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- All Subjects: Creative Project
- Creators: School of Film, Dance and Theatre
Description
"The Art of Humans Being" is a feature length screenplay in the same vein as an original Pixar animated script. The story takes place in New York City, and focuses on our heroine, 13-year-old high school senior and certifiable genius, Lu, and our hero, 17-year-old high school senior of average smarts, Finn. We are first introduced to these characters as they struggle with fitting in both at school and in their lives at home. Lu and Finn feel a disconnect with their families, but both share a common appreciation for art and the escape it provides. Though her entire family is involved in artistic and creative pursuits, Lu has never painted a day in her life but dreams of one day being a great artist. Finn, on the other hand, has inherited his deceased mother’s immense talent with a paintbrush, but is hesitant to live in her shadow. Upon seeing their desire to paint, their high school art teacher—Miss Ro—encourages Finn and Lu to enter the world-renowned art competition Palette Parfaite, created by the famous French artist Madame Inès. In order to enter this art competition, contestants must dive inside a painting. As such, Lu and Finn are forced to literally enter the art world. Once inside the painting, they are introduced to colorful characters, stunning landscapes, and an entire studio of art materials that can only be described as every artists’ dream. However, the more time they spend inside the painting, the sooner Lu and Finn realize that this dreamlike world is not quite what it seems. "The Art of Humans Being" seeks to explore the world of art through the following questions: What happens to the forgotten art that has been discarded after being deemed “not good enough” to be finished? What happens to human beings who are treated the same? And finally, what happens when we accept people for who they are and what they create, even if they have flaws; even if they’re still works in progress?
ContributorsGraves, Cassidy Aadland (Author) / Bernstein, Gregory (Thesis director) / Maday, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
My creative project was the (aptly named) "Sketch Show," short series of sketches presented in order without greater context or structure. I challenged myself to push the limits of my creativity and be involved in every aspect of the production. I wrote, directed, shot, edited, acted, scored, and color graded 3 sketches. I chose sketch comedy as my genre of focus because it is one that I have loved my whole life, and wanted to try my hand at. My research process was expansive, as I studied many of the great sketch shows and tried to learn what makes them successful. I next wrote many sketches, and they were almost uniformly terrible. My rewrite and selection phase was very difficult as I struggled to identify which of my sketches were working best, and I still question the decisions I made. Regardless, the shooting process began and I continued to push myself through cinematography and especially acting, something I have the least experience in by far. I had acted in theatre in high school, but I quickly learned this was completely different and struggled to give myself the performance I had in my head. Finally in the edit, where I am most comfortable, I pushed myself one step further to score the project, something I had never done before. "Sketch Show" may not have turned out to be the project I intended, but it taught me more about writing and myself than any project ever has.
ContributorsRagatz, Caleb (Author) / Scott, Jason (Thesis director) / Maday, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Due to increasing lack of resources and funding for budding student musicians, it is often not possible for this demographic to create, record, and produce their original music in the same high-budget studio environment in which music has been traditionally made. The objective of this project is to explore alternatives which are more accessible to young independent musicians and reveal the most cost-efficient routes to obtain a high-quality result. To make this comparison, the group created budget recordings of their original music in a bedroom in true DIY fashion, and then recorded the same songs in a professional music studio using the best music and recording equipment available. The DIY recordings were mixed and mastered by the group members themselves, as well as separately by a professional audio engineer. The studio recordings were also mixed and mastered by a professional audio engineer, resulting in three final products with varying costs and quality. Ultimately, the group found that without mixing and mastering experience, it is very difficult to achieve high quality results. With the same budget recorded tracks, the group found that quality of the final product vastly increased when a professional audio engineer mixed and mastered the tracks. As far as the quality of the result, the studio recorded tracks were by far the best. Not only was the quality of the sounds from the high-end music and recording equipment much higher, the band had more freedom to be creative without the responsibility of simultaneously serving as recording engineers as was the case in the low budget recordings. The group concluded that this project was highly successful and demonstrated that high quality results could be obtained on a budget. The DIY recording techniques used in this project prove that independent musicians without access to expensive equipment and resources can still produce high quality music at the cost of more effort to serve as audio engineers in addition to musicians. However, recording in a studio with the help of a producer and professional audio engineers affords creative freedom and an increase in sound quality that is simply not possible to reproduce without the equipment and expertise that money can buy.
ContributorsBonk, Alan (Co-author) / Dhuyvetter, Nicholas Alan (Co-author) / Wickham, Kevin (Co-author) / Tobias, Evan (Thesis director) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
On The Mathematical Analysis of An Ancient Greek Tragedy (A CURE AT TROY) Using Mathematical Set Theory To Analyze Patterns In Character And Story Structure; The Production And Direction Of That Greek Tragedy Using Vectors To Direct Action And Objectives In 2-Space; And The Research, Writing, And Production Of A Reading Of A New Play (A TREE DISAPPEARS) On The Analogies Of Forestry Management Practices To Family Relationships.
ContributorsFox, Ethan (Author) / Partlan, William (Thesis director) / Lynch, John (Committee member) / Pinholster, Jacob (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Thomas Otway’s Classic, A Plot Discovered through my own theatrical adaptive process: an exploration of the relationship between power, gender, drugs, music, love, and violence. Conceptually, the piece was adapted into two worlds. The first, a blatant, elizabethan, contrastingly intense world of realism. The second, a black light neon fueled frenzy of storytelling through song and choreographed movement. The presence of these two worlds living side by side resulting in a deeper look at the effect of drug use on how we perceive our social, political, economic, and emotional climates. The proposed (and completed) time frame for adaption of the play is two semesters, followed by a semester of pre production, casting, designing, directing, and producing. The show went up in the Prism Theatre through Binary Theatre Company April 12th, 14th, and 15th, with an extension to the next weekend by popular demand.
The purpose of this project stands: An idea that sparks a passion, idea, or question in the audience that ties directly into our current political discussion, while remaining integral to the academic world, serving as one of the most concentrated locations of permission to think openly and ask difficult questions. A Plot Discovered in particular achieves this by asking what it means to have power and to not, to be a man in another man’s world, to be a woman in any man’s world, to be neither really man or woman but somewhere in between, the consequences of dictatorship and revolution, why the human condition loves to get high, as well as the devotion and blindness of love on three different levels: friendship, romance, and family. These themes serve the script as it was written in all three of the applied timelines (it’s original 1600s, the adapted 1970s, and our current) leading to the biggest question of them all, do we as humans really evolve or is it a mere illusion painted by our ability to enhance the environment around us?
The desire to adapt A Plot Discovered came during a conversation with my peers during a semester spent studying classical drama at Oxford University. As we debated the themes of the play, a guitarist played post Vietnam War era music in the street below echoing up the cobblestone street and entering our dining hall window. The result was an artistic revelation that would drive my passion into this project for the next two years. Rewriting, designing, casting, directing, and reflecting upon A Plot Discovered has proved not only the most difficult but also the most rewarding event within my undergraduate studies.
View A Plot Discovered miniature documentary here: https://vimeo.com/325355612
The purpose of this project stands: An idea that sparks a passion, idea, or question in the audience that ties directly into our current political discussion, while remaining integral to the academic world, serving as one of the most concentrated locations of permission to think openly and ask difficult questions. A Plot Discovered in particular achieves this by asking what it means to have power and to not, to be a man in another man’s world, to be a woman in any man’s world, to be neither really man or woman but somewhere in between, the consequences of dictatorship and revolution, why the human condition loves to get high, as well as the devotion and blindness of love on three different levels: friendship, romance, and family. These themes serve the script as it was written in all three of the applied timelines (it’s original 1600s, the adapted 1970s, and our current) leading to the biggest question of them all, do we as humans really evolve or is it a mere illusion painted by our ability to enhance the environment around us?
The desire to adapt A Plot Discovered came during a conversation with my peers during a semester spent studying classical drama at Oxford University. As we debated the themes of the play, a guitarist played post Vietnam War era music in the street below echoing up the cobblestone street and entering our dining hall window. The result was an artistic revelation that would drive my passion into this project for the next two years. Rewriting, designing, casting, directing, and reflecting upon A Plot Discovered has proved not only the most difficult but also the most rewarding event within my undergraduate studies.
View A Plot Discovered miniature documentary here: https://vimeo.com/325355612
ContributorsSchneider, Fay Elizabeth (Author) / McMahon, Jeff (Thesis director) / Barker, David (Committee member) / Weise, Chris (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Based on the techniques of spectralism and using Grisey's "Partiels" as a model, my thesis composition combines my desire to explore computer music, visual mediums, and my personal desire to create meaning in music through integrating manipulated recordings of "place" in a piece for string orchestra and fixed electronics. My thesis paper includes spectralism history, analysis of "Partiels," and analysis of my own composition.
ContributorsBrown, Bethany Carolyn (Author) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Thesis director) / Schmelz, Peter (Committee member) / School of Music (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
For my Barrett Thesis Project, I completed a total rewrite of the feature-length screenplay I wrote for my Herberger Senior Project. This process constituted completing a full analysis of my original work with my Thesis Director and Second Reader, discussing character motivation, thematic throughlines, story logic, and realism in dialogue. This initial analysis caused me to almost entirely rewrite the original script, adjusting dialogue, sequences of events, pacing and character work.
The majority of this rewrite was spent on fine-tuning character and motivation, strengthening them in some cases and changing them entirely in others. I really strove to emphasize the relationships they had with each other and how the situations and connections affected the state of mind, therefore leading to the chain of events that happened in the script in a much more natural way. I also worked to emphasize certain story elements that benefited the characters and thematic content, specifically my protagonist’s struggle with schizophrenia. In this draft, I turned that character trait into a visual element, which I believe further heightened the visual and emotional stakes of the story and gave the characters an increased sense of motivation and struggle. In this draft I also worked to break down the stereotype connected with my secondary protagonist, a sex worker. Instead of emphasizing her strength and beauty, as many action films with a strong/sexualized woman in a supporting role do, I adjusted her story arc to break her stereotype (and her character) down throughout the story. I wanted to depict her as a person with flaws that extend beyond her choice of profession, though the latter certainly did not help. I believe that the final product succeeds in both main goals.
While working on this rewrite, I also completed a script edit journal that detailed the significant changes in action, pacing or dialogue I made and what my reasoning was behind them.
The majority of this rewrite was spent on fine-tuning character and motivation, strengthening them in some cases and changing them entirely in others. I really strove to emphasize the relationships they had with each other and how the situations and connections affected the state of mind, therefore leading to the chain of events that happened in the script in a much more natural way. I also worked to emphasize certain story elements that benefited the characters and thematic content, specifically my protagonist’s struggle with schizophrenia. In this draft, I turned that character trait into a visual element, which I believe further heightened the visual and emotional stakes of the story and gave the characters an increased sense of motivation and struggle. In this draft I also worked to break down the stereotype connected with my secondary protagonist, a sex worker. Instead of emphasizing her strength and beauty, as many action films with a strong/sexualized woman in a supporting role do, I adjusted her story arc to break her stereotype (and her character) down throughout the story. I wanted to depict her as a person with flaws that extend beyond her choice of profession, though the latter certainly did not help. I believe that the final product succeeds in both main goals.
While working on this rewrite, I also completed a script edit journal that detailed the significant changes in action, pacing or dialogue I made and what my reasoning was behind them.
ContributorsFlake, Peyton Lee (Author) / Giner, Oscar (Thesis director) / Yatso, Toby (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
For the creative project portion of the Barrett Honors Thesis Requirement, “The Author’s Daughter: A Series Concept and Pilot Pitch” was developed to further explore a television series idea based upon a senior capstone film. The story follows a young Author who, in a future where fictional content is censored and illegal, has the power to create and bring stories to life in another realm, known as the Narrative. What’s more, she can bring these characters and stories to life in Reality, though many dangerous consequences face her because of it.
The creative project explores the concept much more in depth than its capstone counterpart; where as the capstone film serves as a concept, prequel film to the series, for the creative project the pilot script was developed, spanning over twice the length of the first script. What’s more, along with the pilot a pitch bible was developed, outlining series and franchise potential as well as an in-depth look at characters, rules of the world, and formatting styles. Finally along with the written portion came the pitch, where the series was presented to a “buyer” in this case the jury of the defense, and paired with marketing and distribution strategies to help simulate an industry style pitch and packaging demonstration.
The purpose of the honors creative project was to explore the conceptual challenges of world and series creation, as well as the execution of the serialized narrative. What’s more the project’s purpose was to research the execution of selling an idea and the business side of television, specifically in terms of the sales, marketing, and distribution of a series idea.
The creative project explores the concept much more in depth than its capstone counterpart; where as the capstone film serves as a concept, prequel film to the series, for the creative project the pilot script was developed, spanning over twice the length of the first script. What’s more, along with the pilot a pitch bible was developed, outlining series and franchise potential as well as an in-depth look at characters, rules of the world, and formatting styles. Finally along with the written portion came the pitch, where the series was presented to a “buyer” in this case the jury of the defense, and paired with marketing and distribution strategies to help simulate an industry style pitch and packaging demonstration.
The purpose of the honors creative project was to explore the conceptual challenges of world and series creation, as well as the execution of the serialized narrative. What’s more the project’s purpose was to research the execution of selling an idea and the business side of television, specifically in terms of the sales, marketing, and distribution of a series idea.
ContributorsOwens, Krystina Diane (Author) / Maday, Gregory (Thesis director) / Scott, Jason (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This director’s book is the culmination of my Barrett thesis project, which was originally intended to be a fully filmed and edited short film called The Mime. While ultimately my film has gone unfinished due to circumstances I will detail later, I have done my best in this document to create an accurate picture of what it would have looked like had everything gone according to plan. Along with the complete shooting script of The Mime, this director’s book contains breakdowns of the scenes and the shots that comprise them, notes on the characters and locations used in the short, a detailed shoot schedule, and lists of all the shots and equipment required. I have also included a reflection paper at the end to explain my process, the problems I faced along the way, and what I have learned from the experience.
ContributorsCampbell, Connor (Author) / Maday, Gregory (Thesis director) / Mack, Robert (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Empathy Link is a creative project that looks at the universal problems that many college students experience. The show is an interview style podcast, in which the students come on and talk about their life experiences, specifically the dilemmas and emotional challenges they face. Furthermore, Empathy Link delves into student’s identities, and how many of the more “universal problems” that the students face, are also affected by the identity and background, such as ethnicity, gender, immigration status, class, etc. By analyzing the cross-section between the more relatable problems that almost every student experiences and the more unique identity problems, listeners are able to find common ground with students from different backgrounds from them as well as begin to understand struggles that they may not or will never experience. Empathy Link consists of a six-episode first season. Each episode is somewhere between 20 – 30 minutes long. The topics discussed in episodes were wide-ranging: disagreeing with the worldviews of one’s parents, wanting to pursue a passion but scared because of financial instability, the anxiety of over-working, the feeling of listlessness post-college life, and the passing of a loved one. Before each episode, I would perform a pre-interview for each guest to ensure they would be a good fit for the show, write questions for that guest, and schedule a time and place to record. Afterwards, I would edit each episode for clarity, sound quality, and flow to ensure the content was up to par. Empathy Link is a podcast dedicated to bridging the gap between the perceptions of college students, specifically those from marginalized groups, and the actual experiences and struggles that they face.
ContributorsMarsh, Zackiel S (Author) / Scott, Jason (Thesis director) / Sopha, Matthew (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05