The Dorsey Wheeler Project

Goodbye 11th Grade

2009-07-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Today is the last official day of our junior year and the last day of the gradproject class for until senior year. We've had a lot of ups and downs but in the end we got the work done. I now know strongly what my grad project is and have a solid grasp on how I will complete it. I've learned a lot about my topic and a lot about other peoples topic (some things I'd rather not repeat). Ibelieve this was a very productive trimester and hopefully the next one wil;l be just the same. I will continue to post now and again through the summer and update you on the status of my project. Be sure to stay tuned for the next phase in Dorsey Wheeler experience!

Loose Ends

2009-07-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

Today and tommorow my focus is to complete all the work for this trimester so I'm ready to turn it all in. I'm pretty confident that All of the work is completed to the given standards and hopefully my grade will reflect this. I guess we'll find out soon how I'm doing.

Stay Tuned...

Outline Time

2009-07-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

After spending most of last week and the beginning of this week on the Literature Review outline I finally think that I have a solid draft to turn in. It took some think and arranging of my notes but I was able to moch up a solid outline of the literature review we will right next school year. I hope that it meets the standards so I can finish off junior year with a strong foot foward in my grad project.

Stay Tuned........

Outlining

2009-07-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last two days working on my outline. Baiscally it requires me to synthesize all of my notes based on my foundation questions and putting them in a rough guide of a paper. We will refer back to this outline next trimester of gradproject and turn it into a Literature review which based on the outline will be be pretty extensive. I figure some time next week I should finish have a solid complete outline.

Stay Tuned...

Notes...Again

2009-07-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

I spent the day working on my notes and revising the the information in them. Most of my question have solid information but I still would like to add some more but for the most part they're almost complete. The notes should be done by the end of the week and we can start the amazing process of outlining. Until then I'll keep working.

Stay Tuned...

Survey Anyone?

2009-07-13T08:10:00.001-07:00

Today we were introduced with the idea of creating a survey that pertains to our project topic.
I'm not really sure how this can relate to my topic but I figure I will create a survey before I make my movie in order to get a better idea of what people find to be entertaining or like to see in a movie. Right now I'm just brainstorming survey questions but I think I can have a survey draft by the end of the week.

Stay Tuned

Check In

2009-07-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to check in and let you know I am still here. It's just been a slow couple of days and the class schedules have been screwy so I haven't had a chance to blog. Yesterday we went to the library to find some alternative sources for our topics. Unfortuanatly the library is like a giant maze and I couldn't seem to find books on my topic. Hopefully I'll have more luck checking some online databases!. I'll keep you guys posted on any new info hopefully tomorrow.

So Stay Tuned!

Interview This!

2009-07-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well today I was able to take a large step forward because Mr. Nelson, my interview prospect, responded to my email and answered all of the questions right in my email! Mr. Nelson provided some very strong information and advice that will truly help me in completing my project. I am so glad I was able to find someone knowledgable in the subject and able to recieve a quick and concise response.

NEXT

Interview Prospect

2009-06-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Today I found and contacted Gordon Nelson, Senior Insturctor at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. From what I know Mr. Nelson used to work here which could improve of chances of getting a response. I sent Mr. Nelson an email requesting an interview and provided him with a list of my interview questions. Hopefully he will respond and perhaps even answer my questions via email. PROGRESS IS HAPPENING!!

Stay Tuned...

Toasted Notes

2009-06-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

I am still working on notes. They're very repetative and boring but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't making progress. I have about half of my notes pretty well filled out and I am still adding things. I'm hoping to have the majority of my notes done by next week. Big wheels keep on turning on the movie machine and I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Decency NOTEsti Decency

2009-06-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you could expect I've just been doing notes. This entire week has been and will be devoted to doing my project note. My goal by the end of the week it to have more than half of my notes completed so that I can move forward on finding a person to interview. Other than that not too much to report but I'll be sure to keep you in the loop if something changes.

Notes Have Begun

2009-06-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

Today I started taking notes on my foundation questions and I am suprised at how easy it is. I got like two of my foundations complete and started another. If I am able to continue at this pace then I should be able to easily complete them.

I'll keep you posted gang

Interview Questions

2009-06-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Today I went through my list of foundation and started to revise them and form them into exceptal interview questions. I think they are pretty solid questions and will help to produce some good information about my project. Here are the questions I came up with. Please let me know how they sound!
.

Beyond technical terms, what to you is a movie?
What are some of the most crucial roles in movie production?
What are the main steps that must be followed when making a film?
What is the process of preproduction?
What is the purpose of a screenplay?
How do you create a screenplay?
What type of equipment do you suggest I use to create my movie?
What some common filming techniques I could observe based on the given technology and the basis of my film?
How should I go about editing my movie?
What are some issues to be aware of when editing?
In your opinion, what is the importance of collaboration when creating a film?
How should a filmmaker use feedback of their work to effectively revise it?

Let the Notes Begin

2009-06-17T08:41:00.001-07:00

I spent the entire day today setting up my note taking template, reevaluating my foundation questions, and printing hard copies of my many resources so that I can begin taking notes for my project. Today was very productive. My next step is to start organizing my resources so I can begin getting my notes down on paper.

Stay Tuned...

Level Up!

2009-06-16T07:46:00.001-07:00

Today is the last day to put the finishing touches on our project proposals. After that we are moving right into our notes which I think will take the most time. This part is probably the most crucial of the trimester because it sets the foundation for our knowledge of our topics and springs us forward into its development. Can't wait to see what I find!!

Stay Tuned...

Good Example!

2009-06-10T08:17:00.001-07:00

Today we had the pleasure of seeing an example of a completed gradution project presentation. A senior presented her project on Genocide in Darfur which really helped to gives us a better idea of what's expected of our projects. I really found her project to be insightful and well put together as well as beneficial to me in terms of learning how to create my project.

Proposal Rough Draft

2009-06-09T07:36:00.001-07:00

Today I pretty much managed to finish the rough draft for my project proposal. I spent the entire day just going through my proposal quistionare and developing the multiple paragraphs. I believe I have the bulk of the information needed but I'm sure I will be asked to include more during the revisions step. Overall I had a very productive day!

Stay Tuned...

Proposal

2009-06-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Today I started to put together a rough draft of my proposal. I can't stress the words "rough draft" enough because right now it is a very bare bones, basic run down of what I hope to accomplish through this project and what steps I am taking to get it done. I'll keep chipping away at it but for right now I still have some work to put in.

Introduction to Proposal

2009-06-02T07:14:00.000-07:00

This week we are becoming familiar with how we will write the proposal for our project. A proposal is basically an outline of what you plan to do or what steps we'll take to complete our projects. Yesterday we started doing the prewriting which will help create the outline that we will later develop off of to create the actual proposal. Other than that not to much to tell.

Stay tuned...

Moving Right Along

2009-05-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

I took today to finish off my some part of my webliography and any other work I felt didn't have enough to it. After today we will be moving on to the research phase of the project in which we go through all the resources we found earlier and start to take notes that pertain to our projects. I have a feeling I'll find some good stuff that's going to spark ideas. I'm looking forward to taking this next step and getting the wheels on this movie making machine turning!!

Stay tuned

Webliography

2009-05-27T08:24:00.001-07:00

I spent the greater part of today putting together my webliography for my sources. Other than that not to much to report but I'll keep you posted.

Did You Know?

2009-05-26T08:24:00.001-07:00

I spent the day doing research on some interesting movie facts that prior to today i was unaware of. I found them to be pretty interesting hopefully you do too. Enjoy!!

-In 2008, the average movie ticket price in the U.S. rose to $7.18, a 4.4% increase over 2007

-The number of screens in the U.S. remain constant at just over 40,000 in 2008

-The film “Titanic” is the highest grossing film of all time collecting $600,788,188

-Pirates of the Carribean : At World's End (2007) is the current highest budget film at $300,000,000

-"Cure for Insomnia" is the longest film ever. It runs about 87 hours

-Will Smith was the highest grossin actor of 2008

-“Manos: The Hands of Fate” is by many lists considered the worst movie ever made

-The longest running series of movies would be the "Carry On" series with 31 movies

-The first short was "Strongman Sandow" in 1890

I will also post these as a gadget for any futher use.

Going to New York!

2009-05-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone who reads I just wanted to give you a heads up the I am going to New York so there won't be any posts all the rest of this week. I'm hoping while I'm there I'll get struck with some inspiration and maybe gather some ideas about my film and who knows maybe even start writing it. If anything big comes up I'll be sure to keep to up to date as soon as I can and I'll see you when I get back!!!

Collage

2009-05-15T07:49:00.001-07:00

I spent today creating a collage to represent my topic. I hope it helps give an idea of the concept of my project. If I added it correctly it should be on the right side of my page as a gadget so definatly be sure to check it out and give me some feedback.

Webliography Introduction

2009-05-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

As the title says today we were introducted with how to create a webliography for research sources used in our projects. We will be using Easybib.com which from what I can gather seems to be pretty simple to use. So over the course of the next few days Im going to start putting that together and get all my information in order. Stay tuned!

Questions Anyone?

2009-05-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

Today I've been just trying to create some foundation questions to build off of my topic. If you have any that you would think help please let me hear them

Key Terms Added

2009-05-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

As you'll notice to your right I have added some key terms that apply to my topic. Hopefully they'll help to give good references points on how to do my project as "professionally" as possible and give me a sense of the filmmaking experience. Bare in mind that throughout this project I may add more key terms but for the time being these are ones that I will frequently use in my posts and the project itself.

Esstional Question?

2009-05-07T08:59:00.001-07:00

Today I've just been trying to draft an essential question that could apply to my topic of filmmaking. I have a few different ones but hopefully I'll get some feedback on which one is the best! Still looking at different resources and brainstorming ideas. The journey continues.

Still Site Searching

2009-05-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

Still doing some site browsing trying to find good sources. Pretty much the same as yesterday. But all of this site searching is getting me excited about my topic. I'm really looking forward to getting this thing off the ground. I'll keep you posted!!!

2009-05-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

Today I as able to look at some more sites that could be possible resources for my project. They seem to provide some of the good general knowledge information that I need. I have several links but a good portion of them are blocked so I'll work on opening those up. Overall a fairly productive day.

2009-05-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

Though I have a lot of things I'd like to do I believe I have a topic in mind that I have been thinking about for month and really wish to do. I would like to develop my own short comedic film from start to finish employing all the aspects of the movie making process myself undertaking all the major roles such as writng, directing, filming and editing. This is something that I have always wanted to do regardless and now feel I can use this opportunity to explore my interest in film and develop some necessary skills to hopefully enter the field of film making.

I have been exploring multiple website to begin some of my research for the project. Here are some of the sites I think will be the most hopeful:

Writing a Film
http://www.online-communicator.com/writfilm.html

The Filmmaking Process
http://coffeeandcelluloid.com/the-filmmaking-process/ (this one is pretty cool)

Making The Movie
http://www.makingthemovie.info/2006/05/moviemaking-tips-archive.html (a blog that provides tips and tricks on making a film)

These are just a few of the sites I found but until I get the others unblocked these are the ones that are working. I think they can help me a lot in getting an idea of how to approach my topic.

First Day of Blogging

2009-04-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

Today marks the first officail day of my Grad Project blog. So far I haven't learned much about the grad projects other than what we've talked about so far in class and what I've heard from other kids who took this class. They basically told me to take advantage of the class so that the actual project itself becomes easier to do. Hopefully I can just move at a decent pace throughout the trimester and get this done right.

Right now I'm still tossing around ideas on what topic I'd like to pursue but I'm pretty dead set on one that would be based around my interest in feature film. At this point I don't have any real concerns. The only concern I'd say is perhaps the timing. I'd be afraid that I'd undertake a fairly large project and end up cutting it short due to time restriction. That to me is the biggest concern at this stage in the idea process. Other than that I'm really looking forward to formulating and refining my ideas derived from my interests and hopefully moving forward on them as the project topic!