The Olympic Discovery Trail
🎓 Honors Project Reflection Report
Project Title: Behind-the-Scenes Video of the Olympic Discovery Trail
📽️ Project Overview
This Honors Project was an exciting opportunity to integrate and apply the diverse skill sets I’ve developed throughout my college coursework—ranging from photography and videography to editing and web design. The final product, a behind-the-scenes video of the Olympic Discovery Trail, reflects both my creative vision and the practical challenges of independent production.
🧠 Concept Development
The initial concept for this project began in the previous academic quarter. Due to competing priorities and limited time, the project was temporarily set aside. Once revisited, I began by conducting research and engaging with local stakeholders, including a meeting with the Sequim Chamber of Commerce. These conversations provided valuable insight into the trail’s development, maintenance, and community impact, helping shape the narrative direction of the video.
Although my original goal was to produce a full-scale documentary, constraints in equipment, time, and resources led me to pivot toward a behind-the-scenes format. This shift proved to be a creative success, offering a compelling visual experience while leaving room for future expansion.
📷 Production Process
To capture a dynamic range of visuals, I utilized a combination of professional-grade equipment:
- Canon R6ii with both wide-angle and telephoto lenses for high-resolution imagery
- DJI Action 5 Pro mounted on my bike and truck to achieve immersive, motion-based footage
These tools allowed me to explore varied perspectives and create visually engaging content that highlights the trail’s natural beauty and accessibility.
🖥️ Post-Production Challenges
Once the footage was captured, I transitioned to post-production—a phase that proved to be both technically demanding and creatively frustrating. My current laptop struggled to handle the processing load, resulting in significant delays and workflow interruptions. Despite knowing exactly how I wanted to execute my vision, hardware limitations made it difficult to fully realize the final product. The editing process, which comprised more than half of the project’s effort, was hindered by slow rendering and upload times, affecting both productivity and morale.
🛠️ Software & Tools Used
Despite these challenges, I employed a suite of professional software to complete the project:
- Adobe Photoshop – Created and animated custom maps and bike graphics
- Adobe Audition – Edited and refined audio tracks
- Adobe Premiere Pro – Assembled and edited the final video
- YouTube – Hosted the completed video
- Bluehost WordPress – Designed and launched an Honors Project webpage to showcase the video and accompanying photography
🌱 Reflection & Future Plans
This project reaffirmed my passion for visual storytelling and my commitment to producing high-quality work, even under resource constraints. While my ambition exceeded my current technical capacity, it also clarified the need for a more capable editing system. Upgrading my computer will be a priority moving forward, enabling me to pursue more complex projects with greater efficiency.
I remain enthusiastic about continuing this work and plan to produce a comprehensive video on the Olympic Discovery Trail in the future. This initial behind-the-scenes piece serves as both a creative milestone and a foundation for future exploration.
this report was refined using Copilot and then further refined in Bluehost. Copilot August 2025 prompt used: can you re write this to be a professional report of my reflection on this project: Honor Project Reflection I had a lot of fun, using the skills that I have learned in my college classes, to create this video. From photography and video through the editing process to web design, I used a combination of skills to complete this project. I started off with the concept of this video in the previous quarter, but with so many projects going on my time was limited and this project was pushed back. I first started out by gathering information and talking with people. I met with the Sequim Chamber of Commerce to get a better understanding of the trial, how it was developed, maintained and the impact of it on the community, so that I could form an idea of how I wanted to film this project. Limited by equipment, time, and resources, I was led to filming this behind-the-scenes video instead of the grand documentary that I had originally envisioned. Fortunately, the behind-the-scenes video turned out to be great and left me an opportunity to do future video work for this project. I used a combination of cameras and lenses such as Canon R6ii with wide angle and telephoto lenses. I also used a DJI Action 5 pro camera to capture video from my bike and the front of my truck. This allowed me to capture a dynamic range of camera angles for striking visuals. After capturing the video and photography, I imported the media to my laptop. This is where I did not have so much fun. My laptop was slow to process and not only became a huge time killer, but it was also a motivation killer as well. With editing being over half of the battle, I had a hard time putting everything together. I was most frustrated because I knew what and how to do everything that I wanted, but my laptop made it impossible to show my true vision and extremely difficult to show what I was able to. I spent many countless hours waiting for “simple” things to process, render, and upload. I used Adobe Photoshop to create the map and bikes then animated the movement. I used Adobe Audition to edit the audio shown in this video. I used Adobe Premier Pro to edit the video. I then uploaded it all to YouTube. I also used Bluehost WordPress to build an Honors Project page to post all my videos and photography for this project. I still want to do more with this project, but I have realized that my ambition far exceeds my available resources to complete. I will work towards upgrading to a better computer that can handle the workload I need. I will have a complete video on the Olympic Discovery Trail in the future.
Behind the Scenes Video Creation of an Olympic Discovery Trail Adventure
I created this video to show the behind the scenes making of my upcoming video showing an adventure on the Olympic Discovery Trail.
To make this video I used a variety of resources:
Computer Apps: Adobe Photoshop – for map creation and animation. Adobe Premiere Pro – for video editing. Adobe Audition – for sound adjustments. Canon Utility – for importing my photography and video. songgenerator.io – paid version (I own the copyright) Adobe Bridge – to edit
photography Camera Gear:
Canon EOS R6ii and Canon L series Lenses. I used additional equipment such as tripods, mounts, lighting, my truck, and DJI Action 5 pro
I also utilized Adobe Stock to purchase licensing of the initial drone view of the beach.
To make this video I had to first make a plan, meet with people and discuss my options for recording. I then set out to get my bike ready as shown. Once my bike was ready, I went on an adventure and filmed as I went.
I used both my truck and my bike to travel to locations. This allowed me to capture both photography and video from the trail, all 135 miles plus surrounding scenery.
Once all of the video was captured, I uploaded it to my computer and started working on the editing process.
Stay tuned for my official video which be released soon which will be full of better views and animations.
