Final thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed this class this semester.  Coming into class for the first time I had no idea what to expect from the class.  I knew from a few of my friends that had already taken the class, there was a good bit of writing involved.  This scared me slightly because I do not consider myself the best writer in the world.  I never at one point felt uncomfortable in the class though.  The blog posts throughout the semester helped me with my writing tremendously.  Being able to get out thoughts once a week through writing actually helped me be able to express my words on my larger papers.  I hit a few speed bumps on the first paper but eventually got into a grove and felt great about it by the end of the paper.  The research paper was a bit more difficult for me partly because is was a good bit longer and partly because I choose a difficult topic.  It was hard for me to find sources that gave me a significant amount of information because I formulated my topic on my own and it was not one that had been previously discussed in many academic sources.  I enjoyed the group work during the class periods.  Being forced to discuss different topics with my classmates was quite enjoyable and also gave me insight into other people opinions and the way they approach different situations.  I did not enjoy reading outside of class.  Although the information was not difficult to understand and it was good information, I sometimes felt like it was not relevant to the class.  The final project was very enjoyable for me.  I enjoyed video taping with my group and the paper went quite smoothly.  Other than the readings I have no complaints with the class.  I enjoyed going to it more than any of my other classes all semester.

Project Update

As we get closer and closer to the end of our first year of college, our project is coming along very well.  We have already met several times not including the allotted time during class to film and discuss our paper.  Filming has gone much better than expected.  We thought that we would be struggling to fill video time but we actually had to cut some scenes from our storyboard because the other important scenes were taking too much time.  We filmed Matthew and I waking up and doing our everyday routine and we filmed a scene with us each individually talking to our football coach about a scholarship opportunity.  We used one of Matthew's friends for the coach which turned out very well.  He was well-dressed for the part and he played an excellent coach in the video.  We then filmed scenes of Matthew receiving the scholarship and getting the scholarship taken away from him which was a very traumatic experience for him.  We then filmed Matthew and I working out in the Byrnes basement gym.  We ended up filming way more video than we needed for those scenes and cut it down a lot.  I have began to write my portion of the paper as well.  I am responsible for discussing steroids in professional sports.  It has turned out to be a very interesting topic.  Going into the project I thought I knew pretty much all there is to know about steroids but after further research, I have learned a great deal of interesting information about the drug its self and the evolution of the use of steroids in sports.

Brainstorming for Storyboard

After deliberating for a while over a solid topic, our group eventually decided that steroids would be a solid choice.  We then moved on the topic of our video.  None of us were against the idea of filming a video and we all thought that we had fairly good ideas that would make for a good video.  We began brainstorming and jotting our ideas out onto a sheet of paper.  The paper was very unorganized and random but it ended up being a great way to collect our thoughts before we began the actual story boarding process.  We talked about a number of different ways to approach our video.  We discussed the pros and cons of doing steroids in professional sports versus portraying steroid use in high school or college level sports.  We discussed having just one story and following that story very closely or having two separate stories and having them collide in the video.  We ended up deciding that having two separate high school boys, me being one and Matt being the other, was the best route to take.  Matt and I would both be attending the same high school and fighting for the same scholarship on the football team.  We would both meet with our coach and discuss how we were both well-qualified for the position and whoever showed that they wanted it more would get it.  We then go our separate ways.  Matt then decides that he is going to take steroids to try and cheat his way into the scholarship.  I take the traditional approach and work as hard as I can without any supplements to get the position.  Matt ends up winning the scholarship and all the girls at our school have taken notice of his large muscles.  I grow more and more jealous until Matt is eventually caught taking the steroids in the locker room of the gym and reported to the coach.  At this point we go on to discuss the downside of steroids and how it is actually not beneficial in the long run.  We are going to attempt to present our project with a double screen, showing what Matt and I are doing at the same time.  Katelyn and Katherine will be narrating the entire film to minimize confusion.  They may also play the role of the girls that Matt and I are trying to get to like us.  We will use some of our friends for other positions such as the coach and other football players on the team.  We have finished our storyboard and are going to begin filming today.  We have also already divided up the different parts of the paper that we each need to complete and have set due dates for ourselves.

brainstorming for media project

We dove right into the brainstorming process as soon as we had assembled our group together.  As is often the case with group projects, everyone has a different idea within their head about how they want the project to go.  The process of breaking this idea down to make room for the other group members ideas is often not an easy task.  You must strain and squirm to keep your mouth shut when an idea is presented that does not fit into the schema that is present within your head.  This however did not seem to be the case for our group.  I found myself inspired by my group members ideas rather than disgusted.  This was quite a pleasant surprise, for it was not often that this happened to me when confronted with a group project.  I typically felt like the only one who had good ideas and I would end up taking over the project even though I did not want to simply so that my fellow group members terrible ideas would not make it.  This was an exception though.  Finally I had found the perfect group..hopefully.  We began talking about animals and thought that might be a good subject to start on.  After brainstorming about different video techniques, we could not seem to narrow it down enough to make it a concrete topic.  Then we discussed the idea of sports in high school and what issues might arise within them.  From there we talked about kids not making the team or making the team based off of certain stereotypes.  This idea eventually evolved into the subject of steroids.  Steroids, a very common drug used typically by men to gain incredible amounts of muscle have caused a great amount of controversy over the years.  We decided that there would be lots of good information on this topic and it would be a good one to settle on.  We then discussed our parts within the video.  We determined that we would create two stories happening at the same time, one involving steroids and the other not, and have their paths cross at some point in time.  When the paths cross, we talk about the positives and negatives of steroid use and how it effects children in high school.