Final Project and Notes

Today, I spent the day putting the finishing touches on my final project PowerPoint. After I finished that I started to look for some more notes. Over the break I will start my outline because my paper is probably going to be the hardest thing for me because I am such a procrastinator, so its best to get an early start.

Editing Continued....

Today, I took the edits that I got back from my proposal and I proceeded to begin editing my proposal according to the notes given by my editors. I am still waiting on one edit though... but after I get that edit and consider it then I will be ready to turn in my final proposal.

Editiing...

Today I edited two people's proposals and got one back from someone who edited mine. When I get back the edit from Mr. Hamilton I will begin to revise, my own proposal. The next step after revising my proposal my next step is to really develop my notes so that I can start and complete my outline for my paper.

Proposal

Today, I turned in my proposal. Also, I read through it and marked it up pretty good with edits. And this made me realized that I am my biggest critic. My next step is to get other people to read through it and get some feed back from people who aren't me.

Proposal & Interview

Today, I finally finished up my proposal. Also, I sent an email to Lori Berger who works at the CLO and I asked her if she would possibly be available for an interview. It was an overall productive day.

Proposal

I have been working on my proposal and should be done with it by the end of the week but here is what I have so far:

Paragraph 2: Why are you doing this project? etc

I am doing this project because it is something that is a personal interest of mine. It is something that I truly care about and have put my heart into for almost three years in drama club, and it is a genuine interest of mine. Also, it is one of the only things that I could do that I could make a project out of and be able to hold my interest so that I don’t want to change my topic every five seconds. There are a few things that I wish to learn from doing this project. First of all, I would like to explore different directing techniques used by different directors and I would like to evaluate them based on the information that I have gathered. Then after I have determined which one is the best technique I will put it to practice and use the techniques to direct my own play.

Paragraph 4: Resources

In the process of completing my project there are many resources that I am going to have to refer to. One of the most prominent resources in my project will be Mr. Ringold, who is the creator of the City Charter High School Drama and Theater Group. He will be one of my main resources because I will need to refer to him when I have questions regarding the direction of my play. Also, I will need to run the final direction by him before it can be performed. Other people that I can use as resources are people that I interview. I will also need the help of some technological resources. These will include, mostly a video camera to videotape my adventures as a director, and of course a video editor to edit the video to my liking. Also, I will probably find good use of a regular camera as well, to show the theater and the stage and other resources I have that will be important to the project.

I also completed some of the introduction but it really isn't worth posting if you ask me.

whoa....

Today I decided to take a step back and put writing the proposal on hold and start developing my notes a little bit more. So that is what I basically did today I continued to develop my notes and such, which I will probably continue to do throughout the rest of the week.

Pre-Proposal and such...

Today was an okay day I put the finishing touches on my Pre-Proposal and it is ready to be turned in. I also started to work on my timeline, but it makes no sense. I don't understand how to do it or what goes in it. In my opinion they should have addressed it more than just a sentence in the pre-proposal worksheet. It should have it's own assignment sheet and it shouldn't have just been thrown on us like that. So, my timeline is not done. So I semi started my rough draft of my proposal, which I think should be due two weeks from today and here is why... in the draft you are basically writing the entire proposal, and in the editing process it's not like you are re-writing it you are simply changing bits and pieces to make it better. So therefore it will take longer to write than to edit so it makes way more sense to have the deadline two weeks from now than one. And some people didn't even do the pre-proposal so they need the time so that they can have enough time to write the proposal and one late thing is way better than two late things. So yeah... I had to explain that.

Proposal

Today all I really did was work on my proposal and I know I said that I was going to get it done today but I was wrong I will probably finish it on Thursday because we are going to the library tomorrow to get some print sources which I am very excited about because I feel that they will help me a lot more than online sources.

Interview Guide and Pre Proposal Questionaire

Today I spent my time working on both my Interview Guide and my pre-proposal questionnaire. I finished the Interview Guide and have ten questions to ask my interviewee. But I didn't finish my questionnaire although I am almost done and I will probably finish that up tomorrow. So my project is well on its way and really other than the questionnaire, all I have to do is to keep developing my notes.

Library

The only thing I really did today was compile a list of books to check out of the library when we take a trip there next week. So I have about seven books in my list and we had to write about what we want to learn from each book.

More Notes

Today I kept working on all of my notes templates in order to be ready for tomorrow's note check, and thats about all, it wasn't a very eventful day.

Interview and Notes

Today I worked on my notes sheet a little tiny bit. I still need to determine the rest of my foundation questions I have some but I am rethinking them a bit. Also, I found a new potential person to interview. Her name is Lori Berger and she is the Associate Producing Director and the Pittsburgh CLO. So that is some progress.

Interview & Key Terms

Today, I continued to work on my key terms bringing me to a grand total of twenty words! Also, I started working on the worksheet for the interviews and I started filling it out and I have about three questions or so. I still have to develop some more but I'll get there and I still need to work on my notes sheets and such.

Key Terms, Notes

Today I started my notes template but I didn't get very far but its a start. I also added a lot of key terms I have over 10 I think and I started to think about who I wanted to interview as an expert and I don't really know what I'm going to do about that one.

More Webliography

Today I spent the class period finishing up my annotations as best I could so that I could have them re-scored to get a better grade. My next step is to take notes on all of my interpretive questions and eventually do something with them. And I have several books in minds so when we go to the libarary I am ready to check out at least a few books.

Webliography

Today I spent time working on my annotations for my webliography... I really need to complete those. Other than my annotations my webliography is complete. After I finish up my annotations I will start taking notes.

hmm...

Today I finished my first annotation and it was amazing if I do say so myself. I also finished my collage and posted it on my blog and you can click on it to make it bigger. My next step is to finish all of my annotations and the rest of my webliography while continuing to find key terms and important links to post on my blog.

ehh...

Today was another day of sources and collages. I found about four more pictures to put in my collage and it is coming out okay. It should be done on time. Now that I am less confused on the annotations I can finally get them done and get the rest of my webliography done including the annotations.

Annotations etc

Today I started working on my annotations... I made a nice little worksheet in Word so that I can take notes while I read articles and then write the annotation from the notes that I took. And I started looking for pictures to put in my collage and I found two I am going to include and I have a few ideas for some more pictures that I plan on including. So overall today was an okay day production wise.

Reading

Today I just was reading through a few sources, and putting up some new citations on EasyBib, today was a slow and leisurely work day. All that I really did was post some citations. I have to post a few more and do all of the annotations still though.

Interesting Facts About Directing Theater

(I used general facts about theater because I couldn't find many facts about just directing)

-By 1900, the term director was widely used
-Directing dates back to Ancient Greece
-The director officially came around when proffessional acting companies began to develop during and after Shakespeare's life in the 15-1600s
-In 1576 the first commercial theater opened in London
-1660: woman started to perform theater
-1730: Romeo and Juliet is performed in New York, it was the first of Shakespeare's works to be presented to the US
-1751: the first professional theater company is developed in the US.
-1881: Le Chat Noir (the Black Cat) opened in France as the first modern Cabaret
-Cats is the longest running Broadway musical

Key Terms, Webliography

Today was pretty much another day of citing things on EasyBib. I have decided that I am going to cite all of sources first and then write some annotations for them so that I don't get confused. Also, I started to compile a list of key terms. I have only posted one but I do have a few more in mind. The key term I posted is blocking, because that is one of the most important words that a reader would need to know when coming across this project.

Essential and Foundation Questions

So far my essential question is solid and will more that likely hold until the project is completed. My essential question is "What is the process of directing a high school production?" I have also developed several foundation questions:
-What does a director look for when choosing a play?
-What do directors look for in an audition?
-How do directors evaluate acting skills based on an audition?
-How do directors use what they find in the auditioning process in the casting process?
-How do directors help their actors become their characters?
-How does a director develop blocking for a play based on the script?
-How does a director develop a set for a play based on the script?

Today I also, started to compile my lists of sources on EasyBib.com.

Reading

Today was another day of reading through sources I got through about three more sources that I evaluated and so far all of the sources that I have read through contain vital information that I need to complete my graduation project. Also, I believe that I have 100 percent settled on an essential questions. It will be: What is the process of directing a high school production? The research is basically the same and it fits in much better with my action plan and will be easier for me to execute.

Today...

Today we took about half of class to talk about foundation questions and topics to help people who are stuck. After we returned back to work I started to read through a few of my sources and I got through about three sources and so far they all have some pretty valuable information. And this information is going to be essential in helping me find information for my foundation questions.

Filtering

Today was a shortened day so I started to read through my sources. When reading through my sources I decided not to take notes right now. I have decided that I'm going to read through all of my sources and evaluate their potential before I actually pull out information and start taking notes. The only goal I need to complete for Tuesday is to read through at least half of my sources to evaluate their relevance and helpfulness to my project.

Questions

Yesterday, I finally got a chance to talk with Mr. Ringold about my project. He said that I would be able to direct a play next year. So as of now all systems are go. So that's pretty good. Also today I tried out some foundation questions and I have about 10 but I still need to filter them and read through my research to back the questions up. So the only thing I really need to do as of now is read through some of my sources to pick out some good information and filter through them.

More Sources

Today was a day full of sources. I found new sources, bringing my total to 12, and I started to read through a few of them to evaluate their ability to help me in my graduation project. In my quest for these 12 web sources I have also found 3 possibly relevant books as well. And I will need to check them out at the library in the near future to check their relevance. But judging from the titles and the descriptions I think they are going to be a big help. The next step I really have to take is narrowing down an essential question.

Narrowing It Down

Today I really narrowed my project down. I narrowed it down from a broad topic of theater to just directing. I am going to focus on directing method, tips, etc. I found about four more sources which brings me up to ten and I also found two books that will be of help that I can check out of the library when the time comes. I also think that i found my essential question for my project. I think that its going to be "What directing methods are best?" But I also need to explore other options as well.

Pretty Productive Today

I found a few more web sources after I started to expand my searching terms. I found about six more websites which brings me to 11. Also I finished this example project plan that I started the other day:

Project Plan
Topic: Directing, Producing and Performing in Theatre
Sub Topics:
-Introduction to Theater
-Different Types of Stages
-Stage Directions
-Key Terms in Theatre
-Famous Theaters
-Introduction to Directing
-Famous Directors
-What it means to be a director
-Directing techniques
-Introduction to Production
-The process of production
-What is production
-How to produce a play
-What the producer does
-Introduction to Performing
-Different Methods(types) of acting
-Method Acting
-Acting techniques
-Memorization techniques
-Actual Theater
-Take Photograph of Theater and label the different parts
-Classify what type of stage
-Directing put into Practice
-Videotape a practice session with me directing
-Point out my directing techniques
-Explain what the actor was working on and what he/she needed to improve and what they did well with
-Observing the Producer
-Observe Ringold as the producer
-Record some of his actions
-Explain some of his producing techniques
-Go through the production process with him, on film
-Performing
-Videotape my actual performance or the play I was directing performance on one of the show nights and explain the techniques that the performer is using
-If not me: Interview the actor afterwards on their mindset and their own acting tricks

This is just an example pretty much all of the elements are changeable and interchangeable. Also, my goal is to have a more definitive talk with Mr. Ringold and I plan to get that done by Wednesday at the latest. Wednesday because if I can't find time to talk to him during the day I can talk to him after school at drama club which is currently held on Wednesday.

More Sources

Today wasn't a very productive day. I tried to find some more sources but I didn't really. Every time I type in "directing theater" or some variation, a class on directing pops up in Google. So I didn't really find anymore sources today. And me and Mr. Ringold talked briefly about my project but on my end the conversation was really productive. So, I will talk to him again soon and see if I can finalize my topic before I get too far into the project and realize that I can't do it.

Sources

Even though I still need to talk to Mr. Ringold about my project, I decided to start looking up sources anyway. I started a list and as of now I have about five links from four different sources. That is basically all I did today. My next step is to talk to Mr. Ringold about the project. Then I need to find some more sources and really develop my idea into a project.

Topics Topics Topics... Oh My!

Today was more of a topic finding day. At the beginning of class I was sort of mulling over a few different project topics and start trying to find research for each of the topics that I was throwing around. I was really only mulling about four topics (endocrinology, internal medicine, doctor assisted suicide and theater) so I started to research each topic and soon realized that the most information revolved around the theater and there are so many topics that I can base a project on. So I decided that I am probably going to do the project on directing, producing and performing. I think that it will be a lot of fun and very interesting. I have basically decided that there are going to be two main parts of my project: researching and doing. First I am going to research the three mentioned topics and then I am going to put them into practice or tape someone else doing it and explain what is happening in the videos.

Initial Project Ideas

The graduation project is kind of infamous in the sense that everyone knows about and it is sort of feared in a way because it basically takes up two years of your life and if you start you just can't change things up halfway through. I know a few former seniors who have graduated and completed their projects but they mostly said that it wasn't that bad because it was about something they were really interested in. This fact sort of scared me because I can never think of anything that interests me, I struggle with that.I have several possible topics for a graduation project. I am sort of leaning toward the process of writing, directing and producing a play. But I have other interests as well, such as endocrinology, internal medicine, doctor assisted suicide. I could structure a project around most any of these things. The biggest concern I have about my grad project is that I'll pick the wrong topic and end up dreading the project instead of enjoying it. Another concern I have is that I won't meet the deadline.