Music Video Finale

P1T2 Baby from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

It just hit me that this Music Video project will be the last big project we have before the end of 8th grade! In this project we were assigned to choose 4 teammates to work with. My teammates are Kalista Brigante, Blossom Novoa, and Mike Perry. The song we decided to choose was an oldie but a goodie, Baby by Justin Bieber. We chose this song because we thought we could add a great story behind it but yet still being humorous.

The storyline we created is about this girl who looses her first love. In this case Blossom is the boy begging for Kali's love back and I'm Kali's new boyfriend. Blossom tries her hardest to get that girl back but no matter what she does she refuses. Also, that girl now has a new boyfriend which makes things even more worse for Blossom. The storyline for this Music Video relates to the lyrics because the words in the lyrics are begging to win his love back which what are video shows. For example, there is a part where Blossom is down on her knees begging to have Kali back but all Kali does is give a weird look and gets taken away from her new boyfriend.

The degree this MV showcases our best work is on a pretty good note. This Music Video showcases our best work by us using all the filming and editing techniques we have collected in our brains throughout these years and putting them in one video. For the rough cut, we had most of our filming done and edited. All there was left was too film about 2 more scenes, add effects, and other finishing touches to make it perfect! Our final product came out to something that we should be proud of! I'm so glad we got to end this year off with this project. I am definitely going to miss this class! 

Baby By: Justin Bieber

Ooh whoa, ooh whoa, ooh whoa

I know you love me, I know you care

Just shout whenever and I'll be there

You want my love, you want my heart

And we will ever, ever, ever be apart

Are we an item? Girl quit playin'

We're just friends, what are you sayin'

Said there's another, look right in my eyes

My first love, broke my heart for the first time

And I was like baby, baby, baby oh

Like baby, baby, baby no

Like baby, baby, baby oh

I thought you'd always be mine (Mine)

Baby, baby, baby oh

Like baby, baby, baby no

Like baby, baby, baby ooh

I thought you'd always be mine

Oh for you, I would have done whatever

And I just can't believe we ain't together

And I wanna play it cool

But I'm losin' you

I'll buy you anything

I'll buy you any ring

And I'm in pieces, baby fix me

And just shake me, til you wake me from this bad dream

I'm goin' down, down, down, down

And I can't believe my first love won't be around

And I'm like baby, baby, baby oh

Like baby, baby, baby no

Like baby, baby, baby oh

I thought you'd always be mine (Mine)

Baby, baby, baby oh

Like baby, baby, baby no

Like baby, baby, baby ooh

I thought you'd always be mine

Luda, when I was thirteen, I had my first love

There was nobody that compared to my baby

And nobody came between us no one could ever come above

She had me goin' crazy

Oh I was starstruck

She woke me up daily

Don't need no Starbucks

She made my heart pound

And skip a beat when I see her in the street and

At school on the playground

But I really wanna see her on the weekend

She know she got me dazin'

'Cause she was so amazin'

And now my heart is breakin'

But I just keep on sayin'

Baby, baby, baby oh

Like baby, baby, baby no

Service Learning Non-Profit PSA

Share Family Meals PSA from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

For my 7th period class, we did a Non- Profit PSA for a local business called Keiki To Career Kaua'i. If you didn't know already, "PSA" stands for Public Service Announcement which is a way of sending a message and creating awareness about a certain issue. Keiki To Career works with education systems, human services, youth programs, families, and other businesses. My teammates for this project were Ashley Alfiler, Alaka'i Gonsalves, Makaio Gonslaves, and Meleana Keawe. Their mission is to bring the community together in supporting and developing Kauai’s youth so they are prepared to learn and are ready for life. However, this video was mainly focused on "Sharing Family Meals". My team decided to make a PSA video on this specific organization because we agree that everyone should make sure they have the time to spend with their family. For example, sitting at the dinner table on a daily basis and talking about how their day went will definitely bring a family closer together. In my opinion, family is one of the most important things in life and it is something we should value. In our video, it showcases a few interviews on people's opinions about sharing family meals. This video also includes b-roll showing how to enjoy the time you have with your family and to disconnect with any electronics while doing it. Overall, I think my team and I did a pretty good job on this project. If I were to change anything it would be to focus on the quality of our shots and to get more b-roll that is relevant to our interviews. If you would like to know more about this non-profit organization please visit their website at www.kauainetwork.org. Being able to produce a video for Keiki To Career Kauai was an honor. We are glad to proudly represent this organization with the video we made.

Movie Trailer Premier

    P1T5_Don't Say It from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

Here I am with another phenomenal GT project! The current project that my GT class is working on is Movie Trailers. I have to be honest, when I first heard we were doing Movie Trailers I got really excited. Anyways, our trailer is about a group of rascal friends who go out exploring one day. They see this car in the middle of no where and decide to steel anything valuables that they could lay their eyes on. Nothing is holding them back. So they go back to their normally scheduled lives and made like nothing ever happened. A few months pass and all of a sudden a paper airplane lands on our feet. One of us pick up the paper airplane and reads "I know what you did last month." I contributed to the plan by helping fill out the synopsis, 4 P's, keywords, and the scenes with its different composition techniques.

In everything we do there is always challenges that we are faced with. The first biggest challenge was coming up with different composition techniques for each shot to make our trailer look pleasing to the eye. Also, another big trial was making our dialogue go along with the theme of our trailer. We needed to be more enthusiastic and realistic. However, there are some thing that we did well. Such as meeting the deadlines and requirements. We were also able to work together and get all of our b-roll done in one filming day!

I am pretty satisfied with our critique results! We were tied up with another team for the best overall movie trailer. Our classmates graded us "all expectations met" and "above and beyond" which was really good to see. I agree with our critique results because we put a lot of our time and dedication into this project and it all payed off. During this project I learned to never give up and to stay away from procrastination. Even though there were faced with some challenges we were able to overcome them by never giving up. We were also able to stay on task during our given work sessions and turn in our trailer on time. In conclusion, I am glad that my team and I were able to work together and complete this Movie Trailer to the best of our abilities.

Metamorphosis Animation

Here I am with another blog post! The next project that my GT class is doing is Metamorphosis Animations. We were assigned to come up with a team of 3 or 4. My teammates are Ashley Alfiler, Meleana Keawe and last but not least Micah Miller. The project goal is to first begin with presenting our slide pitch which include our 2 best metamorphosis ideas and other information about each focus statement. Next, we have to complete filling out and presenting our production plan and story board. Lastly, we are to begin filming and editing our 1-2 minute animation movie with our highest quality possible. The animation types we plan to use is stop motion, photo shop, and drawings.

Our focus statement is called "Rock Sprouts Flower".  It's about a rock that gets kicked and thrown around and eventually found by a little girl. Then, it grows into a flower. It represents confidence and to not be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. The first scene will show the rock getting kicked and thrown around which is how it ends up in the ocean. The second scene will be of me walking along the beach as the rock washes up on shore right next to me. I then notice it and have the urge to take it home because of how it looks. The third scene is where I take it home. The fourth scene will show me doing everything with that rock. Day by day, the rock starts to look like a normal rock. Finally, the last scene will be of the rock starting to grow a little bud.  After awhile, the rock blooms into a big beautiful flower. The resolution to the conflict is that the rock gets found and cared for by a little girl.

As far as our critique results go, I think we did a pretty good job. Our storyboard was very organized and had a clear sequence. One thing we could have improved on is having just a little bit more flow to our video. According to our results, it looked like some people had a hard time understanding. However, our animation was done with quality work and had clear audio and visuals. I feel like with the amount of time we had, we produced a great video. Overall, this project was definitely a fun one and I can't wait
to move on to our next project!

Geometric Portraits

The new project that were doing to start of the 2nd quarter is called low poly portraits. In my images I show different facial expressions. There are many of them. Facial expressions can represent your feelings and who you are as a person. In my opinion, facial expressions are universal because they can affect other people's expressions. For example, have you ever been out in public just walking around in a store and you pass someone you don't know who looks at you? That has happened to me multiple times and what I do is just smile and they smile back which makes me feel better and more comfortable.

To start, the first thing I did was take my portrait picture on Photo Booth. Next, I went to File>Open and opened my portrait picture to Photo Shop making sure it was an 8.5 by 11 inch canvas size. I made sure it included the top of my head and the bottom of my chin. I then selected the crop tool to crop my image so it was symmetrical and equally spaced. I also inserted a graph to help me find my line of symmetry. I made sure to lock my "portrait" layer so it wouldn't move. Next, I went to Image>Adjustments>Levels and made it to auto. I made a new layer called "outline" and selected the line tool. We decided to make the lines the color red so it was easier to see. The next step was to outline different parts of my face on only the left side. In all those outlines, we were to create triangles. One thing I had to keep in mind was to make bigger triangles on bigger areas of my face and smaller triangles on more detailed parts like my eyes. Once I was done making triangles on each part of my face I clicked on the first shape layer and went all the way down to the last layer while holding down shift. Each part had it's own layer like your eyes, nose, hair, lips, ears, and skin. Next, I made a new layer named "Low Poly". I selected the polygonal lasso tool and outlined each triangle. I went to Filter>Blur>Average to create the affect in each triangle. I continued to outline each triangle on my face and used command F to apply what I just selected on to all of the triangles to make the process faster. Next, I used the Polygonal lasso tool and outlined just the left side of my face. I pressed command J twice to  make two copies of the cut outs. One layer was called "left side" and the other one "right side". I clicked on the move tool and dragged the left side of my face to fit the other half of my face. I double clicked the "outline" layer and made the lines white instead of red. Finally, I made my background white and saved the finish product.

In my opinion, my Poly-1 and Poly-2 images are very different. My Poly-1 image is a profile of myself on the left and my second one is of my sister named Myranda which is on the right. My Poly-1 image is a bit more basic because it is the first one we did. For my Poly-1, I would improve on the sizing of triangles because I think I could've made bigger triangles on my face and hair. I also would have worked on my nose to make it look more realistic by putting less triangles. On the other hand my Poly-2 image is more vibrant and eye-catching. Personally, I like my second image better because like I said it is more clear and has a lot of contrast. I also like how my sister's face looks more realistic. For my Poly-2 image I would improve on making smaller triangles on her chin instead of one big one. Lastly, I would make her hand more obvious. To conclude, this project was not the easiest but I'm glad I got to try something new and get through it.

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.