ALOHO Project Site

Drafting the League

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Research

Production

Reflection

The Process

The execution of this capstone is split into three parts: - Research: Researching topics of interest to compose the literature review, locating potential talent, and getting familiar with production equipment - Production: Conducting interviews, transcribing audio, finding and recording applicable video and photo content, and designig the website. - Reflection: Writing and recording the experience.

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Literature Review

We hit the ground running on our capstone projects by completing literature reviews in our Theory & Audience Analysis class. When deciding what to focus on, I asked myself, "what do I care about?" If I were going to be working on something for a year, I wanted to be interested and invested in the project. I decided to focus on African American men for a multitude of reasons, but two being focusing on a positive narrative and uncovering information that surprised me. View the gallery from the top left corner to see the outlines that made this project come to life

Hitting the Target

My next order of business was focusing on what I wanted to create from this research, who I wanted to focus on, and how I would get this done in a reasonable amount of time. Check out the gallery to my plans of action

View Literature Review

Putting it Into Words

After numerous drafts, I produced a final copy of my literature review which would serve as the foundation for my capstone. I used a number of sources. The important thing to remember with research is to make sure it is hitting th target on the questions you want to answer. Another important piece to consider is how dated the research is? Is it still applicable to the questions I want to answer, or is there something more up to date that can help? Lastly, enjoy the reading. This is a no-brainer, but enjoy the information you are digesting. Get comfy, brew some tea, and open your mind to knowledge.

View Outline

In this exercise, I discussed the basics for my capstone in a sentence. This is the final product after much writing and restructuring. I also got feedback from classmates to help me pinpoint the specific narrative.

We split our work in to sprints. Sprints are bi-weekly deadlines to keep track of progress, and strategically organize work. I split my work into three increments to focus on within the six sprints. Corona rearranged my calendar, but I maintained organization. One important solution that kept things moving was lightly tapping into the next objective. When I was not doing video work, I dabbled into the website contetn

This is the rough-rough draft of how I planned my Eko studio documentary. This helped me realize everything I need and want to cover within the project.

CLOSE GALLERY

Outside Resources

I could not complete this project alone. Literally, it's about men. I reached out to business owners as early as November, starting with those I had relations with. I had back-ups just incase someone could not commit. I did have someone stop replying so this definitely came in handy. Because I had close relations with these entrepreneurs I was able to contact them via text, phone call, or stopping by their offices. I briefly explained the purpose of my project, how they were relevant to the subject matter, and that I would greatly appreciate their contribution to this work. Besides the actual interviews, I used the following softwares to complete this project: - Adobe Audition - Adobe illustrator - Adobe Premiere Pro - Ceros - Eko studio - Quick Time Player

Producing this project was a medium feat. Fortuantely I had connections with entrepreneurs as far north as Virginia. Things got rocky when COVID-19 forced the world to reevaluate 'normal'. I recorded as many videos as I could face-to-face then resulted to zoom interviews with approved content. The most important thing with using others work is citing them as sources. These creaters produced great work! Without them, this capstone would not be as entertaining.

Production

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Equipment

The equipment used to complete this project is as follows: - Canon Rebel T6 camera - Canon 7D camera - Lavalier Mic - Zoom recorder - Various lenses - Slate - Stabilizer - Tripod - XLR Cords - Memory Cards - Generay lights - Neutral Density Filters - External Hard Drive

Adjusting to Corona

The Corona virus definitely shifted my plans for my documentary. I even considered turning it into a podcast because of production restrictions. After much debate and planning for my next move, I decided to continue with the video and adjust to zoom interviews. I started using two cameras to get various angles within interviews. Including a wide shot of my room to show the interviews being played from my television. A camera facing me to capture reactions, and using footage from the zoom recording. I created a zoom layout to insinuate the which footage is coming from my computer.

Of all things to prepare for this moment, a pandameic was not one of them. But this experience taught me how to think on my feet, roll with the adjustments, and still create a masterpiece. I decided to produce a short podcast about the capstone experience from a personal perspective. Click the speaker for the reflections podcast.

Reflection