Capstone Status as of 11/3/10

This is the first update for my capstone project. I've been really busy and forgot to change this from an old class.

My original idea for a capstone project was to cover how Indiana's school music industry is losing state funding, but a lack of materials forced me to switch my topic a few weeks into the semester.

Now I am making a documentary about hookah smoking, which is smoking flavored pure tobacco and molasses through a water pipe. This is a growing trend in America, but is a long standing tradition in many countries and cultures. My reason for making this my topic is to find my own solid evidence of whether hookah smoking could be considered a better alternative than smoking cigarettes. Most of the reviewed information I consider inconclusive due to the investigators not taking into account the vast difference between hookah tobacco and cigarette tobacco, which is pure tobacco and molasses for flavoring instead of the 400+ chemicals found in cigarettes.

I have found a interviewees for this documentary that are very involved in the hookah industry. They are shop owners and enthusiasts that are very knowledgeable and personable which will the interviews seem less ameturish. I also have doctors lined up, one being a hookah smoker himself. This was a very exciting find for me.

I also have a rough list of questions, that I will be updating soon. So far they are (copied from my treatment):

• Questions:
• Hookah industry:
• · Name/role with hookah
• · How long have you been involved with this?
• · How did you learn your trade?
• · Can you give me a history of water pipes?
• · What are different types of waters pipes you’ve used/seen?
• · What are the average ingredients in hookah tobacco?
• · How much smoke would one person inhale in one hour?
• · Do you smoke cigarettes?
• · Is it addicting?
• Medical
• · Name/position
• · Where did you go to school?
• · Have you worked on any projects involving smoking? Papers? Conferences?
• · What do you know about smoking cigarettes?
• · Do you know the differences between cigarette and hookah tobacco?
• · What’s the difference between the two?
• · What are the long-term and short-term effects can hookah have on someone who smokes 3 times a week?
• · Are there any benefits, physical, mental, social or cultural to smoking hookah?
• · Have you ever smoked hookah or cigarettes?
• · Is it addicting?

My next steps will be to story board, come up with an art directions, and a chapter sequence.