Kay Blogs: Final Portfolio

These are all my assignments wrapped up into one blog post.
-Kay

1. Short Speech # 1- This I Believe

I believe that once you set your heart to something, you should stick with it until the end. Hard work pays off because once it’s done, you get to live in those moments and savor every bit of it.

This past summer, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to go to Spain for two weeks. I got to get out of my comfort zone; trying foreign foods other than burgers and cheese coneys and getting to explore a large city all on my own. It was something different, and I would do anything to travel there again. Before the trip, they gave me two years to pay off the expenses. Now, I grew up in a family where no one was going to get what they wanted simply be asking. Because of this, I had to work for everything I received. That doesn’t seem so bad, but it’s actually difficult to come up with $172 a month when you have other debts to pay off. That is where the hard work began. At the end of my sophomore year, I began to save that exact amount of money each month. Thankfully, it was the end of the school year, and my lifeguard job provided plenty of help during the first 4 months. I worked about 55 hours a week, never looking back. Instead, I looked forward towards my goal. At one point, I found myself in a bit of trouble because I was also in theatre, which costs an arm and leg. Then, I got into my first car accident. To top off the expenses that already were piling up, I had attended 2 soccer camps that summer. And did I mention, my parents weren’t paying for any of this? I believe that once you set your heart to something, you should stick with it until the end. I guarantee you, the end result will be worthwhile because you have something you worked really hard for, which gives you a greater appreciation of how to be a productive citizen in today’s society.

2. Project Pitch

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1acAhnoP8cRJp4-vKWdFZ8hFvJpAUWW7Zf0REWqk7a20/edit

3. Annotated Bibliography

1. "Access to Culture Is Linked to Health & Happiness." Belgrade Theatre. N.p., 4 Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Oct. 2016.

I chose this article because it gives statistics explaining that people who have been/are involved in an activity related to arts and culture show signs of good health in their overall life. I believe this a relevant article to my documentary because the arts involve surrounding oneself with positive people in a positive atmosphere, which doesn’t cause any stress or worry to someone.

2. "Friendly Fires - Hawaiian Air." YouTube.com. YouTube Audio Library, 25 July 2011. Web. 01 Oct. 2016.

I heard this song a while back from a friend and I fell in love. When I heard that we were doing this documentary I knew that this song would go perfectly with my documentary. It’s an Indie Alternative Rock song that is all about adventure and having fun. It’s the perfect song for many different parts of my documentary that involves groups of people hanging out and having fun.

3. Hamlin, Kyle; Foster, David; Hedge, Emily; Temple, Abby. Personal Interview. 22 Oct 2016.

These are the group of people that I consider my best friends in the Creative Arts LLP here at UK. They were the first group of people that I met while at UK. We all come from different places but have a found a common love for music. I feel that their contribution towards my article will be about how we love to be around each other and when we are together we always have a blast.

4. Melvin, Cathlyn. "Top 5 Reasons Kids Should Do Theatre." Neighborhood Parents Network. N.p., 28 June 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

This article explains the 5 reasons why putting kids into the theatre is a good idea. I personally didn’t start doing theatre until sixth grade, but I also know people that started their acting career when they were 18-20 years old. The title of the article may say “Why Kids Should do Theatre” but I believe everyone should at least do something related to the arts no matter who old they are. One of the reasons I liked this article is because the last reason explained perfection. It discussed how being in the arts shows that you don’t have to be perfect.

5. Shalwitz, Howard. "7 Reasons Why Theatre Makes Our Lives Better | Washington Theatre Guide | Helen Hayes Awards." Theatre Washington. N.p., 7 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

This is a theatrical website that wrote an article on reasons why theatre is better for our lives. The third reason explains how theatre brings people together. I think that is a personal reason as to why I chose/ love theatre. I was surround by people who loved the stage and we have this common interest with one another. It was easy to befriend one another and have a love for music and acting.

6. Tedesco, Sofie. Personal Interview. 22 Oct 2016.

Sofie is a first year at Bowling Green State University who I have known since freshman year of high school. She is a good example as to why being in the arts is all about being happy. We have done countless shows together from our first show together, 42nd Street, to our last show, West Side Story. She is someone who always has a smile on their face and is motivated to do anything. She may have a bad day, but that doesn’t stop her from having a positive attitude when she is surrounded by good people.

7. Tennyson. Alfred Lord. Quote. 3 Oct 2016.

Tennyson is an English/Irish poet of the 1800s. He say’s “The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions” and I like this quote because it describes that a person’s happiness stems from what they do. I plan to put this quote in the beginning of my video to give a base for what is to come in my documentary. I believe this quote will also explain some of the students’ passions for being in the Creative Arts LLP.

8. "Unconditional Positive Regard." Definition. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

I decided to use this definition for my documentary because it’s one of the main points in my video talking about accepting of others in the Creative Arts LLP. This term is a social psychology term that is used to describe a group of people who accept other without any judgments. I believe this a necessary term for my documentary because it sets the stage for what I will discuss with making friends in the LLP.

4. Attendance/Participation Midterm Grade

http://kblogsuky.blogspot.com/2016/10/my-midterm-grade.html

5. Outline/StoryBoard

Originally, my documentary was on acceptance of other and being a positive person in the arts, but I didn’t really find the information I needed to produce a good documentary. So, I decided to look at happiness within my Creative Arts LLP. I think this is a better subject to focus on because it really portrays the joy and excitement the LLP has. We do a lot of activities together like watching movies, playing games, and having dinner nights. I love that the Creative Arts LLP has a close bond and it will definitely be seen in my documentary. My role in the film is to be everywhere. I have some ideas on how I plan to do many narrative voiceovers and being in the video itself showing my friends and what we do. I want to ask the friends, that I have met some questions and I want to ask my friends back home some questions about being in the arts and how it has affected them personally. I think my role in the film will be in the middle, but what’s important to me is how the audience will react.

I hope my audience has a positive reaction. I want them to see a group of people who are accepting of others and really enjoy the arts. I want them to see that the Creative Arts LLP is more than just a group of Hamilton loving students. We are more than that. We are about family, friendship, and happiness. A lot of my filming techniques come from the inspiration of a few Youtubers that I watch. I have Casey Neistat, Justin Escalona, and Ben Brown. I will be using close cinematic sequences on people faces, full panel shots, and slow motion montages. I think these techniques will be the biggest part of fulfilling the emotion I am trying to showing. I believe my professor chose a documentary as a particular project because sometimes writing a 4-page paper about something you care about can’t fully be explained in a Times New Roman font. This is a unique project that I like because it allows for the students to be creative in their own way and it’s a great alternative option instead of writing a paper. The message that I hope to communicate is that friendship is happiness. Having something in common with other people is the way to a great friendship. There is a lot of hatred going around in the world and I don’t want to focus on something sad and disastrous. I think my audience needs some smiles and joy in the moment, and I hope my documentary portrays that.

How I choose this topic for my documentary was confusing. To start, I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. It was so open to me that I didn’t even know what to think. But I came to my idea of happiness because of the people I’m around the most. I really like the arts and for friendship, that it seemed to fit my ideas on what I wanted to do. The context of this film is based around the idea of friendship and joy. I like that my film isn’t based on violence and I plan to make a point about that in my documentary. I want my audience to forget about what’s wrong in the world and focus on something at UK. A lot of the people in our class are in an LLP or a part of a big organization like a fraternity or sorority, and sharing mine will be good I believe. There is a Youtuber that I watch name, Justin Escalona. He is a sophomore at USC, studying film at their infamous film school, School of Cinematic Arts. The style of his videos is cinematic sequences in a setup of “vlogs” aka video blogs. His channel is called “Daily Docs” and it’s my inspiration for my documentary.

Already having a decent background in film editing and video software, I think it will be easy for me to get the video between 3-5-minutes. I plan to use long montages with music, small cuts of interviews playing in the background that will be mixed in with different video sequences. I also want to focus on the interviews and let them play into each cut. I think time will be my biggest issue. Doing the interviews will be hard because everyone has such busy schedules so doing the interviews will be tough, especially with my friends back home. One of my friends lives near Toledo so getting to her will be hard but I think I will have to wait on that interview until Thanksgiving.

6. Sport Speech #2-Visual Enthymeme