Capstone Update #6: Mental Exhaustion and the Push to the Finish Line
I cannot wait until this semester is over. If I could nap for a week, I would. Several co-workers have been on month long vacations...must be nice. Work has been a total drain on the battery lately, and trying to keep the creative gears turning while mentally exhausted is... a choice. But, progress is being made! Here is where we are at.
What's been happening the past two weeks:
It’s been a lot of "behind the scenes" heavy lifting.
The Script: Finally finished a draft. It helps to have something to follow along with as I put all my clips together. The Narration Voiceovers feel a little too wordy and academic to me, so I'm hoping Sharla and Prof. Farinella can get back to me with some sort of feedback before I go in to record the voice overs.
Budget Tracker: Spent way too much time looking at receipts and adding them to a spreadsheet tracker I found online. The math is mathing, but my wallet is not.
Archive Outreach: Sent a follow-up email to Julie at the Lyman Museum. I'm hoping to get eyes on more plantation-life photos (festivals, sports, camp life) to really flesh out the visual narrative.
Voiceovers: Secured a reservation at the Edit Bay at school to record my voiceovers. Will be a cool experience, and hopefully it will be a nice, quiet space to record in.
B-Roll Footage: In a quest to find a sugar cane field to film in, my boyfriend and I took a field trip out to the Kō Hana Distillery up in Kunia. Unfortunately the area where they grow their sugar cane was closed off due to a recent fire, so all I was able to film was their small educational sugar cane garden. Hopefully it will be sufficient enough to use. If not, I found some stock footage on Getty Images that I could purchase a license for, but that means more $$$ and is more of a last minute resort. We also made our way to Waiahwa and filmed on the bridge that goes over the botanical garden gulch there. No sightings of the Green Lady, but it was still nice to check it out.
Whatʻs coming up for the next 2 weeks?
VO Prep: Reservation for the Edit Bay is April 14. I'm just hoping what I’ve written so far is good enough because, honestly, I don't have the time or the bandwidth to go back and redo anything at this point.
Archival Deep Dive: Julie got back to me regarding the photos. Nothing is available online, but she said she'd conduct a search and compile a list for me ASAP. She's turning into my project MVP.
Timeline Foundations: I've been physically putting together the pieces on my timeline, trying to make sense of it all.
Submission Countdown: My personal deadline to turn the project in is April 28. I'm aiming for that to avoid the last-minute panic of the absolute final deadline on May 2nd.
Hiccups/Hurdles/AHA moments
Hurdle: Total burnout and "Vacation Envy". It’s hard to stay motivated when the workplace is missing key team members and the "brain fog" is real. To make matters worse, my store manager has decided that everything going wrong is somehow my fault. Yay me!
AHA Moment: Realizing that having a collaborator like Julie makes a world of difference. When the digital archives fail, having an "MVP" on the inside is a total game-changer.
Visual documentation of the progress:
Screenshot of my script's opening sequence. Like I said, narration seems a bit wordy, but hopefully I can come up with something less "bulky".
Screen recording of what I have put together on my timeline so far. Just call me Ken Burns Jr.
Where am I on the timeline?
I am currently putting together the pieces and moving into the "construction" phase. It's a bit messy, and I'm definitely feeling the weight of the semester, but the April 28 goal is keeping me focused.
UPDATE AS OF APRIL 13, 9:30PM
After posting this afternoon I spent the rest of the day slaving away at my project. I have now managed to complete a rough cut of the film, which currently has a run time of 56 minutes. I need to find a way to cut that time in half. Boy Howdy.
