

Though I still need to finalize that calendar with class deadlines and more milestones, while it’s still fluid when it comes to the deadlines for my project until I have a stronger foundation to build on. I’m going to have it be more concrete by the second week of February (being realistic with myself here) as I want to focus on March being my filming month, if all goes well. My biggest concern right now is TAKING MY TIME. I'm aware things will move fast but it's a personal concern of mine not to make myself jump into a decision because it's quicker, as this project determines how our lives are shaped after this semester when you think about it, which is kinda crazy lol.

Anyway, for my timeline I’d say I’m in the phase 2 area/ pre-production of where I want to be. I have my basics established for what I want to do, now I’m focusing on when, where, and who with, but that’s already coming together. So basically my next steps will be completing that, and then moving on to finishing my interview questions as well to adapt them to my interviewees.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone else on what they’re doing!

[sholtiscapstone]

Hey, everyone! Here's my capstone intro video. I just talk about the basics of my research, where I want to take it, and then post-grad life. Thanks in advance to anyone who listened.