Hurdles to Overcome!

Although editing is good fun and everything, we are running into some problems. The majority of these are that we find predetermined sections for our film to be boring and struggle to captivate anyone. They do not fit with the model our film has developed into and so we have had to let go of these ideas for the better. It is difficult to let something that you worked hard for go. There are elements, like documentaries and statistics, which we wanted to include, but that just would not fit well. What our viewers will be missing is some interesting information that might bore most people. The ultimate goal, once again, is to captivate and hold audience’s attention. Unfortunately, this day and age, entertainment is more important than education so we had to figure out how to fit that model of filming and editing. Your happiness comes over anything else, what you learn comes second. The key is to excel at both of these elements and I believe Joey and I have done that very well up to this point. We are almost finished with our edit and it is looking great so far. We expected some hurdles from the beginning and once we get over those and are in the clear we should have a great final product.

How Editing Works!

The editing process is becoming a pattern for me. What seems o happen is once we hit a new section of the film we do a voice over narration and then find clips to suite the words said. Then the final cut edit takes place where I make precise edits so that everything flows smoothly. Doing this over and over gets a little frustrating, but it is paying off. I love the film we have produced so far. There are some important sections, like history, that are not the most exciting and captivating, but they had to be done. Overall our goal is to keep your attention throughout the whole film, not for you to fall asleep, that would be a failure. Yes, we worked on this on our own, but throughout this we brought people in to view sections and get comments. This is to see whether they are enjoying it. Joey and I didn’t watch the film with them but rather watch their facial expressions to see whether they were enjoying it or found it boring. Almost everyone says it is good, but we believe they were only being nice, so there were changes that had to be made, for the better.

Another Monday...

...Well, not really. Most people might dread Mondays and wish that they never existed. I think that’s a waste of time because then there would just be Tuesday to complain about. But for me, throughout this project, I can honestly say that I've been extremely excited for every single day. I'm doing a lot of work, that's the truth. But, it's all work I want to be doing and all work that is extremely interesting. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m definitely enjoying this experience! So again, for me, the days mostly blur because I enjoy every single one of them.

However, this Monday actually was actually very important because it marked the turn into the last week. Yesterday, on Monday, I dis used with my sponsor how the last week was going to look. On Friday, I discussed in my blog how I’m now moving into some finalizing steps. Yesterday, I continued to get to work on that. I wouldn’t say that I have an overwhelming amount of work to do and things to accomplish before the end of the week, but I will say that this week is a highly, highly important one. Yesterday, I made my turn towards the finish line. I might have been serious before, but now it’s time to really get serious and really take these finalizing steps seriously.

La Fin

Today, Brandon and I had a goal to finish our documentary completely and be happy with the final product. But, we had to do a bit of last minute filming and editing before we were fully satisfied, knowing how much of a perfectionist Brandon is. After we compiled the last minute footage, put it all together and watched our entire documentary… it felt amazing. It was incredible to look see all of our work coming together as we watched our 10 minute film. After it was finished, and the credits rolled on the screen, I looked back at Brandon and smiled. It was such a relief that all of our hard work paid off. However, there is still work to be done in preparing for our presentation. Knowing our film is 10 minutes long, we still have to make a short presentation, explaining how we put this movie together. There is still two days left, which is a lot of time. With this being said, Brandon and I will likely devote our time to practicing the presentation and working on our reflections. All in all, we had our doubt early in the process, unsure of how the final product with turn out. But in the end, we couldn’t be happier. 

All on Our Own

Our time with SWERVE was a fantastic experience but it was also an amazing experience living in New York City for two weeks. Both of us had been there many times in the past, but always for a short time with a parent. This was the first time we lived their on our own. We were both nervous before we got there because we weren't completely confident with our ability to navigate the city. We knew that we needed to be economical which meant taking the subway to and from work every day. We spent our first day in NYC learning which train we would take and which stop we would get off at. We even did some test runs on the subway to make sure we understood our route.

I was so surprised at how quickly we became familiar with the city. We began to figure out where everything was and even know how long it would take us to get to each place in the subway or a cab (even with crazy NYC traffic). It was really cool that we were on our own because it gave us a sense of responsibility that neither of us really knew we had.

The experience really helped us get ready for college. Before we know it, we will be moving away and living on our own. Our time in New York City has helped us become much more confident about moving away from home and everything we our comfortable with. We now see how capable we are to adapt to our new surroundings.

-Amanda and Marshall

SWERVE-ing into Cleveland

After delving into the realms of franchising, our next task was to look into Cleveland. Is Cleveland populated with people that fit SWERVE’s demographic? Are young professionals moving to or back to Cleveland? Most importantly, is Cleveland a good fit for a SWERVE franchise? How would franchising affect SWERVE?

Upon reading several articles that supported the increase in the young professional demographic in Cleveland, Amanda and I deemed it a perfect fit for SWERVE. The ideal location for SWERVE would perhaps be downtown or in Ohio City- as both are thriving destinations with residential buildings and "trendy" restaurants. Among all of the up and coming areas in Cleveland, downtown is the most populated with young professionals.

Despite SWERVE's excellent potential in Cleveland, Amanda and I agree that franchising should be a long-term goal. Why? Because SWERVE, the "mother company," would lack absolute control over the franchise and the actions of the franchisee, and this could create conflict.

In conclusion, Amanda and I agreed that Cleveland would be a great location for a franchise (and perhaps we could be the franchisees! :) ), as our extensive research supported; however, SWERVE should solidify its roots in New York before anything else.

The table below indicates growth in Cleveland that specifically correlates to SWERVE’s demographics.

Written by Marshall Rankin and Amanda Trau on May 30, 2014

SWERVE-ing into the future

Our next task involved research. Amanda and I knew little about franchising, and thus had lots to learn: How did they work? What were the pros and cons?

The disadvantage to franchising that would most significantly affect SWERVE has everything to do with control. When a company is franchised, the “mother company” loses full control over the outlets of the chain. Although the franchisor (mother company) can establish stipulations over the franchise, the franchisee can make decisions that could ultimately affect the franchisor’s profits. If a franchise saw an increase in sales, but the franchisee decided to allocate the revenue in a way that decreases the profits, the franchisor will take less of a royalty. Moreover, the franchisee could blemish SWERVE's brand and name. For these reasons, Amanda and I agreed that SWERVE should continue to solidify it's good standing and deepen it's roots in the Flat Iron district before venturing out to other US cities.

As soon as SWERVE is ready, it should be franchised. Franchising is low risk, but a source of easy expansion capital. Without spending much of SWERVE's own capital, franchisees will open SWERVE studios across the country- and pay for the costs of developing each individual outlet. While such costs are paid by the franchisee, SWERVE the franchisor, will take in a percentage of each outlet's profits.

SWERVE is well on its way to phenomenal success! We cannot wait to see how SWERVE evolves and succeeds in the future.

Written by Marshall Rankin and Amanda Trau on May 28, 2014