Verbal Landscapes

ChangT_Retime from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

The second project that my GT class is starting this year is "Retiming Nature". We decided to stick with the "poem" theme for this project. We are to create a 60 second maximum video including 3 time-lapses and 2 slow-mo videos. Nature is such a great thing that not a lot of people notice what it could do for you. I interact with nature everyday just by going outside. I love going to the beach, playing soccer, hiking, adventuring, and many more. Nature impacts my life by making me feel better whenever I'm a bit stressed out or just not feeling as happy as usual. It makes me feel very calm and relaxed. Just by breathing in some fresh air when I go outside will make me feel like a new person.

Like I said in the previous paragraph, we are required to take time-lapses and slow-mo videos. Time-lapses are created by taking a regular video on a camera, phone, or other devices. Then, it is sped up to create a pleasing looking video showing movement in clouds, time, waves, etc. Slow-Mo's are also similar. They are created by taking a regular video but instead of speeding it up it gets slowed down to show every little engaging detail that is happening. In Final Cut Pro it allowed me to custom how slow or how fast I wanted my video to be.

Since this is my last year in GT and in middle school, I've learned that each project you do there is going to be a few challenges and inconveniences. However, there are your most funnest parts. My hardest part of this project was getting good quality shots. For example, I had a hard time getting a straight horizon line and steady shots. However, I did take several time lapses and  slow-mo's so I had different choices to pick from. My favorite part of this project was just finishing it. There's nothing better than the feeling of accomplishment. I love watching my final product and what my hard work was put into. To conclude, I had a lot of fun putting together this project and I'm glad I got through some of my challenges.

Critique Reflection:
After everyone turned in their video, we had a critique to know how we did and where we stood. 10 people said I was a 4 which means "exemplary" and 17 people I was a 3 which means "accomplished". I agree with my results because I put a lot of hard work and effort into this project. I wanted this video to be high quality and go above and beyond in Mr. Sanderl's expectations. I took several shots over and over again to make sure my horizon line was straight. I also tried to stay away from any shaky shots and I found some music that was calm and matched my poem. So I really think I deserve the grades that I got and I'm glad to know that I did well.

Poetic Personal Statement

I can't believe this will be my last first blog post of the year! Our first project of the year is Poetic Design. For this project, Mr. Sanderl gave us more freedom so that we  can be more creative. So we never got a lot of directions but I think it was still a good idea. I think poetry is a form of literature. Poems can sometimes rhyme or have rhythm. Poems are used to show emotion, feelings, experiences, lessons, or a specific messages. They tell a special story someone wants to share in words.

For this project, we needed to include a poetic statement describing my personal goals. My poetic statement is:
Going to chase my dreams
Nothing to be afraid of it seems
Can't wait to go to college
Going to need my knowledge
Looking forward to the new memories that will be made
I know they won't fade
Don't want to leave my family and friends
Have to enjoy it before it ends

I also made another poetic statement I'd thought I should include:

Running with adrenaline
Sweat coming down my face
As I'm keeping my pace
Ball goes in the goal
Crowd goes wild
As I walk off the field with a smile

As I said in the beginning, poems can sometimes rhyme or have a rhythm to it. In my poem I used rhyme. I first thought of words that relate to my personal goals. Then I found words that rhyme with some of those words. A great source I used to find rhyming words is called rhyme zone. Lastly, I put together sentences and laid everything out to create a poetic statement! I chose to used rhyme in my poem because it gets the readers attention and I think it's fun to use. Overall, I think this poetic design project is a great way to start the year and I'm excited to be creative and have freedom completing it.