100% Finally making it to week twelve of Genius Hour feels amazing. Also Knowing that this is the last blog I have to do is amazing. When first starting this project I was nervous because I had no idea what to expect, but week after week I felt more comfortable. During week one I thought to myself that week twelve seems like it will never come, but now that we're here it feels surreal. Week twelve of Genius Hour was a very productive week, with a lot of tasks completed. I worked on many things including my final project, filming another podcast episode, and helping with another Genius Hour project.
The first thing I worked on this week was filming another episode of the Final Frontier Podcast. The main area we focused on for this episode was fishing. We went to a remote pond behind my house to go fishing and record some footage. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil the episode, but I will say there was a fish caught. I hadn't been to that pond in years, so as a result, I forgot the right trail to the pond and instead of taking it we went through thick mud and thorns to make it to the pond. The second main thing I worked on this week was helping Ethan Lakey film his milk mile for his Genius Hour. I won't say too much on this topic too, but go check out his YouTube channel and my channel for the behind-the-scenes. I also worked a little bit on my final presentation and started to work on my video for my final presentation as well. Overall I will say this was a productive week with a lot of fun. Looking back on this entire project I will say I am glad I did a podcast because yes it was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
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11 For Week Eleven of Genius Hour I worked on multiple different things to ensure my project will be a success. The main area I focused on for week eleven was analytics, but I also brainstormed many ideas for my final presentation. The reason I focused so much on analytics again this week was I wanted to note all of the changes that have occurred. The main thing I have noticed is that my subscriber count and watch hours have both increased. Without analytics, it would be much harder for me to tell whether I am improving or not.
Even though I set a goal to try and gain one hundred subscribers, that is not the only thing I am focusing on. The main goal I want to achieve is to become a better content creator and learn more about it. Whether that is learning how to edit or create the layout of a video. Content creation has always been a passion of mine, so being able to incorporate it into a school project is amazing. It’s important to learn things that you are interested in and not just subjects you have to take. There are many things that I wish I could have done better or sooner than I did, but that was in the past and I can only look toward the future. When I look back at everything that I have done for this project I think that I have done a great job. Knowing that after this blog, I only have one left to write makes me bittersweet. When I was writing my first blog, it felt like it would take forever to reach week twelve, and knowing that week twelve is almost here it is sad and nice that the project is about to be over. 2 W For week ten of Genius Hour things got real. I realized that the final presentations are due in two weeks and I still have a lot of work to do. There were many things I did this week to help prepare for my final presentation. The main thing I did was work on my statistics since I wanted to compare my stats from before and after I looked over everything to make sure all of my measurements were correct. Statistics are a huge thing for my project because they help me to determine if I reached my goal or not. They also tell me certain areas of my craft I could improve on.
My plan for this week was to film another episode of the Final Frontier Podcast, but my plans quickly vanished because of the rain that occurred over the weekend. Even though I couldn't film this week, I still have plans to film in the near future. Also, another thing I did this week was work on connecting my YouTube link to my website. The reason I did this was to force people to view my episode by going through my website, so my website gets more traction. Knowing that I only have two weeks left on this project, I have to give it my all to make sure I finish strong. The two things I still have to complete are filming my other episodes and working on my final presentation. I know I still have a lot to do, but overall I am feeling confident about the direction I am in. The biggest problem I have faced so far during this twelve week span is procrastination. I'm not saying I have fallen super behind, but I would like to be a little further into the project then where I am. After all things conserved I am feeling good about coming into week eleven. Reality Coming into week nine of Genius Hour, I had a huge reality check of just how fast Genius Hour can go by. Looking back on the first three weeks of Genius, I wish I would have done more. Don't get me wrong I think I did a lot of good work in that time frame, but I know that I could have been more productive. For week nine of Genius Hour, I had one main goal and that was to finish editing my first podcast episode. My plan after that was to release the video early next week on week ten of Genius Hour.
In previous weeks the only editing that I have done was the rough draft for my first episode. My goal for this week was to complete this episode, so I could move on to film my second episode during week ten of Genius Hour. The first thing I had to do in my editing process was to select certain moments in each clip that I wanted to include for this episode. The next thing I did was watch the whole episode and censor anything while watching the episode. The final step in my editing process is to fix audio, lighting, or any other area that needs work. Finally, the episode is ready to go. The last thing I did for week nine of Genius Hour was to make sure one last time that everybody I needed could film a podcast on week ten. After making sure everybody was able to make it, we also made sure everyone could come to the right places at the right time and if not I would have to change the plans a little bit to fit everybody's schedules. Even though I wished I could have worked a little harder in the earlier weeks, I am still proud of the progress I am making. 80% For week eight of Genius Hour, I had to make a huge decision. Realizing that there are only four weeks left I decide to only film three episodes instead of five. The main reason I made this decision was because of the amount of effort it takes to create only one episode. Coming into this project I just assumed it would be easy to create episode after episode, but I was wrong. To create just one episode you have to find guests, make a plan, and find a date that works well for everybody. Realizing all of this, I have decided to focus more on quality over quantity.
The second thing I did for week eight of Genius Hour was set up more future dates for other plans for future episodes. I have already talked with my upcoming guest for my next episode and we have looked over our plans. Even though I have only filmed one episode so far, I have a feeling the next two episodes are going to have way better quality and are going to be more entertaining. I am also really close to uploading the first episode of the Final Frontier Podcast, there are just a couple of segments I still need to edit. The last thing I did for week eight of Genius Hour was look at my YouTube analytics. Since my plan is to post the episodes on my YouTube channel and increase viewership and subscribers. I thought it would be a good idea to compare my stats from the day before I posted my first episode to a week after I posted my last episode. I want to do this to see if I have reached my goal of reaching one hundred subscribers and increasing viewership. Overall I am feeling good on going into week nine. 7 For Week Seven of Genius Hour, I had to change my plan a little bit. My plan for week seven was to film my second episode of the Final Frontier Podcast, but I had to go out of town for the weekend, so I couldn't. Since I spent all of week six filming my first episode of the Final Frontier podcast, I decided this week to work on editing. I first put all of the clips together which didn't take too long. Then I deleted every clip I did not want to be in the episode. After I did both of those steps I watched all the rough footage, which was pretty good.
There were two things I took away from the rough footage. The first thing I took away was I needed better lighting. In a lot of the clips I saw most of the lighting was good, but other clips had a bad angle which made the lighting for the clip just as bad. The second thing I took away from the rough footage was that the audio could be better. The main reason I say this is because a lot of times we spoke to quite and you could hear us. I think the main thing we could do to fix this problem is to speak louder, so all the listeners can hear. The last thing I did this week was plan for the second episode of the Final Frontier Podcast. I don't want to talk too much about this topic because I don't want to spoil anything, but we have some good ideas for the next episode. My plan is now to film the second episode next weekend and film my last episode on week eleven instead of week ten. Overall I think this week was very productive and beneficial for the podcast. 50% Week six of Genius Hour was my first-week recording episodes for the Final Frontier Podcast. The first thing I had to do was set up my set of where we were going to film the episode. I decided to film the first episode in my basement due to it having the best lighting out of any other room. I then put all of my equipment where they needed to go and I was finally ready to pick up my guest. For episode one of the Final Frontier Podcast I decided that my first two guests would be Ethan Lakey and Gage Jackson. I first picked up Ethan then Gage and then we went back to my house to discuss the plans for the podcast.
After discussing our plans for the episode we then filmed our intro and headed to Moes. We first ate lunch at Moes since all of us were hungry. We then went to Krispy Kreme and bought a dozen and half a dozen donuts for us to try. Once we left Krispy Kreme we headed back to my house to try the donuts. We bought eighteen donuts, so each of us could eat six. After filming us eating donuts we then decided to talk about other topics on the podcast. Once we were done filming the podcast we decided to just hang out and play basketball. Before filming the podcast I was very anxious to know how the podcast would turn out and after watching clips and pieces of it, I am proud of the outcome. This week was just week one of the five weeks that I will be filming my podcast. Every podcast episode will be available with a link on my Weebly Website. I know that I still have a lot of work to do, but I am excited to start filming again. Unique Going into week five I realized this was my last week of planning before filming my podcast. For week five, I knew all I wanted to do was research other podcasts for inspiration and prepare everything before filming. The first thing I did in week five was make a list of other podcasts I was interested in researching. My list was filled with many different podcasts from multiple genres. When I was doing my research I was looking for certain things mainly dealing with the set and how they filmed it. The reason I was looking at other podcast sets was that I was struggling to find a place to film my main segments and I needed inspiration.
Another goal of mine was to make this podcast unique and different from other podcasts. When I was doing my research I took note of everything that made that specific podcast unique and tried not to copy that idea. I eventually came up with a solution that would make my podcast different from the rest. Knowing that it is already week five is a little frightening for me. This whole time I have been building up my podcast and planning for it which creates pressure for me to execute and deliver good content. Another worry that I have is if my first episode turns out bad which could potentially mean I have used all of this time for nothing. The final step in planning before starting to film my podcast is to create a list of activities and challenges I would like to do during the five episodes of the Final Frontier Podcast. After completing all of my research and creating a list of everything I would like to do, my first podcast episode will be released at the end of week six. List On week two of Genius Hour I created a layout for my entire project and my goal was to complete that layout week after week to ensure my success. My goal for week three was to make a list of all the necessary equipment that I needed for my podcast to have the best quality it could. On my list, I listed microphones, a tripod, and a ring light. I planned to buy all of that equipment in week four. So, If I want to complete my layout week after week, everything stays the same for week four.
When week four finally came I had a huge shock realizing Genius Hour was already one third of the way done. After wasting my whole first half of the week I knew I had to stop being lazy and start making moves towards my goal. Week four was the first time this project I realized just how fast time moves and how valuable each week actually is. Since I made a list of all the equipment I needed it made it much easier to locate and find everything. So, after I was done getting everything ready I was then ready to go get all of the equipment. Last week when I was creating my list for all of my equipment the main thing I was taking into account was my budget. I knew I wanted to buy good quality items, but I knew it came with a price. So, after doing some research I finally came up with the items I wanted that fit my budget. First I went to Amazon to buy the tripod and ring light which was the easiest trip since I didn’t have to go anywhere. I then went to Walmart to buy the microphones which was also an easy trip. Since I now have all of my equipment I am now ready for the next step. 25% During week three of Genius Hour, I realized we were twenty-five percent done with the project. Realizing that we are already a quarter of the way done put the project into perspective of how fast it goes by. During week two of Genius Hour, I created a plan for the entire layout of my Genius Hour project, and wanting to follow the layout this week's goal is to create a list of the equipment I need for my podcast. I know that if I have one problem no matter how big the problem is with keeping up with my plan it could throw off my entire project.
First I had to create a list of all the equipment I wanted to increase the level of quality for this podcast. I knew right away that I wanted to have some sort of microphone to increase the quality of audio. After doing some research I planned on getting two small portable NUZYZ Microphones. Second I knew I wanted a way to have the ability for different camera angles, so after looking around online I discovered a tripod that has many different settings that work for iPhone. Finally, the last thing I wanted to improve on was my lighting. I then settled on getting a twelve-inch ring light. My final step was to obtain all of the equipment. Buying the tripod and ring light was going to be easy due to both of them being on Amazon, but buying the microphones is not going to be as easy. After searching online for a place to buy the microphones I finally ended up going to Walmart and buying them in person. Now that I have a list of everything I need I will be ready to buy the equipment next week. Once I have all of my equipment I will be ready to research podcasts and then start to film. |