Capstone Extra Movie Blog Post

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Making a movie might have been the most fun part of our Capstone project. We got to pick pictures, choose music, and share our research. The worst part about it was the recording because you needed to have the same type of recording in the same setting with the same tone. It was annoying especially when I was in a different place or had to speak louder because of background noise. But making a movie was still very fun and we got to share them with our classmates for advice and tips. In Cindy’s movie, she explained that when scientists wanted to share ideas, they could present them at a conference. Our movies and presentations were like that because we could present them in front of the class, with all our classmates and teachers watching.

Before the movie, we had to make a script. It wasn’t very exciting because we had to put all our research into simpler phrases to say. Also, I got my script corrected a lot. While the script was boring, it wasn’t hard or complicated. Before the script, we wrote an essay explaining the answer to our main question. What we were supposed to do was copy sentences or paragraphs from the essay onto the script and adapt it to make it match. So it wasn’t very difficult.

The movie was kind of the opposite – it was fun but hard. I think the most fun part was picking out a song because you could listen to music and think about the movie. In the end, I picked a song called Espionage, which was fitting because my topic was Cold War Espionage. It was too short so I had to start it up again on a slide talking about Aldrich Ames. It didn’t sound too weird and I was happy with it. But the most difficult part about the movie(other than recording) was picking photos. When Google searching, I had to use the “Tools” function under Images to set a Creative Commons license filter. That eliminated a lot of photos I wanted to use, but I found a trick. On Google Drive, when you use “Search the Web”, it automatically gives you free photos. There, I just clicked into the picture I wanted and double-tapped to get the file. Then I’d have a free photo. But when I didn’t have the photo I wanted, I had to search for something else or switch the topic. Sometimes, I happened upon a photo that was perfect for my movie but wasn’t free. When this happened, it was very annoying.

In conclusion, the final presentation/movie was sometimes fun and sometimes boring. It was sometimes hard and sometimes easy. In the end, though, I managed to complete it and make the best version of my video that I could. I hope that my whole Capstone project will be as successful as the movie. Because my Capstone is really a crowning achievement.

Capstone Blog Post #3

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Researching for my Capstone project was very boring. Also, it was challenging. That was because sometimes, I couldn’t understand the article I was reading or it didn’t have answers to my questions. I had a very difficult resource to understand and interpret, which ended up having only two sentences in my notes for it. Something exciting, though, was finding just the right paragraph with the answers I needed and extra information I didn’t think I’d need. While this nearly never happened, that just made it all the more exciting. Something I learned is you usually have to read a sentence or paragraph a few times before you find a connection between it and the question or topic. This applies to everything, even if you think you know what it’s about.

For my presentation, I decided to do a movie. This was because I didn’t want to memorize a script or talk to a live audience, which was what you had to do in a TED talk or Ignite. I already knew that I wouldn’t be good at it because I did it before. But movies had more features and options, so it was very clear which style of presentation I should choose. Some challenges I faced were recording and picking pictures(you can read more about my movie in my “Capstone Extra Movie Blog Post” post).

I learned that you need to always perfect and look for mistakes in your presentation(whether it’s a TED talk, Ignite, or movie) to make it the best you can. If you always think that your presentation is the best you can make, then you won’t be able to have a good enough presentation. This is important to know because then, you’ll always have a good presentation.