WRD 110-055: Blog 8: Storyboard

Olivia Giese

WRD110-055

Jennifer Hudgens

November 17^th, 2015

Architecture Studio Culture

To open the architecture studio culture documentary video, I am planning on starting with a black screen and the open credits. The music will start playing. I am using a part of the song When the Streets Have No Name by U2. The music will play the words in the song and the first part of the credits will start with the name of the documentary. To create an intense opener, I may have a voice overview with a man’s deep, strong voice to catch the attention of the audience and viewers. I want a very dramatic opening because the architecture career field is very intense and as I have experienced, they do not hold back anything. Professors are on the go from day one and it comes on full force. After the documentary title, pictures of studios, classes, and students and faculty will come into effect with an overlay or words containing the title of the song and artist that will appear, followed by the name of the person recording the voice over. When the voice over comes on, the words of the song will fade away to just the karaoke version of the song. As of right now, the voice over is going to be my own voice. The words will appear in a neutral color, not drawing too much attention away from the display which holds the main importance of the documentary. There will not be a voice over view, besides the opening title, until a live interview plays on the screen. I am going to record one of my friends from my studio class, Lauren Mitchell, live and play it in the video. As you watch the interview in the documentary you will hear her own voice saying the following information to you and the music will fade away. To credit her and prevent confusion of the viewers, her name will be in the corner of the screen. The interview will last about one minute. Lauren is a sophomore at the University of Kentucky, but a first year architecture student. She is majoring in Architecture with a minor in Spanish and is enrolled in 19 credit hours. She was previously a fine arts major and I previously asked her a few questions on November 11, 2015. I personally asked her, “What kind of classes are you taking this semester? Do you consider your classes/major a community that you are part of? Why or Why not? How many people to do you know on a more personal level in your classes? Professors? What are advantages and disadvantages of studio culture vs. a standard classroom setting? Which do you feel is more beneficial to

your education?” She replied, “I am taking three architecture classes, a 3 credit hour class, a 3 credit hour studio, and a 3 credit hour studio class (12 credit hours), 1 UK core class (3 credit hours), and 1 language class (3 credit hours) for my minor (totaling in 19 credit hours). I do not consider the core classes much of a community but the classes that are related to my architecture major and Spanish minor yes. Especially the ones regarding Architecture because we spend so much time together. Each semester I have had the same people in my Spanish classes so we have built relationships and architecture classes will be the same way. We just started and we are already all really good friends. In my architecture class I do not know an exact number but I at least know 15 or more people pretty well. This does not just include our studio class either, but like upper years and professors as well. I do not know anyone in my core class. In my Spanish class, I probably know like 3 or 4 people well. I do not know my Spanish professor very well. I think it is an advantage that you get to know everyone so well in studio life and because you get to spend so much time together. Even outside of school the Architecture world is small so it is like you have already started networking and some of your classmates could easily be potential coworkers. I think that studio life is better for your education because I was a fine arts major last year and even though we spent almost the same amount of time in studio as we do in architecture, we did not get our own stable studio desks or anything. We shared desks with other people where as in architecture it is solely our own, so we did not spend as much time with the same people therefore you did not get to know very many people. It is not as tight of a community as architecture is and you feel a lot more involved in architecture than you do in other classes.” This interview is very important to the documentary because it shows personal experience and non biased opinion. It also shows a different point of view other than myself. In my opinion it is the best source of information because the audience can hear and see first hand someone saying the information that they are being told. What Lauren states is also very true in regards to other students and their experiences including my own. Online there are multiple sources talking about the life of an architecture student and the adjustment to studio life that comes with it. The interview will fade out and more pictures of places and different architecture studio projects that students have made will play on the screen with music in the background. There will be a voice overview as well, telling information about the studio culture that architects are talking about. The information is so important to come off strong because it is so different than most expect or think it would be like. Studio culture is one of those things that you don’t know what it is like until you experience it yourself, so one of my goals is for my audience to get a glimpse of what it would be like and experience it because very few have. I am planning on having another interview in the video that will ask about how studio life compares to what you expected it to be like, if they like it, if they prefer it over general education classes, why or why not. This other interview will fade in as the video, pictures, music, and voice over fade out. Christian Anthony will then appear on the screen in the documentary with his live interview video . I asked another one of my studio mates, Christian Anthony, in an interview these questions and this is what he replied with, “Before coming to college, I did a lot of research on what the life of a studying architect looked like. Many students described the lifestyle as never ending work. Others described the countless painstakingly slow hours during all-nighters. Some also commented on the unbearable stress associated with finishing a model before a final review. While I have seen all of these statements hold some level of truth, one thing that each student never failed to mention was the robust atmosphere of studio life. Each day as architecture students we are placed in a studio beside similar goal orientated individuals, for hours as a time, who seek to challenge the creative limits of their mind and as a result, challenge others. It is here, more thanks in any of my other classes, that I feel a passion to progress the depth and intensity of my studies. Not only for my personal pride or a mark of merit, but to progress and refine our culture.” Christian is a freshman at the University of Kentucky and is a first year architecture student. When watching his interview, his name will be in the bottom corner for clarification. This interview is very well stated and contributes to the point I am making in my video. After the interview, the voice over will come back on stating the following information about the architecture education process and studio culture as well as the background music of a portion of the karaoke version of the song Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect. Studio life is clearly not easy, and is harder than most classes through all the hard work and dedication. But it betters us as students and designers. A design studio is a unique educational model where a class of about 15 students produce creative design solutions for problems posed by the studio professor. Architecture has three main guiding principles: creativity, community, and commitment. In each of these come three sub-topics. Creativity includes imagination, dialogue, and individual development. Some of the goals of an architecture student are to discover, imagine, and create. Working through your imagination, there are not necessarily wrong and right answers. Instead, it is a process of critical thinking to produce new design and inventive solutions that leads to discussion and creative action. As ideas are pretty open ended, it leaves room for discussion between the students and professors. The faculty help guide and critique the development of models that the students propose their ideas through. The professional expertise and feedback is very important to students. You definitely seek individual development as studio helps students find their own creative voice within the discipline of architecture. You develop ways to communicate your ideas not only verbally but physically as well. You also develop an individual response and point of view of architecture. In this way the studio experience shapes the contributions of the students to the profession of architecture in the future. The community aspect has already been touched on some, but there is more to it than just what was previously said. There also comes ethics, collaboration, and balance. Through a lot of criticism and critiquing, students learn to be able to maintain a positive attitude and outlook on their ideas and designs. Questions and comments are meant to extend the critical thinking process and enhance ideas. A baseline of collaboration is established between students and faculty members. Lastly is commitment. Design studio requires the highest commitment from students, faculty, and administrations. Because of all of the overlapping commitments that come along with this job, it is essential for students and faculty to recognize the importance of time management and the setting of priorities with clear guidelines and expectations. Students are expected to treat architecture in the same manner as they would a job. Attendance is critical and mandatory. Most professors result an unexcused absence in a lowered grade or even as far as failure in a class. It also is very important to put their best effort into their work and the appropriate amount of time to develop their designs. Quality of time spent on studio work contains higher precedence than quantity. Time management is key, and most students will generally find themselves working four times as much longer than they anticipated to in order to complete their work. Procrastination is a huge risk in the architecture field. A deadline is mandatory, and they try to prepare you for that because in the future it is not acceptable for your progress to not be on track or complete by a deadline. Standards are held very high to the students as well as the faculty and administration. Faculty are required to fulfill their obligations in terms of total required hours of teaching, and they should make every effort to limit the cancellation or change in class times to once or twice in a semester, in order to limit conflicts with non-studio classes or other activities. Any class that is cancelled is highly recommended to be rescheduled and made up. Class time holds a very high importance in the education of architecture and is taken very seriously. The administration is committed to ensuring that the studio environment fully supports the mission. The environment should be safe, comfortable, and technologically sophisticates to support the interests of faculty and students. As the commitment standards are held so high, there are times that students are scrambling to finish a big project in time and with that comes a long many wild and crazy stories that I am sure you think of when you hear the word architecture. The sleepless nights and countless hours of work put into your projects can hit you hard as a student. There are some who talk about how this habit in studio life can affect the health and wellness of students. As the documentary comes to an end, the display fades out into a black screen with rolling credits in white text. The song Architecture by Jonathan Thulin will play in the background until the credits are over. The credits will include mainly the bibliography: all music and artists, voice over, interviewees, the sources of information, where the pictures came from, actors, editor, video maker, and the program used to make the video.