The action plan:
The criteria:
Selected Process Journal entries.
20 Nov 2020 – Entry 1
Today I was just humming to myself when I realized I could record myself humming and use it as background music for my Personal Project video. I would have an endless supply of unique music that would lend my videos a unique character. This would become a unique part of my channel on YouTube. I could also make a separate playlist containing just music. I would perhaps use an icon I would make for my channel as the video part for just those videos
2 Dec 2020 – Entry 2
I did a lot of work on the script for the video today. I have 5 days of holiday and so I am going to use them for making the product and completing Criterion C. In the script, I added the parts about the photoelectric effect and fields.
I also thought about whether I should show myself in the videos. I know of several high quality popular channels which do not include faces (like Kurzgesagt, CGP Grey, more channels I don’t remember right now. Although, I’ve noticed that both of these channels use animation). There are, of course, channels which do include faces. Yet, their lighting, image quality, use of depth of field is absolutely professional. I do not have such professional devices and so I should think about whether to include myself. I could perhaps film myself talking against a background such as a lake, which could make it more professional. I will record myself and see if it looks professional enough. If my channel grows enough, I could acquire the professional instruments and show myself later on. I want to make a video that I would be happy to watch.
3 Dec 2020 – Entry 3
Today I recorded myself making two waves interfere which made a nice interference pattern. I had been thinking that I would use images from the internet as the visuals for the video but then me and my parents found a drawing app that would let me make visuals from scratch. Learning how to use the new app took some time but I think the higher consistency and more professional look definitely outweigh the time lost. This was a bit of a risk. I have never used drawing apps before. The last time I had done even physical drawing was at least 5 years ago. Drawing using the app takes a LOT of time.
Khan Academy uses such apps for their videos. They draw while explaining. I want to make a video that I myself would watch for fun and the videos I watch for fun don’t really use the Khan Academy style. When I watch something for explicitly learning about a specific topic, I find that several of those videos use the Khan Academy style. I won’t, however, because I want to make a video that I would watch for fun.
17 Dec 2020
It’s the Winter Holidays and I’m using them to work on the product and also to relax (which is much needed)
I also recorded several parts of the script. Often, I would be interrupted by household noise such as the creak of a door or the sound of a running faucet. I re-recorded many times but this had the benefit that my voice was “warmed up” and that I was more confident and less error-prone.
I have only one part of the script left to write and record, and this is the part that combines all the info about EM waves, colors and the atmosphere to explain why blue is scattered more. I’m hitting some difficulties here. To explain why blue light scatters more, I can cite the Rayleigh Scattering equation. However, simply citing the equation is not a satisfactory answer, because I should explain why the formula works. So, I tried to find the derivation of Rayleigh scattering: http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/em/lectures/node97.html
However, explaining this derivation would be lengthy and also unnecessary, so I decided that I would explain resonance, which is what the first equation in the derivation represents.
18 Dec 2020 – Entry 4
I can go to the playground near a swing to explain resonance between the electron and light by explaining my hand’s resonance with the swing. That video I took with the water interference pattern needs to be redone; What I’m doing can’t be seen properly. It’s also in portrait mode whereas the rest of the video is in landscape. To make it look more professional, I’ll change this
Another thing I understood from feedback was that speaking as I was doing an action was much better than just adding in audio recordings later. Using the first technique made it more engaging, interactive and enjoyable.
25 Dec 2020 – Entry 6
Yesterday I filmed parts of the video that I needed to do outside. I re-did the water wave one (which took a lot of retakes), I filmed the swing resonance one and I filmed two more sections which were relevant to sunlight or the sky.
I’d aimed to complete the video today but I couldn’t because I hit some problems. One was that the drawings I had made myself needed to be scrapped completely. Feedback from my target audience told me it looked unprofessional and did not look neat. Thus I had to find better visuals and cite them. Finding visuals for exactly what I was talking about proved to be difficult and time consuming. Yet another issue was that I would sometimes mispronounce words. I used some editing skills to fix them as best I could but at one point, due to some technical issue in the recording equipment, the voice at the start was muffled and incomprehensible. The voice would slowly get louder and louder until it was loud and clear as normal. To fix this, I first tried increasing the volume. While it did get louder, it was still incomprehensible. Then I explored some of the features of my editor which had equalizers. Using these, I was able to make it sound less muffled but it was still hard to understand. Then I found “audio effects”. One of these was an effect to make the voice sound like it was in a large orchestral room. Thinking that this option was surely the opposite of a muffled voice, I applied it. All it did was apply an echo to the muffled voice, making it even harder to understand. At this point, I think I will replace that section of audio with a voiceover recorded separately.
16 Jan 2021 – Entry 7
1. What causes the resonant frequency of an electron cloud at which it has the highest acceleration with same amplitude EM wave?
2. According to the Rayleigh Scattering equation, the type of gas does not matter and any gas should look blue
Add loads of images and explain other stuff
B-roll and pattern interrupts
5 February 2021 – Entry 8
Say that there is no ether
Label image of earth in ether with ether
Wavelength image
Today I cut parts that were boring or unnecessary so that the video remained engaging for the younger demographic
Parts I cut were:
The first half of the video is very engaging because it has a lot of visuals and experiments
I added some text to explain some terms which also made it more engaging.
The later parts are not as interesting because … so to make it better, I will add an experiment involving simulating an atmosphere with milky water.
Add text at the end of each section summarizing the section.
While explaining blue light resonating, say that it has a higher frequency and relate back to the swing.
Add milk experiment at 8:53
6 February 2021
I divided the answer section into a waves section and an answer section so that
I replaced some audio which could be misunderstood (we don’t see violet as well as blue was the part that was replaced)
I added a summary section that has some ending music and a thanks slide.
I fixed a lot of audio, added background music and some text where it is important for the listener to understand what is being said
Technical issues:
Recording phone would have low audio at the start
iMovie would add in cut audio even after it was cut
13 February 2021
The 12 minute long video is now on YouTube and in just 6 days, it has gotten 177 views and 5.8 hours of watch time. As of now, it has 24 likes and 1 dislike. All 5 comments are positive and one person even said: “Good job, the explanation was very detailed, yet weirdly enough easy to understand.”, which is exactly what the goal of my personal project was: to explain something fully, without any loss of detail, yet effectively.
20 Nov 2020 – Entry 1
Today I was just humming to myself when I realized I could record myself humming and use it as background music for my Personal Project video. I would have an endless supply of unique music that would lend my videos a unique character. This would become a unique part of my channel on YouTube. I could also make a separate playlist containing just music. I would perhaps use an icon I would make for my channel as the video part for just those videos
2 Dec 2020 – Entry 2
I did a lot of work on the script for the video today. I have 5 days of holiday and so I am going to use them for making the product and completing Criterion C. In the script, I added the parts about the photoelectric effect and fields.
I also thought about whether I should show myself in the videos. I know of several high quality popular channels which do not include faces (like Kurzgesagt, CGP Grey, more channels I don’t remember right now. Although, I’ve noticed that both of these channels use animation). There are, of course, channels which do include faces. Yet, their lighting, image quality, use of depth of field is absolutely professional. I do not have such professional devices and so I should think about whether to include myself. I could perhaps film myself talking against a background such as a lake, which could make it more professional. I will record myself and see if it looks professional enough. If my channel grows enough, I could acquire the professional instruments and show myself later on. I want to make a video that I would be happy to watch.
3 Dec 2020 – Entry 3
Today I recorded myself making two waves interfere which made a nice interference pattern. I had been thinking that I would use images from the internet as the visuals for the video but then me and my parents found a drawing app that would let me make visuals from scratch. Learning how to use the new app took some time but I think the higher consistency and more professional look definitely outweigh the time lost. This was a bit of a risk. I have never used drawing apps before. The last time I had done even physical drawing was at least 5 years ago. Drawing using the app takes a LOT of time.
Khan Academy uses such apps for their videos. They draw while explaining. I want to make a video that I myself would watch for fun and the videos I watch for fun don’t really use the Khan Academy style. When I watch something for explicitly learning about a specific topic, I find that several of those videos use the Khan Academy style. I won’t, however, because I want to make a video that I would watch for fun.
17 Dec 2020
It’s the Winter Holidays and I’m using them to work on the product and also to relax (which is much needed)
I also recorded several parts of the script. Often, I would be interrupted by household noise such as the creak of a door or the sound of a running faucet. I re-recorded many times but this had the benefit that my voice was “warmed up” and that I was more confident and less error-prone.
I have only one part of the script left to write and record, and this is the part that combines all the info about EM waves, colors and the atmosphere to explain why blue is scattered more. I’m hitting some difficulties here. To explain why blue light scatters more, I can cite the Rayleigh Scattering equation. However, simply citing the equation is not a satisfactory answer, because I should explain why the formula works. So, I tried to find the derivation of Rayleigh scattering: http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/em/lectures/node97.html
However, explaining this derivation would be lengthy and also unnecessary, so I decided that I would explain resonance, which is what the first equation in the derivation represents.
18 Dec 2020 – Entry 4
I can go to the playground near a swing to explain resonance between the electron and light by explaining my hand’s resonance with the swing. That video I took with the water interference pattern needs to be redone; What I’m doing can’t be seen properly. It’s also in portrait mode whereas the rest of the video is in landscape. To make it look more professional, I’ll change this
Another thing I understood from feedback was that speaking as I was doing an action was much better than just adding in audio recordings later. Using the first technique made it more engaging, interactive and enjoyable.
25 Dec 2020 – Entry 6
Yesterday I filmed parts of the video that I needed to do outside. I re-did the water wave one (which took a lot of retakes), I filmed the swing resonance one and I filmed two more sections which were relevant to sunlight or the sky.
I’d aimed to complete the video today but I couldn’t because I hit some problems. One was that the drawings I had made myself needed to be scrapped completely. Feedback from my target audience told me it looked unprofessional and did not look neat. Thus I had to find better visuals and cite them. Finding visuals for exactly what I was talking about proved to be difficult and time consuming. Yet another issue was that I would sometimes mispronounce words. I used some editing skills to fix them as best I could but at one point, due to some technical issue in the recording equipment, the voice at the start was muffled and incomprehensible. The voice would slowly get louder and louder until it was loud and clear as normal. To fix this, I first tried increasing the volume. While it did get louder, it was still incomprehensible. Then I explored some of the features of my editor which had equalizers. Using these, I was able to make it sound less muffled but it was still hard to understand. Then I found “audio effects”. One of these was an effect to make the voice sound like it was in a large orchestral room. Thinking that this option was surely the opposite of a muffled voice, I applied it. All it did was apply an echo to the muffled voice, making it even harder to understand. At this point, I think I will replace that section of audio with a voiceover recorded separately.
16 Jan 2021 – Entry 7
1. What causes the resonant frequency of an electron cloud at which it has the highest acceleration with same amplitude EM wave?
2. According to the Rayleigh Scattering equation, the type of gas does not matter and any gas should look blue
Add loads of images and explain other stuff
B-roll and pattern interrupts
5 February 2021 – Entry 8
Say that there is no ether
Label image of earth in ether with ether
Wavelength image
Today I cut parts that were boring or unnecessary so that the video remained engaging for the younger demographic
Parts I cut were:
- A part where I explained why that specific pattern formed in the double slit experiment (not necessary information)
- A part where I gave the example of sound while explaining amplitude, frequency and wavelength
The first half of the video is very engaging because it has a lot of visuals and experiments
I added some text to explain some terms which also made it more engaging.
The later parts are not as interesting because … so to make it better, I will add an experiment involving simulating an atmosphere with milky water.
Add text at the end of each section summarizing the section.
While explaining blue light resonating, say that it has a higher frequency and relate back to the swing.
Add milk experiment at 8:53
6 February 2021
I divided the answer section into a waves section and an answer section so that
I replaced some audio which could be misunderstood (we don’t see violet as well as blue was the part that was replaced)
I added a summary section that has some ending music and a thanks slide.
I fixed a lot of audio, added background music and some text where it is important for the listener to understand what is being said
Technical issues:
Recording phone would have low audio at the start
iMovie would add in cut audio even after it was cut
13 February 2021
The 12 minute long video is now on YouTube and in just 6 days, it has gotten 177 views and 5.8 hours of watch time. As of now, it has 24 likes and 1 dislike. All 5 comments are positive and one person even said: “Good job, the explanation was very detailed, yet weirdly enough easy to understand.”, which is exactly what the goal of my personal project was: to explain something fully, without any loss of detail, yet effectively.