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- All Subjects: Creative Project
Description
For my creative project, I originally decided to produce an original instrumental EP (Extended Play), its aim to bridge the gap between classical Choral/Orchestral literature and more modern Hip-Hop/Rhythm & Blues through the implementation of sample-based sounds and melodies. As the semester went on, however, I realized that my original focus was really putting a strain on my creativity. A broadening in scope was exactly what I needed to spark the creativity within me. I had to create what suited me at the time, or what was a reflection of my current environment. This change began to push me beyond what I believed I was capable of; the tracks for the EP seemed to follow effortlessly. For the first production on my EP, I sampled from an a cappella file that I found on a royalty-free music database. The file had a raw cut, sans instrumentation and effects, of a teenage girl singing an original Soul/Rhythm & Blues tune of hers named "Don't Go." Atop the vocal, I added an original drum kit and sub-bass waveform, sound-designed by me, and an airy synthesizer line. My second original production, titled "Dreams," is a production that exudes everything that I stand for and am inspired by with regards to music. This work is the kind of production that got me into producing music in the first place. It demonstrates simplicity and elegance in every sense. A Rhythm & Blues record (Monnie Riperton's Edge of a Dream), a simple, yet hard-hitting drum groove with drum sounds sampled from live drums, and bass-line were the only ingredients necessary to produce "Dreams." The video logs, an addition to the original productions, were put in place to track my progress throughout the semester. The observer gets to learn alongside me, from the inception and into the execution of the project, the facets of sampling, building a drum groove, and creating an arrangement. By including access to my workflow as part of this project, I wish to provide a dynamic, evolving tool for producers in the future.
ContributorsShargal, Tamir Mike (Author) / Tobias, Evan (Thesis director) / Evans, Bartlett (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
E-Strings Academy (www.estringsacademy.wordpress.com) is a resource website intended for the beginning violinist, violist, cellist, and bassist. The mission of the website is to extend musical learning opportunities to students outside of the physical string classroom and to engage first-year string students in musical activities at home that supplement the instruction they receive in a school setting. The current website features five different areas for students to explore: lesson videos, tunes, listening activities, games, and resources. In each area, students have the opportunity to learn and reinforce musical concepts and skill sets that they will need in order to be successful in music, both in their first year of playing and beyond. I created E-Strings Academy with the intention that I use it with my own string students in my future teaching career. It is a flexible website that I will continue to revise, adapt, and enhance to best serve the needs of my students and enrich their musical learning outside of the classroom.
ContributorsCook, Christa Marie (Author) / Schmidt, Margaret (Thesis director) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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
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
Description
In the past ten years, the United States’ sound recording industries have experienced significant decreases in employment opportunities for aspiring audio engineers from economic imbalances in the music industry’s digital streaming era and reductions in government funding for career and technical education (CTE). The Recording Industry Association of America reports promises of music industry sustainability based on increasing annual revenues in paid streaming services and artists’ high creative demand. The rate of new audio engineer entries in the sound recording subsection of the music industry is not viable to support streaming artists’ high demand to engineer new music recordings. Offering CTE programs in secondary education is rare for aspiring engineers with insufficient accessibility to pursue a post-secondary or vocational education because of financial and academic limitations. These aspiring engineers seek alternatives for receiving an informal education in audio engineering on the Internet using video sharing services like YouTube to search for tutorials and improve their engineering skills. The shortage of accessible educational materials on the Internet restricts engineers from advancing their own audio engineering education, reducing opportunities to enter a desperate job market in need of independent, home studio-based engineers. Content creators on YouTube take advantage of this situation and commercialize their own video tutorial series for free and selling paid subscriptions to exclusive content. This is misleading for newer engineers because these tutorials omit important understandings of fundamental engineering concepts. Instead, content creators teach inflexible engineering methodologies that are mostly beneficial to their own way of thinking. Content creators do not often assess the incompatibility of teaching their own methodologies to potential entrants in a profession that demands critical thinking skills requiring applied fundamental audio engineering concepts and techniques. This project analyzes potential solutions to resolve the deficiencies in online audio engineering education and experiments with structuring simple, deliverable, accessible educational content and materials to new entries in audio engineering. Designing clear, easy to follow material to these new entries in audio engineering is essential for developing a strong understanding for the application of fundamental concepts in future engineers’ careers. Approaches to creating and designing educational content requires translating complex engineering concepts through simplified mediums that reduce limitations in learning for future audio engineers.
ContributorsBurns, Triston Connor (Author) / Tobias, Evan (Thesis director) / Libman, Jeff (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The thesis I completed for Barrett, The Honors College was created as a method to develop and strengthen my long-form storytelling abilities. The goal of my creative project was to create the first draft of a stage musical and mount it in a reading or workshop of some kind. I reached this goal and then some with the help of my directors and two wonderful Barrett students that helped me along the way: Mallory Smith and Ethan Fox. We completed the first draft of the show and then held a read-through with a full cast of actors, with almost twenty people attending.
Then, I went back and used some of the feedback from the read-through to write another draft of the show. However, along the way, I took a few major creative turns and ended up with a story that was similar to the first draft in many ways but was ultimately a larger divergence than I originally anticipated. This was a blessing, as it forced me to re-evaluate multiple creative decisions I’d made and gave me two long-form stories with great potential to work with rather than just one. It also presented multiple opportunities to combine and enhance both ideas in order to write one strong story using both concepts. The beauty of this Creative Project is that my portfolio is much stronger for having completed it and I now have multiple paths to choose from to move this project forward in the future.
In the defense, I discussed the grueling process of actually writing these scripts, hosting a read-through as well as the possibilities for both stories in the future. We also discussed the possibility of taking these scripts and pitching them to companies like Samuel French and in hopes that they’re sold, licensed and performed in perpetuity. I’m grateful to my directors, Professors Jason Scott and Gregory Maday, for always pushing me and cutting me slack when I fell behind and to my friends and the wonderful support the Honors College has given me throughout the last four years.
Then, I went back and used some of the feedback from the read-through to write another draft of the show. However, along the way, I took a few major creative turns and ended up with a story that was similar to the first draft in many ways but was ultimately a larger divergence than I originally anticipated. This was a blessing, as it forced me to re-evaluate multiple creative decisions I’d made and gave me two long-form stories with great potential to work with rather than just one. It also presented multiple opportunities to combine and enhance both ideas in order to write one strong story using both concepts. The beauty of this Creative Project is that my portfolio is much stronger for having completed it and I now have multiple paths to choose from to move this project forward in the future.
In the defense, I discussed the grueling process of actually writing these scripts, hosting a read-through as well as the possibilities for both stories in the future. We also discussed the possibility of taking these scripts and pitching them to companies like Samuel French and in hopes that they’re sold, licensed and performed in perpetuity. I’m grateful to my directors, Professors Jason Scott and Gregory Maday, for always pushing me and cutting me slack when I fell behind and to my friends and the wonderful support the Honors College has given me throughout the last four years.
ContributorsWright, Andrew John (Author) / Scott, Jason (Thesis director) / Maday, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Theory Jam is a series of online, education videos that teach music theory in a fun, engaging way. Our project is a response to the growing need for successful online education content. It incorporates strategies for creating effective educational video content and engages with contemporary debates in the field of music theory surrounding the purpose of a music theory education.
ContributorsCannatelli, Joshua Bryce (Co-author) / Daval, Charles Joseph (Co-author) / Miller, April (Thesis director) / Scott, Jason (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (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
The medium of film and television has become more prevalent in society than ever before. It pushes the boundaries of what technology can do and what realities mankind can explore. However, with their rapid expansion, the bounds by which society deems this medium as ethical or unethical, simplified as real or fiction, has become a lot hazier, daresay, inconsequential. While some facets of the medium strive and continue to focus on ethical practices (such as documentary work), others base their work loosely on those real experiences (e.g. “Based on a True Story”) or are wholly exaggerated or fabricated. With this in mind, it probes the question: Does research have a place in nonfiction storytelling? This thesis explores this premise, arguing that the more a story is researched and truthful to its subject matter, the better and more entertaining it will become.
ContributorsAhearne, Matthew (Author) / Meirelles, Rodrigo (Thesis director) / Scott, Jason (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / The Sidney Poitier New American Film School (Contributor)
Created2023-05