This project was directed towards members of The University of Texas at Dallas community, as well as anyone who could be interested in visiting or possibly enrolling in the school. As a student at the university, I wanted to put together a video that demonstrates my perception of the aspects of the school that I greatly appreciate.

I have lived in the Richardson area next to the University of Texas at Dallas nearly my entire life and I have watched this campus evolve and grow tremendously. I started off college at Collin College to complete my core courses, then soon transferred to The University of Texas at Dallas, where I was able to see the campus firsthand as a student at the university. I was in awe as I saw all of the newest school buildings not only from the outside, but also from inside.

In the 3 years that I have spent at this university and those countless years that I have visited, I have been very appreciative at how our campus currently looks and how far it has come. The majority of the students haven’t even seen the campus until 4 years ago at most and have no idea about the incredible transformation that it underwent in the past 15 years, with even more in the decades before that. I feel that much of the student and faculty of the university see campus so often that they almost take it for granted, because after talking to many, it seems like the beauty of this school is underappreciated. 

Looking at the various media channels of the university, I never was able to find a video that portrayed the university to the extent of what I perceived it as. There were videos already created that had visually represented parts of the campus and different aspects of it, but nothing that fully encompassed what I wanted to see. This is something that I have been determined to change for the better and represent this school in a more positive light.  

In the ATEC program, I began my studies more interested in graphic design, but classes in digital video production and motion graphics helped guide me to the area that I was most passionate about. I have been finding joy in recording and editing videos ever since I was a little kid, which was revived as I learned new video skills in various ATEC classes. I have been further applying my skills by creating videos for an organization and making travel videos throughout college.

After being introduced to the capstone project, I knew that I wanted to create a video and the idea to make something that involved our campus came naturally to me, but the next question that came up was how I would do that. After referring to my past videos and inspiration from other creators, I developed a vision for how I wanted my video to be composed. After developing a solid idea of what I was determined to create, it was time to come up with a game plan of how I was going to get it done. This involved creating a production schedule that planned out the main checkpoints of my project with the capstone assignment due dates to keep me on track and carry out my goal in an organized way.

The production schedule was essential for giving myself an accurate timeline of when I should be done with every aspect of my project. I divided the schedule into 3 main objectives which included planning, production, and post-production. The planning part included everything that pertained to how I would get this video done and accomplish my goal of conveying my message.

The plan was to capture the most appealing architectural structures and most notable physical features of the campus. A shot list was created that included the shot size, angle, and duration for every location on campus that I thought of including within the video. The plan to record the clips was to use a Nikon D5600 DSLR camera with a camera stabilizer and use my iPhone 13 Pro for any quick clips when I didn’t have my camera on me. The plan for editing was to primarily use Adobe Premiere Pro and add effects on Adobe After Effects. Upon completion of the plan, it was time to begin the production of the prototype.

After having a well-structured plan, it was time to start developing the prototype by recording the shots which would be edited into the video. I began capturing the clips for the video by going to each location and following each specific characteristic from the shot list. Along the way, I found many new shots and better angles of the shots already listed to hopefully put into the video. Eventually, I captured all of the shots within my shot list plus many more, and then I was ready to begin the post-production of the prototype.

The shots were all uploaded and then placed into Adobe Premiere pro. I then tested out many different songs to see which best fit the video before I synced the shots to the music. I found the original song I liked and began cutting the clips to best go with the song. Each clip was cut down and many were slowed to produce the smoothest and most appealing visuals. After this, After Effects was used to add transitions and additional edits. I went back to Premiere to apply the black film bars on the top and bottom of the frame, as well as add color corrections. After everything looked good for the first edit, I was ready to put out the prototype and receive feedback on it.

Upon completion of the prototype, which I would call the first draft of my video, I presented the edit to my classmates and professor for feedback. Feeback that I received included shots that could’ve been in the video and not allowing the clips to have enough time before transitioning to the next clip. I started to go against the song I used in the original edit so I searched for a long time to find the song I felt best completed the video.  I synced the clips back to the new song and moved some clips around followed by the same steps that I previously used to finish the first edit, which produced a product that I was satisfied with.