Music Videos Rock!

P3T6 See You Again from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

We are finally starting to film are music videos! So far, my team and I have been doing a great job on working as a team and staying on task! My teammates are Kyler Arruda-Sukehira, Daileen Barton, and last but not least, Cara Griffin. We have all been doing something to stay on task for this project. Kyler has been are main editor and has helped us film some scenes that he's not in. Daileen has also helped film and she gave us the song idea too. Cara is mostly in all the shots because she's Paul Walker and she has really been a big help, she also printed are production plan for us which made are lives way easier! Overall, each person on my team has been great contributors!

I think that are music video shots are somewhat creative and I do have some of my favorite parts. Personally, my favorite part is where me, Daileen, and Kyler are laying on grass while Cara is circling the camera around us to get this really cool effect. I feel that part gives us the feeling of loosing someone because not only the b-roll but, the part of the song that we are playing it in. I think my audience will enjoy most parts of the video but there's theres just one part that I think will blow their mind! That part is where I am looking up at Cara or "Paul" and I start to smile and have a flashback of a happy moment that I had with the lost one. I think my audience will enjoy this part the most because it's the only part in the video where theres smiles and happiness and I think that everyone wants happiness.

Sadly, this will be my last project and my last blog post of the year. So far, I have learned a whole handful of things. One of our goals for our Music Video project was to include what we learned this year. My music video shows what I learned this year by the different filming techniques we learned, are editing skills, and last but not least, are hard work that we put into this. Mr. Sanderl always said "finish with the best quality". Overall, I had a great year and I think that making music videos is a great way to end off the year!

 

Lyrical Livelihood

Mr. Sanderls GT class is starting music videos. We are going to get into teams and make are own music videos! Im really excited because for this new project because I think we will have more freedom and that way we can be more creative and unique. To start, all songs make me feel a certain way. My favorite song lyrics makes me feel really happy and awake. These song lyrics make me feel happy and awake because of its beat and what they are saying in the song. Music that makes me feel happy and awake is my favorite kind of music because it just changes the way I feel and react. I also like music that I can relate to, that way I can understand the song overall.

My team and I picked the song "See You Again" by Furious 7. We picked it because it was dedicated to the famous Paul Walker and we think that it's a song that everyone knows and loves. We also like that it is really touching and it makes us have feelings. The beat to it and the way it is created is really awesome. In the beginning, It starts off slow and sad but then it goes into a rap or a more fast beat, and I think that it makes the song better and one of a kind because usually most songs have just about one feeling or beat. Overall, I just think that this song is really cool and perfect for a music video!

I think that every song has their own meaning or "visual story". Our song is more on the sad side and is kind of depressing in a way. The "visual story" that our music will tell is about missing someone who mabey has died or just when your missing someone in general. If you didn't know Paul Walker passed away recently and that's what this song is about. Our music will also tell you that its okay to be sad or depressed at times and that you should be strong. Lastly, our music would also tell that you just have to think of the good times you had with that person when your feeling down. To wrap up this post, I think that this project is going to be really fun and is a great way to end off the year!
Musician:Wiz Khalifa

Our Animation Story

 The latest project that Mr. Sanderl''s GT class is doing is animation. We have been working on these animation videos with are teams. Each video has its own focus statement that tells one persons story on the team. Our focus statement is "Taylor Defends Herself" and this story is based on my experience or story. Our focus statement tells my story because I have had experience in bullying before and it's something that is not good at all and my team and I think that this would help people realize that they should make an effort to stop bullying and to realize what it does to us and how it makes us feel.

Our goal for our animation video was too make it so that 5th graders can understand it. Bullying is something that everyone knows about so they should be familiar with this. They also could of had experience in bullying and could relate to this. The lesson are audience will learn is to not be afraid to stand up for yourself and to not bully because this makes us feel down and upset in the inside and to learn that there is nothing wrong with telling people how you really feel. Our audience will learn this by hopefully getting really touched by the video and overall just learning that bullying is not good.

During this whole project my team and I have been through some ups and downs. We would get frustrated and tired. But we also had those moments where we laughed and had a good time. Some of the worst moments we had as a team was getting on task and finishing our work. Eventually, we had gotten are work done and I would always try my best to get everyone on task. Some of the best moments as a team that we had is that we were always able to have fun and to figure things out together, mostly every time were together we are having a good time. Another "best moment" that we had as a team is that we were always able to work together. Overall, I think we make a great team!

Animation Outtakes

The project that Mr. Sanderls GT class is doing at the moment is animation. This project is being split up into teams of four. My teammates for this project are Jaesha Mata, Jasmine Laplante, and
Meagan Mahikoa. Each of them have something that is unique about them. Two interesting facts about Jaesha is that she travels a lot and like to play football! Two interesting facts about Jasmine is that she went to Canada and when she was younger her sister sliced her finger really bad and now it does not look normal. Two interesting facts about Meagan is that she loves to surf and play volleyball! I think we make a great team!

There are two kinds of animation, like stop-motion and GIF. The one with the ball bouncing is an example of a GIF and the other one is an example of a stop-motion animation. Stop-motion animation is an animation technique that makes like the object is moving by itself. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. For GIF animations you can use a variety of colors and customize it how ever you want. We just stared with a ball bouncing to keep it simple and easy.

For this project are story had to be a similar story that one of our teammates have had experience in. We are telling mostly my story because I have been bullied before and I know what its like. I say "mostly" because everyone in our team has been bullied before we just wanted to base the story more on my experience. You all should care because bullying is a very serious situation that a lot of people have been going through and we don't think its right to bully. Another reason why you should care is because when people get bullied constantly they tend to hurt themselves and no one wants anyone to hurt themselves because of bulling. WE THINK ITS NOT RIGHT TO BULLY! I think that people don't realize what their doing to other people. People come to school scared of someone because they are getting threatened. To wrap up this post, We think that bullying is not right, so my team and I wanted to make are story based on bullying.

Typography Images

The most recent project that Mr. Sanderls GT class has been working on is typography. Typography is when you have an image of something and the image is filled with text. The text we are using in the image describes the person but it can be anything of your choice. The text also has different styles and its own unique thing about it. Although, there is also such thing as typography portraits, which is kinda the same as the original typography except its an image of somebody else. The text that we use for the typography portraits describe the person in the picture. Typography portraits is what we've been working on the most. So far we were using teachers and innovators to start. Then we will be doing a more advanced typography that is called "me". Also, typography can be used with images to make a lasting impact by its text. The text can make a lasting impact because the words describe the person in some way in the photo and it represents them.

Typography is a really "advanced" project. I have faced some big challenges while doing this assignment. My first biggest challenge during this project was getting the mid-tones and shadows evened. That was one of my biggest challenges because I had a different amount of mid-tones and shadows and it was really difficult to get the same amount. I tried my best to do what I could do get them even, but it didn't work out as well and I got really frustrated. This is what I did to overcome my issue.... First, I asked my friends around me and like I said its a really "advanced" project so they didn't know exactly what to do and I didn't get what they were saying, so instead I came in at recess and asked these other people that knew more about typography in the computer lab and luckly they new exactly what to do! My second biggest challenge was making it visible, you could hardly see Ms. Aki's eyes and her other features. To over come this issue I asked Mr. Sanderl what I had to to do and he helped me with it to make her face a little more visible. Last but not least, my last biggest challenge was putting the text on the wrong layer, I put the text on the actual shadow and mid-tones layer so it got messed up. To over come this issue I told Mr. Sanderl about it and he said I needed to restart, so I did. Im really glad that I have Mr. Sanderl and other advanced friends that has helped me solve my challenges because this is my first year in GT and I am new to these things.

The three examples we did was the innovator, teacher, and the "me" typography. They all have something that is different about each of them. My innovator image is different from the others because first of all its a innovator, its black and white, and I copied the text from the internet. My teacher image is different from the others because it's a picture of a teacher(Ms. Aki), this one has color and its my own text about her. Lastly, my "me" image is different from the others because its a picture of myself, it has a gradient overlay back ground, and we filled in the text a different way(shadows, dark mid-tones, and light mid-tones). My favorite typography image is the "me" portrait because in that assignment we had more freedom to customize it and also because it is very colorful and unique.

Double Exposed Portraits

Our latest project for Mr. Sanderl's GT class is Portrait Photography. Portrait Photography is when you take a photo of someone else and it expresses their feelings, most times the main part of the portrait is their face. When you take portrait photography you get a image that only shows the side or half of their face. Portrait photography relates to profile view and Silhouetting because when you are taking the photo you are taking a picture of a person. Not only that but, when you take the photo you can still tell who the person is even if the image is all black. You can tell by the side of their face, just by seeing the outline of their nose, mouth, eyes, chin, and their neck.

Double exposures are created in photoshop by going to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack, you want to select "load files into stack" because you need all three of your images to create a double exposure. Make sure you have a profile image and two images that are textures, something that symbolizes you, or other creative images that you can use. Then, you want to rotate, resize, and crop by holding down shift and sizing it to 8.5 x 11”by 300 px/in. Make sure you hold down shift or else your gonna make the person look like they ate too much burritos or your gonna make like they need to eat more burritos! Then just blend it my going into blending mode and and then color tone. Lastly, save you awesome looking double exposure picture! Try to avoid "happy accidents"! I would want to make a double exposure image because double exposures let yourself be creative and you also have lots of options to make it look unique! Double exposures can also represent you!

In my double exposure photo there are two images that symbolize me. One is of my soccer ball, I chose to take a picture of my soccer ball because soccer is something that I love to do and its something that makes me happy! My second images is of the beach, I chose to take a picture of the beach because the beach is one of my favorite places to go! I tried to the best I could to get a good quality. I think one thing that could be improved for my quality is that I should've took my time more so that I could get a better picture. Another thing that could of been improved is the color of it, I think it would look better if it had more saturation and bright abstract colors. Overall, I think I did a good job creating a double exposure image for the very first time!

HDR Photography

The past couple weeks Mr. Sanderls GT class has been working on HDR photography. HDR photography is a High Dynamic Range. HDR photography is used to make different pictures look better and unique. One thing that I don't like about HDR is that it is really complicated to do. Although, there are some things that I love about it, like how it makes different photos look "one of a kind"and it make your original photo look way better.

Creating an HDR image is not the easiest thing to do in my opinion. First, you need to take all the pictures that you are going to use to create an HDR image. You have to take seven of the same photos but with different exposure compensation. Then upload all your photos on photoshop. Next, go to File > Automate > and Merge to HDR. Then you are given different options to make your HDR image, such as saturation, detail, exposure, vibrance, shadow, and many more. Then just press okay and save your image! This is different then automatic HDR functions because when we take the HDR photo we do it step-by-step and if we did it automatically we wouldn't have to change the exposures at all.

The thought process behind my "experiment" or portrait image was to get the rule of thirds, make look room, and to get a perfect angle. I also wanted to create a "surrealistic" look when making it to a HDR photo. My thought process behind my landscape image was to also get the rule of thirds, make the horizon line straight, and to angle and adjust the camera so that the horizon line is not in the center of the image. During the process of creating this HDR image was a little frustrating to do. Although, it was one of my favorite projects because it was very fun and you got to be very creative.