Meeting 16 - Fin

Last meeting this past Thursday, the atmosphere was relaxed, we had a chat about the poster and a brief look to what is left to be done:

  • Polish the document
  • Acknowledgemets
  • Appendices
  • Finish the poster

Not much, as I’m writing (Saturday 19th) apart from the appendices it is all done. Without getting too emotional, we shook our hands and we said we would have met next wednesday at the poster presentation.

This is it folks, this is my last entry as a student in this blog. I’ll probably post the Acknowledgements so to have a proper closure.

I’m debating if I should keep posting on the blog now that the project is done, and..what the hell, why not?! I might start using Tumblr to post silly GIFs as anyone else, I need to figure it out yet.

For the moment thanks to the few who read my posts, and if you feel brave enough you can always leave a comment.

Meeting 15 - the end is near

The meeting was quite long and very productive today, the end of the project is approaching and that strong feeling is in the air.

We had a closer look at the conclusion, the intro and the abstract spending a good deal of time reading it.

Overall everything seems to be in place. I managed to catch up with the schedule and by Monday I should have a first final draft.

In the meantime the channel continues to increase in views and subscribers (slowly). 

The Infographic Guy now has 326 subscribers and almost 20,000 views. Good times! 

Meeting 14

The end of the project is approaching stupidly fast. 

This meeting was about discussing Chapter 3 before to send it off to proof reading. 

Not much going on at this point, I just need to keep going.

Stress level: 7. 15 days to go.

Meeting 13

This was a rather brief meeting, we discussed the Intro and Conclusion for the final document as well as how chapter 3 can be improved.

The Intro:

  • what I’m going to study
  • divide it in chunks discussing the chapters

Conclusion:

  • reconnect to the learning agreement
  • connect to the intro
  • what has been done and why

I’ll get into writing those soon, right after I’ll have a draft for chapter 4.

25 days to go. Jeez..is coming fast!

Meeting N12

This meeting was all about feedback.

  • What should I ask to YouTubers and people from the industry?
  • Why?
  • What is the point of what I’m going to ask? 
  • If I ask what I will ask, will it work for my feedback chapter?
  • Am I ever going to finish this project?…no wait! This is not related.

Alrighty then, we came full circle in the end, and we decided to make people talk, and ask 3 generic questions:

Do you like the channel? How would you improve it? Why?

Here is the video:

If you feel like leaving a feedback, please do. You can even leave a comment down here.

Thanks!

Meeting N11

This little unreadable picture down here represent my next weeks trying to sort out the final Honours Project sprint.

…anyway.

Meeting 11 today, chapter 3 is on its way to be done. John is on it, I’m looking forward to have it back so that I can start making the last few changes before to proof read it.

The meeting was really productive and John had great ideas about the chapter. Wheels are spinning and the light at the end of the tunnel is not that far at all.

Action to take after the meeting are plain and simple (click on the image to have a better idea):

  • Finish the video I’m working on at the moment to ask people for feedbacks
  • Chop here and there chapter one, with the aim to re-purpose it a little bit
  • Write Chapter 4 (or at least start writing about it)

Good, back to the video now. Aye!

Meeting N10

Today’s meeting was more about awareness. 

7 weeks left and:

- I’ve got chapter 2 to finish up and correct

- Write chapter 3 (feedback and conclusions)

- Write another case study in the Lit. Review section

- Make a poster for the poster presentation

- Stress out massively

- Cry myself to sleep..no wait that is for next week..

Thanks John, now I’m back on track..straight to stressland! 

Coffee anyone?!

Meeting N9

Waiting for Week 12 again, today we had a good catch up considering we didn’t meet the past weeks. The big difference with the first part of the Hons project is that writing now is quite easier, although the academic style is expected, there is less reading due and it is easier to explain what I have been doing rather than researching the topic. 

There is not much due for next meeting apart to catch up with writing and keep doing as much as possible.

I’ve got 2 chapter to write plus a video to make in the next 8 weeks, I can hear the time ticking quite loudly.

Meeting N8

Week 12 is now around the corner and this final meeting kinda wrap up the first part of this Honours Project. I’ve got to touch up few elements in the introduction, finish to correct chapter 4 and make chapter 5 more like a treatment for the final project. I’m also going to make a video representation of the final delivery half proof of concept/half descriptive/half who-knows-I-will-see. Here the list:

  • Touch up the introduction
  • Correct Chapter 4
  • Finish Chapter 5/Treatment
  • Video Introduction

The last massive effort is for this weekend to wrap all up, and after I’ve got to dive into the other two coursework: Intermediate 3D and VFX Storytelling.

Meeting N7

Today we discussed all the 3 chapters I wrote so far and it was a very good chat. I was starting to worry a little because I wrote an extensive number of words already (about 7000) and this is not necessarily a good thing, especially because the time to do the final edit it can be a little tight and the quality of the paper might suffer. John cheered me up because what I’ve got so far is sound, and this is amazing. I now need to work on the final touches plus few new aspects:

Case study: I’m waiting to receive answers to the questions I’ve sent to the italian agency but I haven’t received any so far, which is kind of a drag but I knew that would have been a gamble, the guys must be really busy.

Final Project plan: We discussed with John that it would be worthwhile to introduce what is my idea for the final project.

Consideration chapter: This is something I would like to do, just to put down what are the thoughts I’ve got after the time spent researching.

Still there is a lot to do, and the time is short, I’ll need to postpone the 3D stuff I’ve got already lined, which means the last two weeks of the semester between the Intermediate 3D and VFX Storytelling coursework will be a total nightmare, I guess I’ll have to give up on sleeping..completely.

Meeting N6

Back on track for real this time. I’m keeping up with the schedule and I’m moving forward with quite a good pace. I had to re-shape the project because I made some big changes on the general structure. I used more words for the first three chapters and I need to figure out what to do for my 4th chapter. I wrote an interview for the agency I referred in this post and I really hope they’ll get back to me in time to work on the final chapter (the interview would go in the final deliverable in case I won’t receive it just now). Otherwise I’m planning to talk about 2 or 3 case studies without getting too much into details but enough to make my point.

Although I need to polish chapter 3 I’ve already got the word count covered. Sure I have to focus on writing the abstract Intro and a good conclusion but that can be postponed until I’ve got a final more polished paper (very soon anyway).

The meeting was quite inspiring, we had a good chat about adding bits and pieces to chapter 2 which is top of the list for next week. 

Meeting N5

Again, nothing much going on. I had two other submission this week so the project has been put on hold.

I’ve been attending the international student writing workshops to improve the academic style as usual.

Working right now to catch up with the project. 

Meeting N4

Meeting 4 went smoothly as usual, a very good chat about the development and some ideas I can go through. I’m going to check out this book:

and John also suggested me this audio book:

We discussed the first chapter which, I’m positive, will pass the draft status very soon. I’ve got additional feedbacks from Nick and Kendall on it, hopefully by the end of the weekend it will be done. 

I’m sadly still running behind schedule and I have two deadlines to meet this Tuesday, I guess work will just keep piling. I’ll have to make a good effort to catch up.

Big overall update and Meeting N.3

Tricky week the past one, I was struggling a little to be on top of things and as now I’m running behind schedule. That Sucks!

Meeting

Good meeting this week a nice exchange of ideas and the call to action was just to be on top of my schedule (I’m following a Gantt chart I made) and fix the content list a little being more specific about Chapter 2 and 3…and I’m running behind, again that sucks!

Update

The past week I’ve finished the first chapter which I discussed with Nick the International Student workshop keeper and Kendall (academic writing lecturer). I received a whole lot of interesting feedback about the chapter and I’m positive I can enhance it and correct it.

I did buy this book:

Beyond Viral: How to Attract Customers, Promote Your Brand, and Make Money with Online Video (New Rules Social Media Series)

This is brilliant, the author is a Youtuber himself and the approach he takes on the matter is astonishing. This is a must read for my project (and not only) and I’m glad I bought it. I’ve also realised, thanks to Nick, that I can have a go with the National Library of Scotland  which has a whole lot of books I need. Sadly you can’t loan anything there but at least I can collect references.

Meeting N.2

Second meeting down the road. 

We had a chat about the Learning Agreement draft today and John gave me some good feedbacks:

- I gotta be more clear in the final deliverable section. 

- fix the introduction, stating my goals more clearly

Is amazing how difficult can be to put some simple thoughts on words sometime. The confusion I have regarding the final deliverable is clearly shown in words and I still have to think about a coincise sentence that can describe the project without bragging about how great the whole process is. The only action before next meeting is to have a final version of the paper before the end of this week, I tried to finish it today…bad luck. 

UPDATE 11:18pm

I’ve managed to finish the new draft in the end..good times!