Chinquapin

I honestly think that Chinquapin is the best private school in the Houston area. It prepares students from low-income families for college and it also teaches them to take pride into their school. Every student does a chore at school that could range from sweeping a classroom to mowing the lawn just outside our school's office. This is something that other schools don't teach their students and this creates Chinquapin Alumni that are thankful for Chinquapin being a part of them. All the other schools don't have anything on what Chinquapin does for its students. Chinquapin pulls students out of Houston and distractions that could potentially ruin a teenager's life if they were to stay at home. I hope I can portray a little of this in my video and inform people about my school.

A Storyboard and Script!!

Before I could start filming I had to do the hardest part of making a video, a storyboard and a script. The picture shows one of many pages that took to finish the planning of my documentary. Now that I'm done with this portion of my project I can continue on to the fun part which is making the video. I doubt it will be a walk in the park but I'm certain that my documentary will be a lot easier to complete now that I'm done with all the planning.

How To Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck

"How To Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck" is the name of the book that Mr. Dilworth gave to me. He is the main member from my panel that will be helping me with my video since he lives at school and is easy to reach him. Our ideas tend to agree with each other so I think it's great that I have someone like him helping me out. The book that he gave me has made video making a lot easier with tips. Steve Stockman, the author of the book, made the book real easy to understand. I'm obviously not going to read all of it because of lack of time that I have to finish the documentary but I'm getting a good overall view of how to make my video.

I was a bit worried because I didn't know the direction that my video was going into but Mr. Dilworth has helped me a lot with setting the theme and and other ideas I could include. The Documentary is coming along and I'm preparing on revealing it Mid-March!

My Panel Members

My panel will have four members. I only have three so far but I'm in search for the last one. Each member has their own role so far and I feel like they're all a great group of friends that want to help me. The first is a faculty member from my school who has experience with video, he teaches a video class, and has helped me before in other videos that I have made. His name is Dale Dilworth. The second, Bruce Longaker, is my mentor. He has helped me a lot with personal problems that I've had in the past 2 years and I know he would love to help me with my project. He knows a lot of people and I know he will be good help when I'm trying to reach out to people in Houston. The third panel member is an expert in the field. His name is Jeffrey Mills and is the President of his company Documentary Alliance. He's done several documentaries for Chinquapin and is willing to help me on weekends. Now, I'm just in search for my fourth and final panel member. He or she has to be a board member from my school and is related in funding or video-making. I've talked with Bridget Anderson, the Director of Development at my school and she told me that she's in search of finding my last panel member.

So far I like all my panel members. I get a long well with all of them and I know we'll be able to put together a great video.

Quid Pro Quo

"He raised money for the school and knew the importance of quid pro quo."

The most important thing that I've learned this semester is that I'm not going to be at my school forever. I know it sounds a bit childish that I just realized that now but it's true. Getting all these college apps in is a way to let me know that my time will expire eventually. My time to leave is getting closer and I'm not sure if I'm ready to leave. But one thing I must do before I can leave my school is leave something behind and give back. Through the process of my senior project I've noticed that I've had it easy here. I always had someone to talk to, being around adults who cared about me, and I was thought valuable lessons and feel like I'm a good citizen now as a result.

I know what is right from wrong and I feel like I can always make a smart decision in a bad situation. Doing all this research has been hitting me in the head that I have to make this project as big as it can be to raise money for the school that has given so much to me and put it on the map.

Creativity Week!!

I mentioned on my previous post that I will be making a video. My goal is to have it done by the end of creativity week. I know one week isn't enough so I will have to start before creativity week. There are so many aspects of my life and the school that I want to mention in the video so it's going to take a while before I can piece in a masterpiece. I feel like I'm a perfectionist with these kinds of things so that worries me a bit because if I'm not content by the way the video is looking than I might bring myself down.

I want to give myself enough time in order for my video to get as much views as possible that's why I'm making the due date for the video early in the second semester. I'm aware that it is not going to be easy for my video to get as much views so the more time it has the better. Creativity week is going to be hard for I don't think I've ever had a task this big in one week.

A few problems I see coming:

1) Someone to help me record during the week

2)Having a laptop outside of class so that I could edit

3)Bad organizing with time and materials

My Video is going Viral!.....Maybe??

Now that I've made up my mind I want to let the world know about the video I will be posting mid-February. I will post it on YouTube and the plan is for it to go viral so that I can get money for it. I read an interesting article called "Cashing In on Your Hit YouTube Video". The article gave me different ideas and different components to include in my video. But one of the points that the article makes is that it mainly doesn't depend on me. The article said I will need an "unpredictable cocktail of luck and timing".

Now I feel a bit better because even if I made a perfect video it doesn't really depend on me. If I'm lucky I'll get viewers, if I'm not lucky then I'll have to find a way to make money for the school. But now I know that I have to finish my documentary as early as possible to give myself as much time as I can in order for my video to get the most videos it can by the end of April hopefully.

So now I'm making it official. I, Alan Rodriguez, am declaring to make a documentary to help fund my school and I'm not holding anything back. I have a few ideas for the documentary but my blog viewers are going to have to wait on this one.