Dreaming phase..

By looking at my '100 questions' journal entry and my 'This I believe' essay, I can relate them to a certain extent. Most of the questions I asked were related to my future, and aspects in my present life that will lead to my future goals/vision and some other random and past related questions. My essay was about friendship which I highly consider a major part of my life. MY 100 questions focused more on what I want in life and what I believe in. Uncertain questions that I want to answer eventually.

So for my project, I don;t think I would want to focus it on friendship, even though my essay in based on that. I feel that doing a final project about friendship will be too generic and cheesy and cliche. As I have mentioned in some of my writings before, the main principle that I stand by in terms of living life, is by anticipating the excitement that is gonna occur in my life. Whether it be thanksgiving break, or traveling somewhere during winter break, coming back to college, doing an internship, these are all events that I look forward to and thus the anticipation of the events to take place makes me feel alive. That is what motivates me. I want to focus on something that I truly believe is of importance to me, something that I am passionate about, or a video of different people who are passionate about something. This sounds vague I know. I am thinking of creating a video that involves other people and myself, with a similar interest. Maybe about student organizations?? Or holidays?? world issues??

Research??

I believe there are differences in doing research and in general the whole production of the end product for a video project and a research paper. At-least to me. When working on a research paper, you familiarize yourself with the topic and do extensive research on the respective topic in terms of understanding it, providing facts about the topic and presenting factual validity. Stating the facts or arguments are easy as anyone would know, but the validity is where the weight lays most on. Researching can vary from using the internet, books etc., In a video project, the notion of validity/truth depends. In depends on what kind of video it is. If its a project about interviewing people, it becomes relative and we tend to depend on the people to validate the facts and convince the audience. With any other video piece, we have to produce something that is visually effective that convinces the audience. To me, doing research on a video project usually takes place in my head. I create a storyboard in my own head and outline what I want to do. Later I implement my plan by getting footage and editing it, hoping that it will be a success to the audience. I always have the audience in mind.

This I believe..

There are many valuable things in life, but I truly believe that friendship is one of the most important. Human interaction is necessary for human survival, and developed friendships are essential for one to be a well rounded being. There are different types of friendships. Different categories that a person recognizes the friend as. An acquaintance is one of the different types. An acquaintance is someone that you know only from the exterior, at a basic level. This could generate a deeper friendship, but some acquaintances stay as they are. You don't share much or interact much on a regular basis. But this kind of friendship can still be pure.

I also believe that your significant other is your friend, at least to me. This is another type of friendship. Some may argue with this, but I believe this is true. To be intimate with someone, and share a deeper relationship with someone- one shares everything, opens up to the person and is a friend first, then a lover. Next type of friendship is a true friend or a best friend. This is the type that you can count on your life for. Someone that will always be there for you, no matter what. Someone that you share your darkest secrets, say anything to and feel comfortable. This is the type of friend that will be there for you through pain and joy.An old rule of thumb is that a true friend is someone you can call after months or even years and speak as if not a day had passed. That is true friendship. A true friend will always stand by you and show his/her support. I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that true friends are hard to find and the most important to hang on to, if found. This might be a cliche belief but it the strongest belief that I have. The rewards are great having true friends, whether it be 10 true friends or 1. They are irreplaceable. This is what I believe.

5-10 beliefs

1. I believe that the world needs peace.
2. Everything happens for a reason
3. I believe that its always the unexpected that takes place.
~ I believe that is true(for the most part at least) because it happens to me. Maybe its just in my head, but it always seems that the unexpected always takes place. I guess from this statement, what I am really trying to express is never expect too much out of something. Be confident but not over-confident.
4. Cricket is better than baseball
~ I grew up in India, so I grew up watching cricket and was not really exposed to baseball. Now that I am in the US, watching baseball is fun, but I always tend to compare it with cricket, the different aspects related to the sports, the similarities and how cricket excels in techniques, the skills required for the game, the way the sport is played etc. So I have always been a huge fan of cricket and always will be and nothing would make me change my belief as this is something that I have developed from a young age.
5. People need to be more open-minded
6. I have faith in God, and i don't believe that god exists unless proven. I believe in Unitarian Universalism.

Everything in an argument.

A Boston Red Sox Cap: Some who love baseball and the red sox would take a lot of pride in owning a red sex cap. But my argument is- I don't care. Haha! I would own one, but not because I am a fan of the team or anything.

A Livestrong bracelet: People where it to show their support for the cancer victims.

A belated birthday Card: I have happened to send people belated birthday cards and have received some as well. I think its just as special as sending one on their birthday. Shows that they do/did remember the person's birthday.

A nutrition label: Gives the person who is buying or consuming all the information of what it contains and the percentages.

A rolex watch: Implies that the person is freaking rich/wealthy.

A health warning on a package of cigarettes: I find this a huge contradiction. People already know that smoking is a health hazard, I highly doubt that people see this warning and decide to quit.

Presentation and distribution.

Reflection+ Critical Thinking: With my end product, I was pretty happy with what I had accomplished. I believe that some of my biggest strengths were that I got some creative shots that I incorporated in my project. I am happy with the approach that I took in interviewing my interviewees (a casual, more friendly outtake). My biggest weakness would be the quality of the sound, although I did try editing it with a program called audacity- i still wasn't happy with it. I also wish I got better shots at the store with better lighting and quality. I think the biggest lesson is to start on the project as soon as possible, since projects like this-we are depending on people and its not easy to coordinate the time between the both.
The biggest pleasure of being a video author is the amount of fun you have. I find it very interesting and honestly I don't even find a project like this a homework assignment. Playing around with the equipment and different softwares while editing is also a pleasure to do since you get to learn things on your own.

Audience Response: I definitely feel that I conveyed my ideas to the audience. With my piece I wanted the audience to relate to the characters, especially the owner that I focused on. I was very happy with the audience reactions, their comments and even their constructive criticism. One mentioned that it was inspirational, seeing how a person right out of college started a business like this. That is exactly what I wanted to portray, although I do wish I got better clips of questions relating more about her business planning. Some mentioned that my camera angles weren't that great, so I definitely will keep that in mind for my next project. Altogether I was really happy with the responses I got from the crowd.

Distribution: I am not sure if I want to reach a wider audience with my piece. I don't really care, i guess.

purchases I made..

Recently I purchased a prince tennis racquet. I did see the advertisements for the product on TV. I do not know how much of an effect it had on me further in my decision to purchase the product as I had already made my decision. I can say that the advertisement did resonate with my personal aesthetic and gave me a confirmation of why this was the best product out there for me. The advertisement talked about the advanced performance enhanced technology that the prince racquets have incorporated, along with inspiring clips of tennis stars. So I would say that the advertisement did target their market well.