Month: October 2019

All semester, and most of the past year, I’ve been focusing on what abusive relationships are like and how they can affect victims. I spoke with friends who had their own experiences with abusive relationships. I learned about how it affected them along with the kinds of events that went down for them to realize it was an abusive relationship. One person even said they didn’t realize it was an abusive relationship until months after distancing themselves from the situation because it consisted of a lot of calculated manipulation. It showed me how it can be subtle enough where the victim may not realize what is being done to them, situations like gaslighting, where the abuser attempts to make them feel crazy and eventually make them constantly question themselves and reality.

Aside from personal experiences I’ve witnessed, I also have been visiting AVI every week to discuss abusive relationships and the variety of experiences people can have. People either get out of it easily and fairly soon or feel stuck due to their self-esteem being lowered so often or even financial reasons. We went over the little things that could point to abuse, ranging from physical to emotional and mental abuse. As a result of the abuse, some people have experienced PTSD afterward, as they lose a sense of safety or control of their own life, or even lose trust in general with most people in their life.

Virtual Reality started showing up from as early as the 1950s before it became what we know today. Virtual Reality would be a good option to educate since it is already used for educational purposes for nearly all ages and ranging from social simulators or medical and anatomy education. I personally have seen it used to navigate the human body and learn about the anatomy or even to learn to perform surgeries. It even has been used in prisons to help prisoners learn how to navigate throughout life after they are released from prison. Along with helping prisoners, there is a simulation of what solitary confinement is like to share that experience with the general public to get them to understand what it is like in there. It’s a great example of using VR to make people understand certain unique experiences that not everyone may experience. It has worked well enough so far to make others feel like they understand what it is like. This is why I believe using Virtual Reality is the best option to educate and show people what an abusive relationship can be like and experience it as well as they can without having to go through it.

The general focus of my current research has involved an in depth search on building. I have always been a very visual learner and for that reason I went straight to YouTube to look for waterscreen tutorials. My research goal was to figure out what kind of materials would make the most sense for my project and where I would be able to find those materials. One of the first videos I stumbled upon during my research video was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odY9NAtjH4o. Towards the beginning of the video, I thought this tutorial would be extremely beneficial for building my first prototype. The water storage area is built with cheap, mostly found at home parts such as water bottle caps, a plastic bin, hot glue, cardboard, etc. Cutting and welding the LEDs looked a little complicated but seemed doable. The really complicated part of this project came when the wires that turned the machine on and off had to be put together. There were no words to this video or written instructions and as a beginner I struggled to comprehend which wire needed to be where and exactly what tools he was using to connect the wires. At the end of the speedy process, the camera view zooms out letting the viewer see the project result and the wires look like a disorganized mess. After looking at all the electric components this project called for I decide to move on from it although I still believe I can incorporate different parts of the video into a smaller scale first prototype for my project. 

The next video I ran into during my research process was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6TCX0jSc7E. This tutorial is a lot more professional and a lot more expensive than the last one. This size waterfall would be ideal but I have fought back and forth a lot between what size I want my screen to be and due to cost it is most likely going to be about half the size of this waterfall. Although this project came out looking super cool, this video is designed to let people know what products were used to make the waterfall, not how to put the pieces together. I planned to keep this video in my bookmarks because the water pressure from the water pump seemed to be the closest to what I want for my screen. A lot of the videos I have watched (including this one) have been waterfalls as opposed to water screens so there was not much of a need for super high water pressure. The point of the high water pressure is to provide crisp, clean video when I project onto the water.

Moving forward, I discovered this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8R5opvNDQ0. This video was more landscape oriented than my indoor project will be but it did offer a lot of external features that I thought would be interesting or useful to incorporate. For example, my first instinct was to just build the exterior out of wood and paint the wood but after watching this video I would love to cover the wood in patriot steel. The steel does a cleaner job of hiding the pipes and making the project look much more together than the wood. This project also had a Mickey in it so you know I had to give it a shout out. 

The final video I found and the video I plan to actually follow while building my project is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5wShk_pV3k (written instructions in the description). This tutorial was perfect for me because the parts are reasonably priced, the project is modular, and there are both written and visual instructions. The written instructions to this tutorial include a lot of helpful tips such as when drilling your water holes it’s better to start with less than more because if you drill too many it will kill the pressure. 

I’m super nervous about starting to build this project but I’m also very eager to start the long process of trial and error that comes with learning something new.

For my next period of research, I reached out to Bret for one-on-one training in the Makerspace woodshop. I would like to purchase my water storage bin and the wood for the box around it and begin building my tank. I have a small water pump from my backyard that I may be able to try tinkering with as well although it is extremely old and there are no instructions with it so it may be a bust.

I would really like to find some kind of inspiring or educational reading that relates to my project that helps me remain motivated throughout the process. I have yet to find a reading related to my thesis project that doesn’t feel like I’m reading an instruction manual but I’m still on the hunt. 

Side-note: While speaking with the Thirst Project about my thesis proposal, I connected with their school touring director and they are planning to visit the school for a presentation in late March/early April which may be a great way to get students feeling inspired about the water crisis right before the showcase.

My project has a few key areas of study that will lead to my final presentation. The most important components of my project are video and entrepreneurship. For my project I have broken video down into two categories. “Commercial video” in this case is a term that can be used to describe any video created working with another person or business for a specific price. “Creative video” in this case is a term that can be used to describe any video not made for immediate financial gain. For my final presentation I want to have both elements displayed. Right now I have a goal set of 3 short films(5-20 minutes long) and 10 commercial videos, among the goals that come along with attempting to build an actual business.

What I have learned about creative video and short films: Through research I have found that there are a few key steps to script-writing. First is the ideation process and basic outline for your story. In this step you decide generally what is going to happen in your story, the characters, etc. Next up is the character development phase. In this stage you decide exactly who your characters are, what their background is, their mannerisms, how they speak, etc. From there you are able to write out a detailed script based around your character development and your general story that you have outlined. Once there is a finalized script, you can move to your storyboarding, which is a visual representation of how your shots are going to be framed, and what is going to happen in them. Finally you just have to find your actors, actresses, and your location.

I wanted to learn exactly what goes in to script-writing so that when it comes time to make a short film I will have an organized process that I can follow. What I have found is that a scene in a script is composed of some very basic elements, and is streamlined for efficiency. I have broken this down into 4 pieces, setting/time of day, characters, action, and dialogue.

Eg.

Int: Bedroom, night. Blue light from computer monitors fills a corner of the room.

Camera pans from a shot of the room to Jim at his desk.

Desk is covered in disheveled papers and empty water bottles.

Jim types furiously at his keyboard. He stops and looks at his watch.

Jim

This is ridiculous!

Entrepreneurship and small businesses: I have also been gathering statistics about small businesses in New Jersey that connect to the entrepreneurship part of my project. I have gathered two pieces of data that are very important to me. First, according to the 2018 small business profile from the U.S Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, in 2018 there were 861,373 small businesses. This is important to me because my LLC will be working directly with small businesses. The next statistic I have found is from Richard Carufel of Agility PR Solutions who has found that 38 percent of small businesses do not have social media. This means that around 327,321 small businesses have no social media or content online. That is my market. 320,000 small businesses sounds like a big number but in reality that number is going to be significantly less when the type of small business is considered. Not every business is going to be compatible with my LLC or the work we do. However there is still a massive amount of potential business to be done.

For starting up I have looked into an online service called “legalzoom” that is great for media based businesses. I picked out a package for obtaining my LLC, EIN, Operating agreement, and a few other little things. I learned that this package is going to run me about $400-$500 which isn’t terrible considering that amount can be made back easily in selling 1-3 videos at a cheap price. The other major component I am going to have written up is basic work contracts. This is just going to be an agreement between my LLC and the small business I am working for on pre-determined amount or a pre-determined hourly rate for my work. Either way this contract is an important piece of the business and when it has been drawn up once as a template in can be re-used for future jobs which is very helpful to the process.

I’ve been researching and preparing to take on my main character puppets. I need to make sure I know what I’m doing before I start them because faux fur is a lot different than the nylon fleece I used for my prototype puppet, and also a lot more expensive. I bought some tutorials from Project Puppet, and have started watching those and practicing stitches while I wait for my faux fur to arrive from the Etsy seller.

I’m feeling pretty nervous about finally taking on the actual characters in the show. I’m afraid that the image in my head just won’t happen, and I’ll feel like I don’t have control over the product. Whenever I’m feeling creatively anxious or blocked, I read Lynda Barry, who is a famous cartoonist, painter, writer, etc. (and just won the MacArthur Genius grant), so I’m including that in my research as well. She has a quote about how young people stop drawing when they can’t get their drawing to look like the vision in their head. She says, “Well, that’s impossible. The thing in your head is not a drawing.” I’m trying to take a similar attitude to these puppets, and release a little control. I won’t know what details and designs are possible until I try to do it. I’ve pulled back a little in designing every detail in paper and pencil, because a drawing is not a puppet! The limitations of working with fabric, thread, etc. will always push the design in another direction, and that’s ok.

As I work on the technical parts of my project, I’m also working on researching the tone and themes of my pilot. While my plot and script are final enough to work on characters and rough sets, I’m still looking for ways to improve the dialogue and puppeteering. I’ve been working off of the list of research topics on my previous post to try and perfect the balance between audiences that the referenced shows achieved. I’ve also been reading Making A Good Script Great by Linda Seger.

Next research update, I’ll have the beginning of one of my main characters and some lessons learned from my theme and tone research.

For the first part of my research I looked for articles based on electronic waste. I want to focus my project more towards the contributions technology has to recycling and the damaging effects to the planet. The article I found The Global Cost of Electronic Waste published by The Atlantic in 2016 discusses Apple products and the continuous replacing of perfectly good devices we do. Apple sells millions of new iPhones when the new generation is released, replacing perfectly good recent models. This is because everyone wants the “new” fad. After having an iPhone for a year or two, it could possibly show signs of wear such as glass may be cracked, the home button could stick, etc. However, few people choose to repair their phones over getting an upgrade. Not only phones are being thrown out at slight inconvenience, tablets, laptops, music players, etc are being wasted and thrown away because of laziness or a lust for the future. Throwing away thousands of electronic devices has several effects on the ecosystem. First, it increases mini and procurement for the materials that are needed to produce the devices. It also produces large quantities of electronic waste which could be reduced through resale, reuse, or repair. The quantity and speed of discarded electronics has increased quickly over the years, being far from when households would keep their tv’s for more than a year. “As per the report of ENDS Europe agency, built-in obsolescence increased the proportions of all units sold to replace defective appliances from 3.5 percent in 2004 to 8.3 percent in 2012. The share of large household appliances that had to be replaced within the first five years grew from 7 percent of total replacements in 2004 to 13 percent in 2013. According to a 2014 Gallup poll, 89 percent of young adults (18 to 29) own smartphones; 41 percent of the older generation owned VCRs at the same age.” 

By having this increase in need for devices, it has made the manufacturing inexpensive and repairing them more difficult. Companies also have increasingly ended support for older models of phones with old operating systems. WhatsApp and Facebook announced they will stop providing support for apps on certain models of Blackberry. Not only does this have to do with portable electronic devices, printer manufacturers realized they can make more money selling ink and toner than the printer itself. “According to a Financial Times report, a gallon of ink for the typical printer costs the consumer around $8,000. But the prices of printers are so low that once their initial ink supply is spent, the consumer is tempted to buy a whole new machine” The concept of steering customers to buy new items by reducing their lifespan of products is nothing new. In 1924, Phoebus made sure that lightbulbs did not exceed their expected life span of 1,000 hours. 

Electronic waste raises concern about air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, information security, and human exploitation. When scavengers burn electronic waste to get the copper, air can be polluted, and if it’s not disposed properly toxins from electronic waste can enter soil and water supplies. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/the-global-cost-of-electronic-waste/502019/