I like to draw inspiration from real life. Getting an amazing internship for a music magazine my senior year of college seemed too good to be true. It wasn't. However, as I am in my senior year and also have bills to pay, I don't spend too much time on my internship and therefore, am not as involved in the industry as I would like to be. I shot for the stars as far as what I wanted to do for my Capstone project and, after doing some thorough research and planning, realized what I wanted to do just wasn't going to be an option in the timeframe I needed.
I have been in a serious funk. For weeks. About school, about work, about life- both in the present and the future.
I have skipped a majority of my classes over the past several weeks. I sleep in as late as 12pm and just lay around my house all day. I see the assignments piling up. I see the laundry hasn't been done and there are dishes scattered about the kitchen. But I just can't bring myself to want to do anything.
This is my reality.
This is my inspiration.
Though senioritis has yet to be proven as a real disease, it can currently be described as "a supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance".
Oh yeah. That's real.
What does this have to do with my capstone, you ask?
As a Communications major, I have had limitless opportunities concerning various forms of communication (social media, tv, music, art, etc.). However, one aspect I really didn't get to explore was filmmaking.
Last summer I took a course where I helped shoot part of a documentary for my university (I got to work the soundboard. It was rad.) Since it was a summer course it was only 5 weeks long, but we really only filmed for 2.
Since then my thirst for film has been rampant. I've always loved Youtube videos, but now I've tried to focus on more "legit" filmmakers, such as Casey Neistat. Not only is Neistat a Youtube personality and filmmaker (with almost 7 million subscribers), he is also a vlogger, co-founder of the social media company Beme, and co-creator of the HBO series The Neistat Brothers, along with his brother Van.
That's a lot to accomplish.
I've watched upwards of 500 of his videos (there are currently 754 videos on his Youtube channel) and have found great inspiration through him. He does a "Question and Answer" segment in several vlogs and the intro is just incredible.
Anyone can tell you "these are the steps to becoming whatever" but it's another thing to see it working in action.
Neistat started "daily vlogging" around this time in 2015. In November of 2016 he decided to end the vlogs, as he wasn't feeling challenged anymore as far as his filmmaking ability was concerned. However, this past week Neistat decided to bring the vlogs back.
I enjoy watching his videos (along with 6.8 million other people) and think he will be a great source for my project: a Youtube video.
Not sure how to describe it quite yet. It will only be 5-10 minutes long, so it's not a documentary or anything like that. I guess I will just call it a "short movie" for now.
In the article "7 Storytelling Techniques You Can Learn from Filmmaker & YouTube Star Casey Neistat" by V Renée, she features two videos: one from editor Sven Pape, breaking down 7 techniques Neistat uses in his videos, and another by Evan Puschak, who delves into Casey's creative force and the meanings behind those techniques. I will use each of these videos as separate sources (rather than using the article as a source), but it's nice to have everything in a central location.
Eggo Müller's "Where Quality Matters: Discourses on the Art of Making a YouTube Video" sheds some light on what exactly people use the video-sharing site for. Müller writes, "As the website's self-promotion goes and as commentators repeatedly affirm, YouTube is first and foremost a cultural space of community building and shared experiences. Many critics therefore lament the poor aesthetic quality and moral shiftiness of many of the self-made clips on YouTube, often recorded on the spot with facilities like mobile phones, webcams or digital photo cameras and then uploaded without "wasting time" on postproduction. YouTube is- at least for "contributing users" as opposed to "lurking users"- all about sharing moments online with a potentially world-wide audience, but actually a limited number of viewers," (Müller).
My video has the potential to reach a large audience with varied demographics: mid-lifers who want to relive the "easy days"; current college seniors who can relate right then; college freshman, sophomores and juniors, who remember their senior year of high school and realize they have senior year to look forward to; high school seniors who can relate right then; others in high school who will see what they have to look forward to, etc.
Though I will spend months on this project, both editing and filming simultaneously and then editing again in post, I do agree with Müller that Youtube is about sharing moments and experiences with those who can relate. Even if they can't relate, those viewers then have the power to share the video with their friends, and so on and so on.
Sometimes where you need to be isn't where you are, but sometimes where you are takes you to where you need to be.
Müller, Eggo. "Where quality matters: discourses on the art of making a YouTube video." The YouTube Reader 12 (2009): 126-139.
Renée, V. "7 Storytelling
Techniques You Can Learn from Filmmaker & YouTube Star Casey Neistat." No Film School, 27
Aug. 2016. Web. 19 Feb. 2017.
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