Final Capstone Blog Post

          Throughout the entire Capstone Project, I have acquired skills that will benefit me for my future. The skills I have acquired are necessary for success. This includes critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. As a reminder, my Capstone physical project was completed by assisting a photographer and videographer in his small business. In a general sense, I have gone on the field of a small business that specializes in photo and video. To begin, a majority of my Capstone project was focused on my collaboration and creativity skills. For collaboration, I had to always work with my mentor and follow all commands when asked. I worked with my mentor with videography and promoting his business. I always had to have the video camera on me for anything unexpected and interesting while my mentor takes the photo. This is where the creativity steps in. I had to figure out on my own of what shots and angles are necessary. I had to use a lot of creativity because anything that is filmed or shot determines how great the final product will be. For promoting, I had to come up with ideas on how to promote the business better. One of the greatest ones I had was an engagement contest. Basically, engaged couples submit their proposal story and people vote on which one is the best. Along with this, I had to make plenty of flyers for the business. As for critical thinking, I had to observe what the business’ strong and weak points are. By using the observations, I had to enhance those points so the business would become a bigger success. Communication is probably the least skill used in this project since it is the toughest one. Communicating with clients that prefer to speak in Spanish was difficult considering that I do not speak a word of Spanish. I had to always rely on a translator.

          From this entire experience, I have gained a lot. Intellectually, I gained the idea of how manipulating a single picture or video could be. An example would be how it is necessary that a top-notch video or picture has to be its best and highest quality in order to gain more clients. In social terms, I acquired better communication skills. I had to work with so many people despite the lack of Spanish I know. I had to constantly collaborate with my mentor, his fiancée, or their intern in order to understand what was going on while on duty. I had to really present myself confidently in order to look professional. Personally, I had gained the confidence of using my creativity. I was always afraid of using my creative side because I was scared of having my creativity being shot down. I had to learn that the negative response is just a way of telling yourself that you need to improve.

          The challenges I have encountered were really communication-wise and promotion-wise. As said, I do not know Spanish, so it was just hard to communicate with clients since all of the ones I have met have Spanish as their first language. Also, my mentor was always busy so I would always have to communicate with him to ask him what needs to be done. For promotion, it was hard to promote to everyone. A while ago, I had this idea for prom where there is a special photo session offer based on your prom. It was tough to promote that in my school because the school signed a contract that states that they cannot promote or work with other photography businesses except for the one they are bounded with. Potential clients that I have spoken with ended up not taking the offer of using my mentor’s business. I saw that it is hard to gain a lot of clients. What I ended up doing was to begin creating a lot of flyers for my mentor so he could advertise them since he is officially in the business. I also kept promoting the business to anyone that needs a photographer, too.

          Overall, this project was an eye opener since I have experienced hands-on of what a small business that specializes in photo and video (which is quite difficult to maintain). It gives a general consensus of what small businesses are like behind closed doors in the real world. As for myself, I enhanced my knowledge of videography and promotion. These two aspects are something I want to continue to do in my life. They’re great aspects since technical and media literacy is the future.

Flyers and Logo

I had a little fun with this one. When advertising, you want to advertise something that stands out. So what I did for this flyer, I made the entire background black and white and had the couple remained colored. I also made them look brighter to give the fantasy feeling again.

Did I mention that I don't like trying to think of some cheesy line for these flyers I've been making? It takes up a long time because you don't want it to sound too cheesy. I mean, it'll just be lame.

I think this is one of my favorites. It shows the bride and groom preparing. And it's RV's job to document everything. RV documents from preparation to the reception. It took me a while to figure out how to get rid of unwanted lines, but I did it!

After making many flyers, which I will be sending tonight, I decided that RV should have a new logo. Their logo, personally, does not attract me. It looks... I can't even describe it. I think it's the font. (By the way, fonts are evil!)

So, what I did was that I typed up RV Visions in different fonts and photoshopped it a little bit.

The current logo has plain text with film strips in the background. I don't know where they got the film strip, so what I'm going to do is send them the text and tell them that I think they should change their logo. In every business, you want an interesting looking logo. Their logo for some reason just doesn't do so much justice in my personal opinion. This is coming from someone who volunteers their time towards the business. I'm going to propose this to them and see what they think.

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Hours: 1 Hour
Running Total: 25 Hours

Another cover and simple wedding flyer

I made another cover. It's a little bit more simple looking and it's mainly focused on weddings.

I think the next time I make a wedding cover, I should use pictures from one wedding... This cover sort of annoyed me because originally, I did not want that untransparent black line between the photos. Photoshop was being mean to me.

I also made a flyer for weddings. It's also basic and gives a link to the website.

THIS one actually took me a longer time. This one was frustrating. Originally, I wanted the wedding couple's picture to be transparent to the background and to be bigger. However, it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to be. So, I had to explore Photoshop in much further dept and found some pretty cool effects. I began to mess with a variety of effects.

For the couple's photo, I found a soft edge effect which allowed me to control where I want the soft edge to be. I made the photo a little bit transparent, but not too much. Don't want the bride to have awkward flower tattoos on her and her dress now, don't we?

As for the picture of the bouquet, I wanted to somehow make the ring as the main focus. Sadly, I didn't figure that out yet. So instead, I decided to mess with the effect and make this picture a little bit more glowier.

I chose to make these two photos appear as it is because it's simple and eye catching. People like to see something simple and search more in depth in that simplicity. This is a perfect way for RV Visions to get more people to visit their website (hence, the link being provided into the flyer).

If you ask me, this sort of looks like a screenshot of a commercial ad. That's a good thing, right? In a business that specializes in photography, you want to show off the skills you have because it'll be beneficial.

Next plan of action is to make more flyers, says my mentor.

Stay tune for more interesting flyers!
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Hours: 2 Hours
Running Total: 24 Hours (Woah! That's a day!)

Cover Photo

In social networking nowadays, profiles often have cover photos. A cover photo is basically like a preview. For a business that specializes in photography, their cover photo would be different shots of photography, usually featuring their best shots.

I've noticed on RV's FaceBook that their cover photo is currently based on a wedding. So, I figured that a way for RV to expand their business is to include a variety of different shots of different events. This will garner much interest for anyone who would come across the page.

This brings back to my research on photographic manipulation. When someone sees something, they believe what they see. So, if someone happens to come across RV's page, the first thing they would see is a cover photo that has just wedding pictures. It is true that RV's biggest events are usually weddings, but I figured that if they show pictures of different events, this would benefit them because people will think that they do more than just weddings.

Here is the first cover:

Three pictures are based on weddings, one is a couple, one is a baby, and one is a picture on the street.

I still kept the "wedding" feel because, like I said, weddings are their biggest events. They specialize in weddings.

This cover has a transparency effect over the photos, but note that "R.V. Visions Photography" is not transparent. I figured that the transparency effect will give it a more nostalgic feel. Isn't that what the goal of photos are? To give you a nostalgic feeling later? The writing is not transparent because it's actually the main focus. People will be observing the photos in this cover and may ask, "Oh, who took these again?" and they will see the business' name right there in the middle. It'll become stuck in their head and they'll remember it better. For me, I would remember it as, "What was the name of that business? The one with the collage of photos? Oh! R.V. Visions!"

It's clever, right?

I don't think this cover photo looks that great, but it's a start. I have to work on more still. It doesn't look like those collages you would see on Instagram.. You know, how a lot of photos are just crammed into one square box? That actually makes me cringe. It doesn't look nice and it makes me question if those people know how to make a collage.

I think in this cover, I may have used quite a few more photos than the amount that should be used. But hey, I'm learning!

Look forward to more later!
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Hours: 1 Hour
Running Total: 22 Hours

Minor Miscommunication and "The Proposal Contest"

Remember the contest I wrote about in my last post? My mentor loves the idea! I love that feeling of accomplishment. However, before I begin to talk about it, I just need to point out a few things.

Sometime in April, I was told that there is an event to work at this weekend. However, I found out today after contacting my mentor and his fiancee that there isn't any. I was told it was on another day. I looked back at my old text messages with them and it said May 4. I know, it sounds like I'm complaining, but it just points out the lack of communication lately. In any business or group work in general, communication is key.  Without it, no one will know what's going on.

So back on the happy. I made pretty cool flyers for the contest. I decided to call it "The Proposal Contest" to keep it simple. Here's the first item:

Flyer number one

Yes, I really did put the giant "SAMPLE" on this. It's not official until approved. Funny story about creating this though... I wanted to use a .png file of the famous FaceBook "Like" button and spent so much time looking for one... Until I realized that it may be illegal for me to use if I don't ask for permission. So yes, always remember copyright, Genie!

Also, I filtered the photo. It's a little bit more glowy than how it originally was. It brings a nice fantasy feel.

The second item I made was a collage type. It's a cover.

I personally like this one. To me, it gives me a typical ad you would find on fashion pages on FaceBook. It doesn't look like something scanned onto the computer (which is not!). Trust me. I've advertised plenty of things for ASB where the pictures we used didn't look that great... In my opinion. This has a... professional feel to it, if you will. Of course, the pictures used here aren't mine. My mentor owns these. ... Maybe that's why it looks legit.

The last one I made was another flyer, but this one has instructions on it.

I'm not sure if my mentor will be doing this contest anytime soon, but I'm sure he will use it later!

Until again! Bye!
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 Hours: 2 Hours
Running Total: 21 Hours [ Blackjack! 8) ]

Update

I'm back~

So an update of what I've been doing...

My sister's friend didn't need us for her civil wedding, but she will look more into us for her actual wedding in the near future.

Anyway, I've been talking to any potential clients that would need a photographer or videographer in the future. I have garnered a lot of interest from these clients because I talked to them about how RV Visions work well in the photography business. I am basically a human "yelp.com". These potential clients have asked me about my point of view of the business since I did mention how I volunteer for them. They were really amazed at what I've done because these clients still see me as a really young person to be doing this. Talking about all of my experiences with RV Visions garnered interest because it makes the clients feel more comfortable since they are able to see the business "behind closed doors". Don't worry, Sthiv, if you are reading this. I did not bash on you. I have no reason to. You're too awesome!

As for new business, I got inspired from this one contest for engaged couples. The idea that I will present to my mentor is basically the same thing as that contest. The idea is to hold a contest for engaged couples with the best proprosal story. The couple with the best proprosal story (of course, it has to be real) will receive an offer such as "[insert amount of money] OFF their package deal". (Of course, we don't want to put the percentage because the actual amount of money off is more effective.)

The guidelines of this contest is for the engaged couples to "Like" the business' FaceBook page and tell RV how your fiancee proposed (one story per couple; this will prevent double entry). The story with the most "likes" wins the contest.

What the business can do to make this happen is to advertise it via social networks and website. What can also be accomplished is to create a flyer to garner more attention. It needs planning such as start date and deadline date.

In my opinion, because RV is still pretty new, the business should hold this contest a little later. It's best to do this kind of contest when the business is very well-known. It creates more competition and the business will gain much more attention from the people that are voting. If a business does this kind of contest where like three engaged couples knows the business only, then the probability of winning for a certain couple will be higher. Think about it. Pretend this is like an election in school. Two students are running for president, the highest position in office. One student is very popular while the other isn't. Of course, we all know that the most popular one wins because everyone knows that person. So if more people participate in a contest, the voting will be more evened out? Each participant would have almost an equal amount of votes? It's a little difficult to explain. This is how I see it with this contest:

-Engaged couple will tell their families to vote for them.
-Families, of course, will vote for the couple that told them to.
-A random person, with no relation to the couple nor their families, will stumble upon the contest and thoroughly read the stories and pick the best one. The more random people participating in voting, the higher a couple's chance of winning will be.

That last note brings back the "well-known" factor. If the company is only known by three engaged couples, only their families and friends will know about that company. What if one couple has a huge family and plenty of friends while the other two do not? And no one random will just happen to stumble upon this contest and vote. That chance is slim.

If the business has like over 1,000 "likes" on facebook, that majority could contain former clients and the "likes" are growing because newly engaged couples saw this contest somewhere. As said before, the newly engaged couples' families will vote for them no matter what and what is added is that the former clients of the business' votes. Those former clients could help out another couple without having to know them. They are not biased because of family/friends, but biased to their story. So does that make a little bit more sense?

RV currently has over 200 "likes" on FaceBook. That is pretty darn good for a relatively new business. If that grows much higher within the year, then the contest should be appropriate then.

So this is the idea that I will be presenting to my mentor. Wish me luck!~

Hours: 1 Hour
Running Total: 19 Hours (Six more!)

Week of March 10; Saturday, March 16, 2013 and Sunday, March 17, 2013

Update on the prom photos: No luck so far. I can pass out flyers to students, but since the school has a contract with LifeTouch, I can't post the flyers on buildings.

 I did so much on Saturday. I didn't have the energy to type up a blog post after the event.

Yesterday, my mentor, his fiance, and I headed to the salon to start the first part of filming extremely early in the morning. I had to film details such as the bride getting her hair and make-up done, the salon itself, and the groom getting his make-up done, too.

After the salon, we documented more details at their house. This wedding event was also shared with the couple's son baptism. We documented the outfits and more preparation of the wedding and baptism at their house. At the house, I learned the importance of the most tiniest details. RV Vision's intern was really on top with positioning the outfits and accessories. I thought, as the videographer, of helping with positioning. I did. What I suggested was the positioning of the baby's shoes.. but it turned out so awkward in person than what I imagined it would be. Small details such as that could really determine the image. It could either make the image better or worse. Of course, as professionals and as people, we want the better part.

After that, we headed to the church for the baptism. It was pretty simple to document since there weren't that many baptisms happening all at once. I learned to really assert myself though. Of course, at any event,  the relatives attending would want an upclose picture. What I did was literally take up the whole space of the aisle without looking like a jerk. Asserting yourself with a camera in an event is VERY useful. It's the videographer's job to make sure they get the top knotch shots so it'll be smooth sailing in the editing process.

Following the baptism, we headed back to the house to do more wedding-related shots. The bride was really awkward and I observed how Celia made her comfortable. No one wants an awkward image. When I take pictures with professional photographers, I ALWAYS feel really awkward... and the photographers I've posed for didn't know how to make things less awkward. Haven't you noticed at how they just tell you to turn your head a certain way and smile a certain way? That's not natural looking. What Celia did was that she physically did the pose for the bride to understand. I think photographers should really put the effort to do this to make the situation less awkward. It's like showing an evil plan to the superhero when they are caught and then the villain gets trapped in their own plan. The superhero will look better after the plan is foiled.

We headed to Oyster Point to take their wedding picture, but we took only one because the family kept calling the couple to come back to open the hall since it wouldn't open. This really killed the chances of the couple getting a variety of nice wedding pictures because of their own disorganization. We're their photographers/videographers so we don't have a say in their wedding, really. (Honestly, if one of their relatives took care of it.. or if they had a wedding planner.. we wouldn't have to cut down on the photo session.) As you can see, their wedding was disorganized...

Because of that mishap, we headed back to the hall and managed to take more wedding pictures before their wedding. We found a nice area near the hall to do them so at least we got more pictures!

The small, civil wedding came later and all I had to do was work the primary camera. Just film it. Sthiv's younger brother did the other shots on the side. I've collaborated with his brother for the night since he is their main videographer. His brother directed me where to go and the kind of shots needed. He also advised that I should wait ten seconds before the interviews started and wait a little after it ends. That was hard to maintain since a lot of people that we interviewed just started right when the mic was given to them.. It was sort of annoying. I thought it was common sense to ask if they can talk already.. Guess not. It sounds mean, but when you've been working since around 6 or 7 AM, you get slightly cranky at night... So what I did was film before the mic was given to them.

The whole service was pretty good. I just had to get more B-roll, detailed shots, and film anything that had to do with the couple.

Towards the end of my work, Sthiv told me to use the DSLR to film the live band. I learned how to focus and zoom in with the lens better. It was sort of hard to managed the zooming since I was not familiar with the way the lens work. Another downside was that I became completely deaf after filming the band. I need to get earplugs.

I was supposed to work for another hour, but I was brought home early since we got a lot of the major things filmed. I guess they didn't want me out so late. RV supposedly had to stay an hour later than what was intended. I basically got out two hours earlier.

A majority of yesterday's events was primarily based on filming and observation skills. Whenever we had our small breaks, we were constantly thinking of more creative ways to get shots. We were always on our feet, ready.

~

March 17, 2013 (I don't want to make a separate blog post on a small thing.)

I found out that my sister's friend is getting married next week and she might need a videographer. I basically contacted her friend and Sthiv for half an hour to look into their interests and trying to figure out what's possible. It's still in the process, but hey, I think I may have my very first client. So updates on that later!
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March 16-17 Hours: 15.5 Hours (Woot!)
Running Total: 18 Hours (Hooray! A huge step up!)