Lily Blouin is doing a Senior Project about Senior Projects. For some context about her project, read her first blog post.
During my past three years at Tabor I often heard about senior projects, however I never had a clear understanding of what actually happened during those seven weeks. Senior projects seemed almost mythical to me, you would hear about them from seniors when they first talked about them in the early spring when they were excited about dropping classes.For seven weeks those same seniors would disappear into their work spaces and then would suddenly reappear later in the spring on the Friday of presentations with these amazing things that they would have accomplished, whether it be working at a radio station or a hospital, building a boat or a drone, creating a jewelry line or making a documentary about the Tabor Crew program. My project has shown me what actually happens during those seven weeks.
For starters, it is a lot harder than it seems.
I first realized this when I was three hours into editing footage going over the same shot working on the lighting because it wasn’t bright enough. I also realized this the time Final Cut Pro, the editing software I use, decided that it no longer recognized the footage I was using and decided not to work anymore. Thankfully I had saved all of my footage on the computer and on an external hard drive.
For Liz Tarrant, she has gained the knowledge of what it takes to be a recording artist and how hard it really is to spend hours on end in the studio. Khalida has endured battle wounds from her hot glue gun and to this day is still battling with the pain of hot glue on skin.
There’s so much that can be learned during these senior projects.
This entire experience has been a learning curve for me. I have taught myself how to use Final Cut Pro; how to choose the right footage, how to splice it together, how to work with the lighting and audio. I have also learned so much from the book that I am reading in conjunction with my project; it has taught me how filmmakers think and what makes a good one, including the necessary skills.
The other students that I am working with have also grown throughout the course of their projects. Liz has seen what it’s like to spend hours on end in the studio, the hard decisions that goes into choosing songs for albums, the practice and repetitions of chords. I have also learned that projects can change along the way, as mine is changing in length from day to day, but I’ve also gotten to experience this with Tucker.
I went into his project thinking it was going to be about restoring a scooter, but it’s actually so much more than that. He is working on learning tips and tricks for fixing up anything mechanical, and doing so by working on the frame of the scooter, the motor of a car, and learning how to weld by fixing a broken log splitter.
Khalida has learned more about her culture and what it means to her and her project, but also extending further than that into what it means for her future plans.
Finally, senior projects are an amazing opportunity to learn a new craft, a new passion or to go further with a passion that one may already have. I can’t imagine spending my last seven weeks at Tabor doing anything else.
