zackrcpsarts-blog

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

Final Update

After completing this capstone project I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned a lot about myself, as well as Logic X Pro during the process. I am proud of how everything came out. I plan on continuing down my path of music production. I have a Soundcloud, so if you would like to listen to my music you can here: https://soundcloud.com/zackary-richards

The videos I created for the capstone project itself can be viewed here on my Youtube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCutJ1GMWzBenkN_H_ZChNBA?view_as=subscriber

Thank You Arts Scholars family for everything over the past 2 years!

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

Final Reflection

What was the most challenging aspect of completing your project, and why? (This might be technical aspects, time constraints, problems that arose, etc.—be honest, this is your space to reflect!)

I think that the most challenging aspect was sticking to a structure. I feel like my creative process is all over the place and thus following a strict schedule and structure was pretty difficult. I found myself having to modify things randomly as a result of a random creative development. Also because my creative drive comes about at random times, sometimes it doesn't work well with a schedule.

2. Looking at your learning agreement(s) on ELMS, how do you think you succeeded (or not) in completing your Learning Objectives? Which ones did you fulfill? Which ones did you not fulfill? Why?

So I technically pretty much failed my learning agreement. I only stayed true to one out of my three goals. The goal I stayed true to was the first one “Learn and coherently be able to articulate the basics of using Logic Pro X”. The other two I didn't so much. I attribute that to what I was talking about in the response to the first question. My creative process caused me to change the general structure of the project.

3. What were the most helpful aspects of the (semi) weekly class meetings? What would you like to see added or subtracted for next year?

I think that the classes were good for keeping us on task. They were good for keeping us aware of important deadlines coming up. It was also nice to see the journeys of others who were working on their capstones alongside you. I don't think anything about the classes needs to be changed.

4. What part of the project were you most proud of? Why?

I was most proud of my presentation. I hate giving presentations and I get extremely nervous before them. Im proud of the fact that I was able to give good presentations at both Arts Fest and Academic Showcase. I also was very proud of the fact that I was able to get a job opportunity form my Academic Showcase presentation.

5. What part of the project would you have changed if you could? Why?

I wouldn’t change any part of my project. I think that it is perfect the way it is. I think that all of the failure and hardship and little mistakes that I made kind of contribute to the project’s character. I guess if I HAD to change something, I would have tried to find a better microphone for recording my voice because at some times my voice sounds a bit distorted in the videos.

6. If you had to offer advice to next year’s Capstone students, what would it be?

I would tell them to keep an open mind throughout the whole capstone project. I say that for a couple of reasons. One reason I’d say that is because many of the things that we are required to do, for example the process binder updates, can seem tedious and meaningless in the moment, at the end of the project you will actually see their worth. I also say that because I think that everyone is going to want to change their project in some way at one point. I think that is is important to be open to making that type of change wherever necessary in their project.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

This for the fourth pentathlon event, I attended a spoken work event that my mother organized to have in our own house. This was back in February. I have never written my own poetry to be spoken at a spoken word event, let alone attended one myself so this was a completely new experience for me. All in all I really enjoyed it. I think that it was nice to hear all of these literary works that people came up with and also that they had the courage to speak them aloud to a crowd. This  event also helped me with my stage fright in a way. Because it was a group of people that are really close to my family and I, it was very easy for me to speak out to all of them in the room.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

Process Binder Checkin #4

I have begun to start editing the videos of my capstone project. I kept running into a problem where I’d continuously find more and more things to include in the videos themselves which made it hard for me to make the last couple of videos because they were continuously in need of being changed. However the subject matter of the intro have stayed largely the same, so I have begun to edit the first video, as well as the second.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

For my third pentathlon event, I went to an event called “Concerts in Close Quarters”, held by the Clarice. There, I got to meat the extremely talented and amazing Rene Marie. While there, we had the pleasure of hearing Rene’s life story, her influences, her favorite types of music, as well as hearing her perform a bit of music. I absolutely loved this event. I had never been to an event like this before, where I was able to meet an artist up close and personal. I learned so many things that I wasn’t expecting to learn from her. I knew I was going to learn about what it takes to be an entertainer and things like that, but I didn’t think that I was going to learn as much about what it means to be a human as I did from Rene when I attended this event.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

CPSA CAPSTONE ADVISING(Late)

In 3-4 sentences, please describe what was discussed during your meeting.

We discussed how to revise my learning agreement. We also discussed how I could structure my plan of how the videos will be laid out considering I really didn't have much of an idea of how I was going to do that. On top of those things, we discussed the possibility of using tools(programs) that the University provides to its students in order to complete my project.

In 3-4 sentences, please explain what the next steps you will take with your project will be.

I will first be recording the raw footage and audio for my videos. Then I will be editing the videos down to a length that I would like them to be. Then I will be doing the voice overs to the videos.

Please use the space below to indicate any further questions, concerns, or confusions that were NOT addressed during the meeting.

None

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

At this point, I would say that my project is going well but it could be going better. As you can see, I have 1 video (Video 1) that is acceptable for me to start editing and then do the voiceover for. I am on time in terms of all of the deadlines that I set for myself, however, I realized that I had a couple of big hurdles when I was preparing for the First Look Assignment. That problem was that the raw form of these videos are like 40-60 minutes long which is MUCH more than I originally intended. My next move in this project will consist of a lot of consolidation of my video content through editing. I may even have to re-record the video to make sure that I hit all of the points that I wanted to include in my video in the first place.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

My first Pentathlon event of the semester was going to the movies to see the Jumaji remake with Jack Black, The Rock, and Kevin Hart. Honestly this was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I knew it was going to be funny once I saw the cast but I was honestly surprised that it was funnier than I expected it to be. If I had to give it a ranking, I’d probably say it was top 10 on my all time funniest movies list. I really enjoyed this move and most definitely will be watching it again as soon as I can.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

Process Binder Check-In one

So far my progress has been mostly preparation. I have been learning, myself, the things that I want to include in my videos. I plan to congregate all of the topics that I want to hit onto one word document and print that out so that I can have that in front of me while I am making my video. So far, I have started making one of the songs, which is what you can see in the photo. Soon I will start on the other song. I am really excited to continue working on this as I have finally gotten to the point where I am able to visualize exactly what I would like to do with this project.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

The final event that I attended this year for the pentathlon was the showing of Suddenly at the Clarice. This “PuppetCinema” as they call it was honestly astounding to me. I was completely enthralled by every aspect of the performance. In all honesty, it was one of the best theater performances that I have ever seen with my own two eyes.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

The fourth event that I attended this year for the pentathlon was a viewing of the movie Get Out. This was one of the most hyped up movies of the year, and for good reason. I thought that the movie was superb both as entertainment as well as leaving the moviegoers with questions as they exited the cinema, not only about the movie itself but also the societal motifs that the movie tried to poke at.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

The third event that I attended this year was a juke joint event at the Nyumburu cultural center. Here they had many musical acts, as well as some spoken word. These juke joint events are always amazing to me as it truly showcases the hidden talent among the black community here at UMD.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

The second even that I attended this semester was a art show of my mothers photography. I always attend her gallery shows and I always enjoy them. She is such an inspiration in my life, especially inspiring me to chase whatever artistic dreams I have.

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My first pentathlon event of the semester was attending a Jhene Aiko concert at the Fillmore in Silver Spring. I have always wanted to attend a concert of hers as she is one of my favorite artists. I can truly say that I was not disappointed at all by her performance. 

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

The final pentathlon event I attended this semester was a spoken word event at the Juke Joint at the Nyumburu Cultural Center. Some of the topics that were  talked about included, race relations, police brutality, gender and racial discrimination, and womens rights.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

The fourth pentathlon event that I attended this semester was the Big Band Spring Finale Courtyard Concert. I went to this even because outside of the Faux-Paux performance at the scholars orientation, I had never heard any music created by people at the University of Maryland. I was curious to see what type of musical talent there was here at the University of Maryland and I have to say, I did not leave disappointed.

[zackrcpsarts-blog]

My third pentathlon event that I attended this semester was my Uncle Jay’s art showcase. I love my uncles art because I can genuinely say that I have never seen an art style like my uncles in recent memory. I admire his work so much.