1

Shivani Toshniwal

Sustainable Systems

Jean Gardner

Documentation of Final Project

My favorite place in the city is my school housing. The issue that disturbs me is when people do

not recycle in the building, even when the building provides with a recycling facility. Throwing

landfill waste in the recycling garbage boxes also disturbs me. Recycling room/facility in the

housing is special to me as it makes me feel nice and makes me believe like I am giving back to

the environment in a very small way.

For the project, I decided to make a video out of gifs. I made a rough outline for my video in my

notebook.

2

After this step, I started filming different clips. I took multiple shots of the same thing. I also made the decision of making my final video in a horizontal format. I selected the clips that helped to show the best visual in regards with the content. One of the clips also required me to photoshop, a red cross sign to indicate that the process of throwing landfill waste in the recycling bins is wrong. I learnt a new technique of photoshoping videos for this clip. This process was new to me. Here is a screenshot of the photoshop file I created to use in the video-

3

These are the clips that I used for the final video-

4

These are the clips I did not end up using for the final video.

I started interviewing the students who lived in the student housing. I came across a student who didn’t know that the student housing even provided the facility of recycling. I wanted to share their perspective in my video too. The final video I made aims towards making newly admitted students in the housing inform about this facility and start a conversation amongst them. Gifs from the interviews I took-

I added subtitles, in the boomerangs that covered the main points of the interview.

I wanted to add a background music. So, for this I started searching for inspiring music on YouTube. I came across a sound that went well with my video. The link to the sound- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-yJtbP0sGo

I downloaded it the soundtrack and attached it to the compiled version of all these clips. Draft One for my final project was ready! I used Premiere to compile all my material. After the presentation, my two reviewers suggested a few changes that would make my project better. These changes were as following- Tolu Akinyemi- I think the gif technique is interesting, but adding a few different elements like people speaking and sharing their opinions, would make the video more dynamic. I'm missing the how, what when, and where. Pradnya Paramitha Putri- The subtitles of the people being interviewed are shown too fast and not visible enough, perhaps change it to audio instead. Perhaps combine your gifs with some videos and images.

5

My professor also recommended me to read an article by the New Yorker about climate change. She suggested to use a few facts from the article and inform the audience about things that they did not know about. I completely agreed with my reviewers and my professor. I read the article. Marked the points that I could use in my video. I wanted the facts that I used in video to be subtlety placed.

6

While making my final draft, I made the changes recommended to me as I believed that it would bridge the gap between what I wanted to present and what I presented. I made the background music low, recorded my own voice that introduced my aim of the video. I read bout New York City being waste free by 2030. I felt it was an important fact that should be introduced to the audience. The annotated version of my audio is mentioned below-

Other than this I made a few clips shorter as I felt that they could be edited better to make them more crisp and precise. I re-filmed the interviews and gave a few facts to one of the students in the interview that I wanted to share from the article that I had read as it made the point more clear and evident. I added text towards the end of the video to give it a better ending. I also felt that in the Draft One of the video lacked New School spirit. Hence, I decided to make posters that took care of that. I attached another poster to my video that gave an informed detailed version of waste disposal. I did not want to get into detailed information about waste disposal in the final video. But I did want to share the method through a poster. So I ended up making three posters. They posters are mentioned below-

7

• Recycling In The Dorm, Loeb Hall Student Housing 


• Shivani Toshniwal, Student at Parsons School of Design 


• Qualities: Substitute for home, has a friendly people including the staff, forms a community, 
living situation, learning space, gives an opportunity and provides an environment to learn new 
things. 


• Facts: Small place, Clean, safe, provides a beautiful and quiet study space, has basic facities 
like gym, laundry, recycling, mailing. 


• Pattern: To support the survival of my favorite place in the time of Climate Change, which 
affects the entire earth and all the systems within it. I can make students and others aware about the facility of recycling provided to us. Hold a meeting at the beginning of each semester to remind people to recycle. Recycled materials can then be used again to make new things, which further lead to better usage of different products in a more sustainable way. This also forms a healthy system in the student housing that further effects outside it. These lifestyle changes once inculcated will remain with the students even when they move out, which is beneficial for the future. 


8

Recycling In The Dorm

Is there a recycling facility provided by

the student housing? Why is it important?

BY SHIVANI TOSHNIWAL MAY 04, 2017

9