Daniele Fiorenza Capstone
Hi this is Dani and this is my Senior Project. Since I'm an exchange student I could notice a lot of differences in the everyday routine between the U.S. and Italy. I like a lot to talk about myself and showing to people who I am and what I do. When my experience started in August I brought with me my GoPro thinking about doing a documentary about the whole 10 months trip but I abandoned this idea after a while. I wasn't using the camera but, once we had to work on the Capstone, I remembered that I could have used that for it. I started recording the most interesting parts of my daily life such as my free time. I expressed my passions, traveling, doing sports above all playing soccer and some shades of my culture, cooking pasta. I purposely wanted with a POV camera angle because in my opinion the viewer can see the events in the same way I did.
Hope you enjoy the video and have a great end of the school year.
Bibliography
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-A7vYsUHe4&t=40s
This source represents to the best the part of my project with the GoPro. The idea is to give my point of view, in fact this perspective it’s called POV. Instead a day in the city, my project will be a day at school with a GoPro. This is not the only part of my work but it’s the base idea where all starts. This video’s author was able to use some scenic effect and I want to replicate him but probably in a different way. Of course I’m gonna record some clips in center city to give an idea to who is watching the environment outside the school
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJePDxmRgBE
This source explains which kind of mount is better to use with the GoPro, it puts in comparison the head mount with the chest mount. Seen that the perspective is one of the things that matters more I had to do this kind of research. At the end the chest mount is the better one for me because it gives a better perspective of what you are doing. There was the chance to buy an “external” mount but it’s not the perspective I want to give. The documentary will be like if I don’t even have a camera that is recording
https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/making-documentaries.html
Since I never tried to put clips together I thought it would have been helpful to follow a real tutorial on how to do a documentary (I actually don’t know if mine I can define it as a documentary). It tells step by step how to be successful in making a video and the steps are listed. Tell a story you care about, research best ways to record, make a plan creating an outline, be careful to copyright issues. I’m a beginner so this research is gonna be helpful at the beginning of my editing part of the project.
https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/mini-documentary.html
My video will not be a documentary so I looked for something smaller to get instruction from. The link says Mini-documentaries’ length is between 2 - 25 minutes and it’s exactly what i’m looking for. There are instructions similar to the last link but in this case the source focuses on the purpose of it. The website offers a video tutorial, “How to make a mini-documentary” which could be very helpful. Even if I already took another similar source I find this better because it approaches more to my idea.
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397215,00.asp
The first question I was wondering was “Which is the best program to edit a video?”. I did research on it and I found this source which is basically a review made by a computer scientist and he expresses his best choices that are free. I actually have to check what apps I have available at school. Since there are Macs at school I could probably use iMovie which supports 4K and it’s one of the best editor choices, the other one is Apple Final Cut Pro but I think I have to download it which is not my idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GbfFV7LCH8
Since I’m recording with the GoPro (special videocam), I researched if there were some tips for using it. One thing that was underlined in the source is the fact to be selective and don’t let the camera record everything because there will be so much work to put the clips together and cut the less important parts. It tells about technical skills to like the frame of the clip and angles but the only angle I’m giving is what I see because the camera will be only on my chest
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/how-conduct-journalistic-interview/
My first part of the project is GoPro clips but I think it’s not enough to this kind of project so I decided to add the clips to some interviews to high school students and maybe teachers. It’s a step by step tutorial and the steps are 8 and the most idea said in this source is to take notes which I don’t think it will be helpful for me because I’m gonna record it but it still tells some important things like conduct the interview in an organized manner.
http://mgt.buffalo.edu/career-resource-center/students/networking/mentorlink/40-questions-to-ask-in-an-informational-interview.html
I explained in the last source the second part of my project, interview to students. Even if the main question is “What do you think about exchange student program?” “What do you think about this year’s exchange students?” I thought it would have been helpful to find some random question to ask during an interviews even if won’t use them. Some of the categories are “What work is like?” or “Skills and Experience". Even if it doesn’t match with my cause maybe I could find a couple that I can use in my video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM0zLnep3Nw
“How to be successful in editing?”. This video tells 5 skills to be a good editor. The second point was pretty interesting because it says “Being a sculptor and knowing what to take away from your work”, the guy says our idea will be the main block of the sculpture and slowly labor it. He says to have a good imagination and be clear about your final idea. The last point explains that even if you’re going to cancel lot you are not satisfied so he says that it’s important to be a “good solver”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czf3anzzUjo
Of course music plays an important factor in a documentary so I decided to research some cool music to put in the background of my clips. I had to research songs without copyright because it’s not legal. This playlist is very cool and it seems perfect for Vlogs which is the type of video I want to make. I won’t talk I think during the GoPro clips, I didn’t decided yet but when there are some silence moments I’m gonna put this music. Linked to this there are other songs but I thought that one source is enough
