Our Capstone Project was a long-term, research-based project of our design that invited me to identify a specific scholarly and/or creative conversation happening in the world to which you’d like to contribute. For someone leaving the college system for the workforce, I wanted to examine the ways my liberal arts education had prepared me for potential employment. Using the University of Michigan as a test case, I wanted to examine how college is marketed to high school students, and the function of a college education in a capitalist society (the two quotes from the LSA website demonstrate how preparation for workforce is a driving force of a liberal arts education). 

I was hoping to address this with a video series that I would write, direct, and edit. I was especially anxious to utilize these skills because of the way the media industry is moving away from specialization towards a broader understanding of various aspects of production. 

However, I spent a little too much time in the preproduction phase. Trained in the academic setting, I spent a lot of time doing research. You can click on my Project Annotated Bibliography below to view the research I was drawing from in additional to my comedic inspirations. 

From there, I spent a lot of time working on the scripts I wanted to shoot. I went over several diffierent drafts, struggling with the scope of my project. 

By the time I went to shoot, I was already behind schedule. In addition to my amateur status behind the camera, I was realizing why media conglomerates (including Turner Sports, where I previously worked and where I watched a variety of live shows be filmed) have seperate departments and people for graphics, directing, etc. 

I had some good footage, and I think the script translated well. However, when I chose the screenwriting track within my film major, I was unable to take production classes. That meant the last time I had fully directed, shot and edited a work was my sophomore year. 

Needless to say, my camera skills were rusty and I realized I wasn't well versed in the graphics I wanted for the production. It wasn't ready to see the light of day, so instead I am putting up the full script here. You can click the attachment above. 

If I am able to film this in the future, or if I had to do the project again, I would spend more time finding people with the ability to execute the shots and spend more time researching production. While it was good to get some more experience in the editing booth, I think the script represents the best version of the work.