Hello, Medium
Hello world! I’m a senior studying at a university in Southern California (I wonder which). I run a small production company where I produce, shoot, direct, and edit various forms of content for myself, friends, and small businesses in the local area. It’s super fun, and I love working in the film industry–I’ve dreamed of it since I was a child.
I first started “filmmaking” in elementary school, making short stop-motion animation videos of my toy cars racing around my living room–on my iPad, with a thick, grey, clunky case. My friends and I would also record silly slow motion videos where we would throw a big bouncy ball at each other and watch it fly across the room, bouncing off various walls and potentially large, flat screen electronic devices. I don’t exactly remember why we enjoyed doing this so much. I would also travel a lot with my family, so I would take lots of photos, playing with cameras as my toy.
None of that was really “filmmaking,” (what really is filmmaking?) but fast-forward to high school, where I took classes for film and started to work on short projects outside of school, and it moves me closer to where I am today. No more slow-motion big bouncy ball videos, unfortunately. Maybe it will make a comeback one day.
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So, that leads us to our research question. I really enjoy film and the filmmaking process. Why am I choosing to research the topic of real estate development?
To be honest, I don’t know much about real estate development. The most I know is from my mother who has an interest in real estate development, and some of her projects. I’ve been involved in some of their design processes, but have usually not been that involved. I’ve always been interested in architecture and design from a young age too. I used to sketch and design communities and other buildings in middle school, either doing them for class, or building them in Minecraft. This leads me to believe that it might be an interesting field I can potentially pursue in the future. This might be something I can do alongside film to have a more steady career. As a result of my limited knowledge of the topic, my question is: What do real estate developers do? This is a temporary question and will evolve as the semester progresses.
There are too many questions I have no idea how to answer yet. What steps does a developer take to turn an empty piece of land into something like an apartment building or shopping center? How do developers decide what is a financially suitable investment, what is worth building, and the factors that lead into that decision? What is zoning? How much does a community have a say in the construction of these new projects? I also would like to learn the key people involved in this process and their importance.
Throughout this blog, hopefully I learn and explore what it is to be a real estate developer, maybe learn about some of the real estate developments around Southern California, and find out if I should become one, or just stick to building things in Minecraft and filming slow-motion bouncy ball videos.
