Secondary mentor

I think the secondary mentor for capstone should be required.  Having another person to bounce ideas off of and critique your work.  I think there role is can be a variety of things.  The two main things are, being someone with expertise in an area that your mentor is not as well versed.  The other is to be a fresh set of eyes to your project as you continually progress in accomplishing it.  They can critique things that they see for the first time that they weren't aware was going to happen unlike your mentor who knows everything that is going to be taking place in your project.  I don't think a secondary mentor should be someone that has the same expertise as your primary mentor.  This almost defeats the purpose of the secondary mentor all together.  The secondary mentor is there to help make your project more diverse than what you originally intended it to be.

I think both Ricardo and Professor Defazio would be good secondary mentors.  They both have skills that I can incorporate into my project and help make it more diverse.  I also think finding someone in the industry would be very helpful.  They could help develop your project in a real world setting.  The only thing I have against a industry mentor is that they will skew your idea into what the industry standard is and risk your shot of doing something new and possibly creating the new industry standard.

Mentor Profile

1.  For my capstone I will be creating a documentary video on the community of rock climbing.  I will capture the essence that brings so many people from a diverse world to one activity to fill there free time.

2. For my mentor I am going to need someone that focuses on video production since that is the big chunk of my capstone.  I am also going to need someone that knows audio and has experience mixing music with interviews.  I will also need someone who could help me weave a story together using certain types of footage.  I might also want someone that knows photography to be able to capture the purest image using a dslr since that is the camera i will be using to shoot this video.

3.  For my mentor options I would like to talk with Thomas Lewis, Ricardo Laranja, and Joseph Defazio.

4.  I would like to work with Thomas because he focuses a lot on video and has a vast knowledge of documentary film making.  I would like to work with Ricardo because of his knowledge in audio production so I can have a good mix for my film.  Professor Defazio would be good to help me through the project management process helping to make sure I am meeting deadlines and everything progresses smoothly.

5. A) Thomas Lewis

1. Video Production 
2. Creating a unique idea and discovering new ways to accomplish it
3. Currently my mentor
4. Thomas does not want students working on horror films
5. Thinks it is a good idea for other needed areas of expertise and to bounce ideas off of.

B) Ricardo Laranja

1. Audio production
2. Coming up with a project that will take the scope of at least a semester to accomplish and challenges your abilities and knowledge about what you know about your idea
3. He is pretty full but has some spots left.  Currently in transition from New Media to the music department.
4. He says that most things are acceptable as long as they fit the scope of at least a semester
5. He thinks this is good for expertise in other fields that we may need for our project.

C) Joseph Defazio

1. Flash / Music / project management 
2. Creating a unique idea that can apply to real world businesses and clients today and for the future
3. Pretty full but does have a few spots available
4. He tries to put you in a position to come up with a new idea and how that applies to the world today but will help you expand on an idea that you have set in your mind
5. Thinks it is a great idea to have an industry mentor to help you through problems that you may foresee and will guide you in the ways that your idea is currently practiced.

Project Catagory

My project is going to definitely placed in the video category.  To be a little more specific, I am going to making a documentary film.  I have looked at others in the class and thought that it would be a good idea to work with Santiago Casar since we are going at this together.  Also if Jocque Carey decides to do his film on children's theatre then he would be a good fit for this group as well.

Class Discussion

During our class discussion last class, I started to gain a new perspective on what capstone really is about. There were a lot of little different things that I really liked, that I will incorporate into the progression of my project, but overall, my view shifted in the idea of what capstone really is. As we discussed in class, a lot of our ideas are very similar to just a normal class project. I think that capstone is something that could be considered something of ongoing research. It should be a project that encompasses new ideas for field in which your project is being produced. Capstone is something that we will put on display for future employers. In that sense alone, we want the project to incorporate everything that we are capable of. Not only that, we should be able to present it in a way that an employer that doesn't normally use an individual skill set would look at a project and question why he or she isn't doing that with there company. The main goal for almost every company across the globe is growth, so at some point in time they will need to use some sort of media. If my capstone is going to be a video, I a want to attract the attention of people that do programming and vise versa.