Week 11: Coming to a Capstone End

As the final days of my last semester in school quickly approach, it still hasn't hit me that I will be finished with my Bachelor of Arts degree in just a few short days. I do not think it truly will hit me until January is here and everyone is heading back to school but I won't have to. About a week ago, me and my fellow capstone students had our "poster session", meaning that we publicly presented our finished projects. And the result? Very good! I think that I did a very good job at presenting my project and everyone else did a fabulous job as well. I had to do an online portfolio, and I have already completed that. I had a few issues uploading my site onto the internet; it looked a little funky on the Mac at school but once I got home and looked at it, everything looked correct. I do not know if the site does not pull up correctly on a Mac, but does on a PC, or if it took a while for everything to correct itself and it looks great on any computer. Hopefully it just took a while for everything to straighten up and it looks great on the Mac computers at school too. So, the only thing I have left to do for my Senior Capstone is to finish up my physical portfolio. I turned it in last week but accidentally left out a few important details that I was supposed to put in there. I am about to finish that up now and I will be able to give it to my teacher on Thursday. As the semester quickly comes to an end, I am greatly enjoying putting the last few pieces into my puzzle known as college.

Capstone Cultural Attendance: A Local Movie

As my fifth and final cultural attendance requirement, I decided to go to a local theater and see a movie. I rarely go to the movies anymore, mainly because they have gotten so expensive but also because it is hard to find a free evening to go to the movie theater and get the whole experience. Luckily, during final exam week, which did not turn out to be as busy for me as I was expecting, I found a free night to go to the movie theater and see the movie "Tower Heist". I have been wanting to see this movie since I saw previews for it and greatly enjoyed the movie. It was a comedy that had fun, family humor in it. I think that a lot of comedies these days lean more towards adult humor, so the comedy in this movie was refreshing to see. I rent a lot of movies to watch, it is a little cheaper than going to the theater, and a lot of the comedies that I rent are not as funny as I expect them to be. I have gotten too used to comedies not being as great and humorous as I expect them to be so finding a movie that was truly funny, and one that was appropriate to watch with my whole family, was nice. Going to the theater is a cultural experience in itself; it may depend on what movie you are going to see, but usually just watching the people enter the theater, sit down, and being surprised at how loud or quiet they are is an experience that cannot be found watching a movie at home. I enjoy getting the true theater experience, loudness and all, and will always try to make the time to actually go to a theater and see a good movie.

Capstone Cultural Attendance: Holocaust Memorial Museum

I love visiting Washington DC and going to the Smithsonian; I have always enjoyed museums and view them as a great way to learn about the past. While visiting the Smithsonian on Saturday, November 19th, I decided to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I haven't been to this museum in years, even though it is one of the more depressing of the museums, I was excited to go and see the changes that have been made to the museum.

While visiting, I was given an identification card which told the story of someone who lived during the holocaust and goes in depth to what their experience was and what happened to them. I got a card with the story of Tania Marcus on it and was able to read about her and her life while visiting each floor of the museum. I thought that this was a very nice touch to the museum. Visitors are able to use the card to guide them through the museum and learn about the different stages of the Holocaust. I would definitely consider this a cultural attendance because the experience of this museum is one of a kind. It is a true educational experience and ensures that you remember what you learned and saw during your visit by tapping into visitor's emotions.

Week 10: Let the Finalizing Begin!

I just finished, yes finished, my capstone project! I've always been the type of person to wait until the last minute to finish something, but I've been like that in a good way! I've always liked to work on things for as long as I can, therefore, I kept working on my project until I absolutely had to call it finished. I had everything compiled together in my videos for a while but enjoyed putting final touches on it until I had to force myself to stop. Of course, I can still see things in my videos that I would like to work on and change but it is ready for my presentation tomorrow!

Overall, I am very, very proud of my project. It may not be great to others and yes, there is still more I would have liked to work on, but I must remember that this was my first time ever doing this process. I never took a class on filming, recording audio and editing it all together so everything that I did in this project was one hundred percent new to me. So even though the camera is a bit shaky at times and the audio is a little fuzzy, I am proud of my final project. There are always going to be things I need to work on but as a first attempt at something, I think I did a pretty good job at my miniature travel show!

Week 9: Stop the Presses!

Stop the Presses! Update! Update! It was announced to the Capstone class about two weeks ago that our project would be pushed to a later date. It was originally set for the middle of November but was re-scheduled to the end of November- what a relief! We are definitely a lucky bunch to have a teacher that is kind enough to push back the presentation date for us! When she announced this in class a few Monday’s ago, all in sync and like a choir, our class gasped with relief and surprise. With this said, I have been able to edit my videos more extensively and prepare other little things to go with it. Once the presentation date arrives, I will have three well- edited videos, a nice presentation board, a press kit and a production notebook. Once I am able to go deeper into what exactly I am going to put into my press kit and production notebook, I will be sure to fill everyone in!! Until I get more of my project done…

Capstone Cultural Attendance: WVU Football Game

On Saturday, November 5th, I attended my first ever West Virginia University football game. What an experience!! I am from a smaller town and attend a smaller university that support their football team but are definitely not as crazy and supportive as WVU football fans are. People celebrated before, during and after the game. Even though WVU lost, it was only by a few points; I think the fact that WVU lost gave people even more of a reason to celebrate and tail- gate.

I consider this a cultural attendance event because of the vast difference between Shepherd and WVU. I am used to Shepherd and the football games that we have here but they did not even compare to the games they have at WVU. I literally felt like a foreigner when I went because most of those fans go to almost every game and have how they act and what they do at the game down to a science. At Shepherd, we have half of the stadium for Shepherd fans and the other half for the fans of the opposing team. When I went to the WVU stadium, the only two colors I could see were blue and gold. The opposing team of Louisville only had a small corner on one half of the stands and there were not many there supporting their team which was very interesting to see. It is well known that WVU fans are crazy about football, and after this trip, I too may find myself shouting from the stands just like every other fan there.

Photo used with a Creative Commons license.

Week 8: Just an Update

And the countdown begins.. I have two weeks until my Capstone project is due! I have finished a lot but still have so much to do! Upon reviewing footage, I decided that I need to re-shoot some scenes. A couple of them are not as visually perfect as I would want them to be (too much light; not enough light) and some have too much noise going on while I am trying to speak. I'm going to try to re-shoot the ones in which I was speaking but who knows if I'll even end up keeping those scenes in the final project.

I also need to finalize my project board and complete my production notebook and my press kit to accompany my travel show. I still have a lot to do with the press kit but I feel that I will be able to finish that quickly once my episodes are completed and finalized. I think that it will be much easier to write about my episodes and theme as a whole when they are all finished. Overall, I am very happy with what I have so far and am glad that I chose a project that has successfully kept my attention over the past few months.