Progress Report

I've made a lot of progress on my project since turning in my timeline and proposal. I've shot a lot of B-roll, and a couple of A-roll interviews. I've composed some of the music, and recorded a rough demo of one piece. I edited together a promo for my friend's (the subject of my documentary) art show, using the footage I've shot and the demo music. Finally, I've made arrangement for a few more shoots during the remainder of the summer.

View the promo I made here.


Learning to Write Again - Promo from Thomas Travis on Vimeo.

I've met with my mentor about once a week, skipping a few weeks here and there when she was unable to meet at the time we'd set. We've discussed a lot of the logistics of my project, techniques and problem-solving, expectations, and so on.

My timeline hasn't changed much because, as I mentioned in my last post, I (at my mentor's suggestion) made my timeline for next semester only, as though I was going to do this whole project in one semester. This semester I am essentially just working ahead. The biggest difference from the timeline I turned in and what I'll actually be doing next semester is that I've shot a lot of the footage, and I'll probably end up using a lot of the shooting time next semester for additional editing and music composing.

The biggest thing I need to complete before my capstone officially starts is shooting, because the subject will be graduating this semester and I'll have limited to no ability to shoot anything with him after that. I also need t get transcripts of all the interviews done so I can work on assembling the script next semester.

The biggest significant change to my project is one I fully expected, and that's that the form and style of the documentary are evolving to suit my content as I capture it. For example, the topics I'll explore more deeply will be determined by what is said in the interviews, and I think I'll be using more b-roll and less a-roll than I had originally assumed. I've also decided to focus pretty heavily on the music for the project. I was already going to make all my own music, but I've decided to make it more of a priority than it was because I'd like to be able to potentially get a job working with music in some way. I figure that if the music is really good in my capstone then it can help me get a job in that field just as well as it can in the video field, especially if it was a job dealing specifically with music for video.