Final Project: Self-Evaluation

This project was something I was skeptical about. I was skeptical about the amount of time it would take to plan, shoot, and edit as well as come up with a definitive plan of action for the entirety of the project. Once the initial idea of creating a project on the Greg Grant Program and Trenton Central High School, things slowly worked themselves out. I took the initiative and had mandatory meeting for pre-production purposes as the producer of this project. These meeting were so beneficial to the end product by giving time for ideas to fly, for specific details, and definite shots we wanted to cover during the shoot. If we did not have these pre-shoot meetings there is no way we would have gotten the material, b-roll, and interview material that we ended up with. I am so happy with that aspect of the project, everything we wanted to shoot and display from this program we did. I have been producer of various projects and things within my major here at TCNJ and this project showed me that I have the capability to be a producer of a larger project and I think it turned out better than planned. After collecting all the materials for the interviews, the b-roll ideas, and shot ideas we would be able to go to the location and shoot everything we wrote down and we would do so efficiently without wasting anyone's time. The material that we shot was so inspirational and the interview material that we got from Greg Grant and 3 of his students/athletes was so much better than expected. The questions I came up with were planned in order to get as much material as possible to work with and they went up and beyond our expectations, which was so great. The only problem or slight problem was encompassing everyone's schedules in order to get the shooting schedule down pat. There was on day we went to shoot that didn't work out, but other than that the many times we scheduled to go shoot everything went great and I think the end product show that. This was one of the most exciting experiences filming and creating a product based on such a great program.

Final Project: Production Log

February 13th: Shooting of the Greg Grant Interview
February 17th: Shooting of the school itself and b-roll
February 21st: Shooting of the students interviews and b-roll of the tutoring sessions
March 20th: Shooting of the basketball teams' practice

There was one day we went to shoot at Trenton Central High School where they cancelled the tutoring sessions for that particular day and did not contact us to tell us so, that was the only problem I had with shooting for this project.

On top of these shooting days there were days where I met with my production team. We met:
February 13th
February 21st
March 20th: Before shooting in Trenton
April 3rd
April 10th


During these meeting times,  I wrote out all the questions for the interviews with Greg and with the 3 TCHS students. We also sat down and would throw around ideas and write out what we wanted to shoot b-roll of, ideas for different shots for filming, and ideas while thinking of the end product of this project. By meeting before shooting the actual footage, I was able to come up with storyboards every time we met before going on the actual shoot. This was so beneficial because we were able to come up with numerous ideas beforehand that we probably wouldn't have come up with if we did not plan ahead of time.

I also edited on many separate occasions. I started the editing early on in order to create storylines and various storyboards to end up with my final product. Although I edited along the whole process, what was edited in the beginning meeting times has changed.

I edited on:
March 19th
March 26th
March 30th
April 13th
April 20th
April 28th
April 30th

Final Project: Pre-Production Log

My pre-production of this project included creating 2 separate storyboards. I originally created a storyboard to just portray the basketball section of the Greg Grant Program at TCHS, then I got thinking that I would rather create a smaller version of the bigger documentary I am a part of, with regards to this program. My idea is to create a 2 or 3 minute product of a shorter version of the entire Greg Grant Program in its entirety. This project will contain a small portion of each large part of the program, the tutoring, the schooling, the practice, and the program as a life-changing experience. I also had to plan out shooting schedules and when the kids in the program were available to shoot and were actually having practice. There is a lot of pre-production work for this particular project because there are a lot of conflicting schedules of the teachers, the coaches, the students, and my crew. Although the scheduling was rough, the meeting times outside of the shooting times were so helpful in making the shoots go quickly, smoothly, and very successful. My crew and I would meet at least one a week for a good hour or two and would discuss what we wanted to shoot at our next shoot, so we would be prepared before we went on location and would make the shoot go very successfully. If I did not have these meetings, the end product would not have been as successful as it was. There is some great footage and material to cover so I will do whatever I need to pre-production wise in order to get that full-end result.

Final Project: Storyboard

Some of the items on the storyboard are subject to change. The general idea of this project is to show the journey of the Greg Grant Program at Trenton Central High School and the journey the students in the program go through. Their day entails going to school, going to tutoring, and going to practice so in essence I would like to portray that "day-in-the-life." Some items may or may not get added and or taken out, but this is the typical story line and images I am looking towards. As I started editing some things will be changing, but the general idea of this storyboard is what is going to be shown throughout this piece. It's important for me to keep a structure somewhat like what this storyboard shows but as I edit I know some ideas will just flow into one another and create a better flow for the end product.