Semester Project Self Review

The Project
My project was a portfolio website which sells myself and my team as a worthy videography and/or photography option for event coverage and media creation.

The Content
The site is comprised of:

• General video reels of work
• Work examples of specific genres of event coverage and media creation
• Short explanations of what I offer

It is organized in a way that provides overarching examples for the general audience of my site, and then offers further information and examples of work in categories based on type of work for the curious potential client.

The Tone

The overall tone of the site is of the utmost professionalism that I can muster. I am trying to sell myself as a professional, and the tone conveys, ideally, that I am all about providing excellent content and an excellent work ethic.

The Organization

My site is organized to encourage exploration of work, and offer easy access to my work at every opportunity. The path of the site is:

1. Landing Page : An overview of me, my team, and my work
2. Three Subsections of Work :  Each of these is divided into subsections based on genres of work, and small blurbs about my services are bellow each sub-heading, along with a video example.
1. Event Videography : Weddings, Fashion & Style, Live Music.
2. Video Production : Documentary Films, Music Videos, Narrative Films.
3. Photography Portfolio : Weddings, Live Music, Nightlife Events.
3. About Page : My own backstory and experience.

What I Like

It is an extremely clean site, and because I am an overly verbose person, it was difficult to cut it down to a digestible site. I think I have achieved that.

The main point of the site, in the end, is to show myself off. I want people to be impressed. I think my portfolio speaks for itself, and this site allows for a pretty simplified foundation upon which to navigate my portfolio and then pay me money.

What I Don't Like

I will definitely be changing it further. While I enjoy the simple style and outline, I want more of a punch. It needs to pop more. Right now it is clean. I want it to be clean and impacting.

I also am a more multi-faceted artist than just video. While I have included photography in this site, I am frustrated that I haven't yet included other art forms. I am a consistently-gigging and recording musician, and an even more consistently-writing writer. I need to somehow figure out how to facilitate examples of these works on my site without completely overwhelming the audience.

In conclusion, I am very satisfied with the site I have now, most especially with its organization. Now I wish to make it pop more, and include more varieties of my work, seeing as how it is called "jamesdaggett.com". This is my website, my online body of work. I want it to impact the mind.

Online Form for James Daggett Videography

For my online form, I created a questionnaire which focuses on identifying the needs of my clients.

The World of Freelancing
The odd thing about freelancing, in my experience, is that you do not necessarily have a target client. What you have is an ocean of potential clients looking for a range of services. While it is nice to be able to offer a number of services, I believe it would be of benefit to myself to work to narrow down my client base to a section of that vast ocean, and then capitalize on their needs.

Narrowing Down
I have been doing this for some time, but through guesswork. The questionnaire would allow for a crude narrowing of the needs of the visitors to my site. I've received a few emails from people interested in my services, and while they provide a bit of information about their needs, the questionnaire allows for a far more specific and targeted bid for data.

Using this data, I can discern the following:

• What the most sought after project is for visitors to my site (wedding, music video, etc.).
• What the price range is of my potential clients.
• Where potential clients are located.

There are a lot of other questions, but they are more for curiosity's sake. The goal is to identify the type of project, price range and location of people who are visiting my site.

Our Amazing Planet

Hummingbirds are unique creatures which spark curiosity in many people. In this section we have gathered together some of the most fascinating facts about 

hummingbirds.

Flight

• Their heart beats 1,260 times per minute.
• A resting, they often takes 250 breaths per minute.
• They can fly forward, backward, and even upside down briefly, which they accomplish by spreading their tail and doing a backward somersault.
• A hummingbird's flight (or pectoral) muscles account for one quarter of its total weight (compared to 5 percent in humans).
• They bathe by flying through sprinklers or spray from waterfalls; they may also flutter in wet foliage or dip in a shallow puddle.
• A male ruby-throated hummingbird’s wings beat between 78 and 200 times per second.
• A male Allen's hummingbird can fly 45 miles per hour during the dive display.

Body Structure

• The smallest one in the world, the bee hummingbird of Cuba, is only 2 1/4 inches long.
• Hummingbirds have the largest known relative heart size of all birds. Their heart represents 2.4 percent of their body weight.
• Other birds have wings with several movable joints. Hummingbird wings are different. The bones in their wings are permanently fixed and rigid, except at the shoulder joint, where the wing can move freely in all directions. 
• When hovering, their wing moves forward, and then the leading edge rotates nearly 180 degrees and moves back again.

Iridescent Feathers

• The outer third of each feather is iridescent. 
• This part of the feather contains layers of minute structures called platelets that are filled with tiny air bubbles. 
• These structures partially reflect back light, causing the brilliant shining colors of reds, purples, and blues seen on hummingbirds.
• The back feathers also have iridescence, but the iridescent parts of the feathers are concave and reflect light from any direction. 

Albino Birds

• Albino hummingbirds are very rare. Albinism is caused by a genetic change that prevents the formation of dark-colored pigment in feathers. 
• Birds may have partial albinism, in which just some feathers are white, or in the rarest forms may have a total absence of pigment from skin, feathers, and eyes. 
• Albino birds don't live long because they often have poor eyesight and brittle feathers and thus reduced flying ability.

Diet

• An average hummingbird consumes half its weight in sugar each day. 
• Compared to a human, he would have to eat 285 pounds of hamburger every day to maintain his weight. 
• They feed 5 to 8 times each hour, but only for about 30 to 60 seconds at a time.

Eggs

• Of all birds, hummingbirds lay the smallest eggs; their egg is less than half an inch long, or half the size of a jellybean. 

Migration

• The Rufous hummingbird has the longest migration route of any hummingbird; some fly up to 3,000 miles from their breeding range in Alaska to their wintering grounds in Mexico. 
• Ruby-throated hummingbirds fly 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico on their migration. Before starting, they increase their body weight by 50 percent, storing energy as fat to burn while crossing. 

Lifestyle

• They can live up to 12 years, although many live only 3 to 5 years.
• They are fiercely aggressive and will attack much larger birds, including jays, crows, and even hawks. 
• They do not have a sense of smell, as far as is known. They locate their food by eyesight, investigating colorful blossoms for nectar and picking small insects out of the air and off leaves.

Torpor

• To conserve energy at night, hummingbirds sometimes go into a state of torpor. 
• Their heartbeat slows to about 50 beats per minute and their breathing becomes irregular. 
• They do not go into torpor every night, only when their energy reserves are low. 
• Torpor can last from 8 to 14 hours. The next morning, arousing from torpor can take up to one hour for the larger hummingbirds. 
• As they wake up, their heartbeat and breathing rates increase. When their body temperature reaches 86 degrees Fahrenheit, they can fly again.

Mites

• In many flowers there are mites that grow and reproduce within the blossoms, feeding on nectar and pollen. When the flower stops blooming and no longer contains nectar or pollen then the mites have to move on. 
• As the hummingbird visits the flower to sip nectar, the mites run onto the bird's bill and into its nostrils. (This does not hurt the hummingbird.) 
• They wait there until the bird visits another flower of the same species as the one that they left, and then they get off. 

Infographic #2

For my second infographic, I decided to go a route that has nothing to do with my Semester Project. It is, however, an interesting battle of metaphors presented by Al Vernacchio in his TED talk.

Semester Project Progress Update #1

For my Semester Project, I am redesigning my portfolio website.

What's Already Functioning
There are a few things that I won't be changing too much.

• Domain Name
• Photography Portfolio, though maybe scrolling isn't the best layout, and it being the home page is nonsensical.
• Simplified Design

I believe it functions well enough currently, but what I'm looking to do is make it pop off the screen, and leave visitors with something to remember.

What I've Been Working On

• The portfolio itself. I am editing the videos that I want to be featured on the site, and aim to be done in two weeks so that I can have  work to put up on the site. I have 5 more videos that are almost finished to be put up shortly.
• Layout. My original idea was to have a suitcase on the homepage that leads to the different parts of the site. I am working on similar alternatives.
• Having my reel play on the homepage with visual elements around it that lead to other pages.
• Travel Theme. I want it to be more built in to the site, rather than in your face. I think a way of attaining this is adding a page with a world map as an alternate way to view my portfolio.

Infographic - Resume

Frequently Asked Questions

James Daggett is a freelance filmmaker and photographer based in Chicago who specializes in documentary-based projects.

He most often is hired to capture weddings, concerts and travel-oriented projects.


How much does he charge?
Pricing depends on the type of project, the duration and both the amount and type of equipment being used.

• Weddings: The charge for weddings is based on the number of cameras being requested. For a one-camera coverage, it is $80 an hour, and for each additional camera it is an additional $70 an hour.
• Other Live Events: For live events, the charge is based on the number of cameras, but it is a flat rate of $60 an hour per camera.
• Other projects: The charge to shoot for other projects is based on the equipment and hours required, and varies anywhere from $40 to $100 an hour. Contact James for queries.

What sort of experience does he have?
James has five years of shooting experience and six years of editing experience under his belt. He has created multiple award-winning shorts, including an advertisement that was accepted into the Cannes Lyons Film Festival. He has worked on two major documentary projects, Under One Roof and Call and Response, and has a passion for shooting both at home and abroad. He has shot weddings and music events in both Chicago and San Francisco, and recently has travelled around Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on shooting projects.


What equipment does he work with?
James works mainly with a Canon 7D DSLR and an 18-135mm, a 50mm and a 35mm lens. He uses an H4 Zoom for audio recording. He has a handicap for motion shots. He often rents equipment for shoots, as well, and has experience using a Canon 5D, a Canon C100, a Red Dragon and a Blackmagic Cinema Camera.


What sort of travel-oriented projects has he worked on?
James recently travelled to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East shooting profiles on specific cities within seven different countries.


What languages does he speak?
James speaks English and Spanish fluently.


Would he be willing to travel for a project?
Absolutely. A three-week notice is required for any projects involving travel.


Does he have any editing experience?
James has six years editing experience working on Avid, Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere.


What is the turn-around time on a project?
The turn-around time is based on how much editing is requested.

• Raw Footage: This can be supplied on the same day as the shoot. It costs no extra.
• Minimal Editing: This is a brief clean-up of the footage, where stabilization and color correction can be added. It takes between 5 and 20 hours of editing, and costs $25 per editing hour.
• Advanced Editing: This is editing to the specifications of a project, and can take anywhere between 20 and 100 hours of editing. It is also $25 per hour.

Who are some inspiring filmmakers?
James is greatly inspired by Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, David Lynch and Jon Krakauer.

A Portfolio Semester Project

My semester project for Writing Digital Content will be to create a site where my portfolio can be seen.

Purpose
Videography is my main source of income. I would like to both expand my client base and my range of projects.

My true passion lies in travel, so my main goal with this site is to expand into the world of travel videography. Through this site, I aim to slowly garner more videography gigs which allow for travel, and thusly slowly construct a travel portfolio that will lead to bigger and better projects.

Strategy
I currently have a site up and running that houses my portfolio, and while it does get me jobs, it is fairly generic.

My strategy is to take this site and improve it in the following ways:

• Simplify: The new site needs to be as bare-bones as possible. It needs to get to the point quickly.
• Enrich: I want to implement a unique design, something that will both attract attention and enrich the overall experience of visiting my site.
• Impacting: Whether or not they decide to hire me, people need to leave my site with a unique memory of it.

Plan

My plan is to start from the beginning and completely redesign the site page by page.

Currently the site consists of three pages: filmography, photography, and contact. My plan is to condense this to two main pages:

1. Work: This page would have a video reel representative of my video work, and a rolling photography window representative of my photography work. Clicking on either would take you to an expanded portfolio organized by types of projects.
2. Contact: This page would describe myself and the projects I am interested in working on.

Design

The design is imperative to the success of the site. I want something engaging that carries the idea that I am serious about travel.

My ideal design consists of a homepage with nothing but a suitcase, and when clicked upon it opens up to reveal the site's contents in a creative form; if you click on the camera that lies in the suitcase, it takes you to the 'Work' page, and if you click on the sheet of paper, it takes you to the 'Contact' page. Something like that.

This is a very basic design and it is likely to change, but for now it is what I'm aiming for.

Outside Media

Obviously, this being a portfolio site means that it relies heavily on my actual portfolio. I have a fairly populated portfolio online at the current site, but I aim to incorporate more recent works into the portfolio to match the launch date of the site:

• A Sizzle Reel for 2014 (the main video for the site, under 2 minutes and showcasing all of my work)
• An Updated Wedding Reel (with work from 2014)
• An Extended Travel Reel (with footage from my travels over the past two summers)
• Updated photography from the past year (I will add approximately ten new photographs to my portfolio)

Extended Life

I plan to design a site that will be both creative and functional in the real world. I hope to emerge from this project with something I can use for the next two, five, ten years. I want to construct a basic platform that is enticing to the audience and allows for my professional opportunities to expand.

Jimmy's Favorite Blog - Humans of New York (and Beyond)

It does not take an excessive amount of insight to see why Human of New York is a website that is appealing on a massive scale.

Having accrued over 9.5 million fans on Facebook, Humans of New York is the brainchild of street-photographer Brandon Stanton, an ex-bond trader who quit trading when it suddenly went south in the summer of 2010. He moved to New York and began taking photographs of strangers on the street, eventually incorporating an interview aspect into his work and asking both broad and personal questions of his subjects so that their portraits might be accompanied with a quote or two on his burgeoning blog and Facebook Page. Over the last four years, his blog and page have grown in exponential amounts, and feature people of all walks of life, social statuses and belief systems opening up to a white man with a camera on the streets of the Big Apple.

Fast-forward to 2014 and you come to the reason that I love this blog and page. This past summer, Brandon and a team of interpreters have been recruited by the United Nations to go on tour into conflict zones, cities and underrepresented lands across the world (well...ten countries). This provides the casual American, such as myself, whom wonders about different peoples across the world but is too lazy to learn different languages in order to get to know said peoples, an incredible opportunity to hear the stories and see the faces of a great many people.

While the questions are sometimes generic and the comment section infuriatingly naive ("they are just like us" crops up a few too many times), there is something powerful in the simple way Brandon portrays his subjects. He chooses pretty short quotes usually, and while that can serve almost as propaganda in portraying a subject (a single line of dialogue and a freeze frame in time), he is at least getting into places and talking with people that I haven't had the opportunity to get into and speak with. With the United Nations tour in full force, I log onto Facebook now with an excitement to see where Brandon has travelled and what amazing people he has had the opportunity to speak with.

You could say I'm unbelievably jealous.