Music Video Finale

P1T1 Girls Just Want To Have Fun from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

The final project of the year, as eighth graders our final project in GT, the music video project. This year my team is Meagan and Tu, we are doing the song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. We chose this song because we wanted to do a fun upbeat song that we would have a lot of fun creating and filming. At first we were just going to have a bunch of girls having fun in our video but as we got advice from Mr. Sandrel and began production we found that it would be better to have a story. So we decided to split the three verses among the three of us, Meagan has the first verse, I have the second verse and Tu has the third verse. Meagan's verse starts with her walking in the house kind of upset and then her mom yells at her "when you gonna live your life right," Meagan then proceeds to lip sync to the chorus of girls just wanna have fun. The shot transitions to me sitting outside of school doing home work looking upset, Meagan and Tu pull me up and I throw the papers into the air

My favorite fast-edit montage sequence is the one that we used before we started the second verse.  It starts off as a wide of me doing homework, then at the first down beat it switches to a medium shot, down beat close, downbeat back to wide, downbeat new shot. I really like this fast montage sequence because it is editing to the beat of the music and it makes the video look super cool with so many different shots in a matter of seconds. This part of the story is my part, I'm very frustrated with my homework and then two girls come and pull me up to tell me let's go have some fun. The shot then changes to a shot at my house where my dad is yelling at me and telling me "What you gonna do with your life," we then proceed to silly string him while lip syncing "girls just wanna have fun oh girls just wanna have fun......." This whole sequence of shots really contributes to the story and make the video more interesting and less predictable.

This music video showcases my best work by showing the editing and filming skills that I have learned over the past two years. This music video shows that I know how to make good video using the compositions techniques that I have learned. It also shows that I know how to make good video using the things I have learned about working the camera.  It shows the editing techniques I've learned because in my music video there are many color enhancements that show that I have learned how to work iMovie. Also editing to the beat and syncing the song with the lip sync is complicated and getting it right shows the editing skills and precision that I have learned to use while editing. I also think that the story line to my song and the way we portray the song shows something about what I've learned about how to write a story and go to good "sets" to match the story and what is happening in the story. For example, I have learned that to film a scene that should take place at school I have to go to a school or film it in school not on the beach or at home on my couch. I have really enjoyed doing this music video project and I have enjoyed GT, this music video project is
a good project to end middle school with.

Animated Life Lessons

Title: Animated Life Lessons Label: GT Portfolio
I: Tell us about your teammates’ personal character traits & how your story exaggerates who they are.
B: Explain how you use humor in your story and how your life lesson or message relates to us.
C: Considering you’ve never worked together before, describe your team’s level of productivity, biggest challenge & best moment during production.
Embedded Vimeo, Storyboard Screenshot, 3 BTS
Have you been taking behind the scenes photos?

My teammates for this project, Asha, Alani and Chazz, each have their own individual traits that we exaggerated for this animation.  For Asha we exaggerated her perkiness, for Alani we exaggerated her "hunger sneeze," for Chazz we exaggerated his negativity and for me we exaggerated my loud clumsiness. In our animation Asha is very happy and is convinced that this is going to be the greatest experience ever, Asha is happy and perky but not as perky as we make her. Alani only sneezes once when she's hungry and it doesn't happen very often, in the animation she sneezes every other word. Chazz is very negative, but not nearly as negative as he is in the animation. I am very loud, and clumsy, but I know when to be a little quieter and I don't yell every word that I say.

We use humor in our story by exaggerating everything every character says and does, this makes the video a lot funnier. In our animation the life lesson is that you have to try and get along with your group even when you don't like them or don't know them. It's about how when you start to work together, things will get done to the best you can get it done.  This life lesson works well for the audience because we all have to do group projects and we need to try and work well with them no matter what.  There is no way anyone can get through life without working with a group and a lot of times you are going to be very different from them but you still need to try and get things done. 

My team for this project was Alani, Asha, and Chazz, never working with this group before did come with many problems. At first we were getting stuff done and we were all pretty excited about the project and our idea, but as we started animating and the deadline was approaching and no one was even close to being done, my team kind of just gave up. On the day of the deadline, my team decided to try and get stuff done and we got a couple more seconds of animation, but not enough to fill our entire audio, so we had to copy and paste it to fill up our timeline.  I think our biggest challenge or my biggest challenge was probably when everyone gave up and I was kind of trying to get it all done by myself, I got really frustrated with my team and with myself for not being able to get it done. On the last day, my team and I had a team meeting as we were all sitting there frustrated, stressed, and upset with each other, a kid in the group next to us said something really funny that made us laugh so hard and I think while we were all laughing the negative energy that we had kind of left and it was replaced with everyone wanting to try and to at least get something done.  

Character Development

Define yourself. When you first think about this task it doesn't seem very hard but as you begin to write and to think it becomes harder and harder. As an eighth grader I am beginning to become my own person not as dependent on my mom's opinion or my best friend's opinion.  If I was to tell you a few things to describe myself I would probably say, optimistic, immature, and happy. I have many imperfections, many things that I strive to work on every single day of my life, some of my imperfections are silly, weird things, but others are bad things.  Some of the humorous or relatable imperfections that I have are that I'm extremely clumsy, I am not very smart sometimes, I have many blonde moments, and I am very loud. 

The character traits that I plan to exaggerate in my animation are, my clumsiness and my suspicion of everyone. I think that I can make a very funny and entertaining animation with these character traits. I could do this by using puppet warp to make my legs look unstable.  This will show the audience that this particular character is very clumsy and has unstable legs. I am suspicious of everyone, I think everyone is doing something wrong or they're going to do something bad to me, I don't really know where this fear comes from. I think I could make my character have this really exaggerated, and have her making up scenarios in her mind of what these people are going to do to her.

To make my GIF animated character I had to first have someone take a picture of me with my arms and legs separated from my body. I then had to upload my picture into my computer, and open it in Photoshop. Once I had it in Photoshop I used the Quick Selection tool to remove my body from the background.  I then saved my document and changed the name. I opened my new document (with the new name,)  and began to edit. When you are making your animation you have to copy your image every frame to puppet warp. It takes a really long time to make a couple frames me. Alothough this project was pretty hard I think my end product turned out pretty good.

.MOV Film Festival

A keyword is a word that has strong significance. In filmmaking keywords are words that connect with your audience and are meaningful to your audience. My keywords connect with my audience because they're things that have happened to all of us, we have all been embarrassed before, we have all judged someone we didn't know that well before, and we have all had consequences for our actions. We are hoping to entertain our audience, to make them laugh, that is why another one of our keywords is entertain.

Let's get to work

Production Plan

Our overall message is to not be rude or judgmental to your subs and that they can teach you just as much as your normal teacher can.  We want our audience to learn with the students, in our sitcom, the lessons that the substitute is teaching along with the lesson the students learn when their real teacher comes back.  We are hoping that the audience will be entertained but also learn this important lesson. It can apply not only to students but also adults, to teach them that we shouldn't judge people because we don't know anything about them and also because they can teach us important life lessons.

McDonald's got me like

Ugh math

Like all group projects our team faced many challenges, the first challenge we faced was trying to get a time we could all get together. With sports, family and other priorities its hard to find a day three people can all get together to get work done. With what limited time we had to film, it was really hard to get at least one day in the week, lucky for us most of our sitcom takes place at school so we were able to get most of our filming done at school and the few things needed at home we were able to get done. Overall this project was a lot of fun, Meagan, Tu and I work really well together and had a lot of fun creating this sitcom.

Tiny Spherical Worlds

When we are taking the pictures for our tiny spherical worlds, we need to take more then one image. One image is not enough to take because with one picture, you can't get the same effect as you can with multiple images.  Although many images is better than just one, if you don't take the pictures right, your image is going to end up a disaster. To take perfect pictures, make sure that the horizon line stays straight and that you overlap your images.

A polar pano is different from a spherical pano because, a polar pano appears as though it was take from above the earth.  A spherical pano on the other hand, kind of looks like a crystal ball sort of thing. The polar pano has the sky on the outside and the earth/ land in the center.  In my case the polar panos also have a black background.  The spherical pano has the sky on the inside/ center and the land on the outside.  The background of this one is white. In my opinion I prefer the polar panos, I think they look nicer overall but I really like the spherical ones too.

I think that the fact that I made the  line less obvious made my tiny worlds so convincing.  I also think that when I was editing them I didn't make them look SUPER unrealistic, just a little more surreal than what it normally looks like.  I think I also made them look a little more convincing by blending some of the colors together so that the colors match throughout.  Overall I really liked how my images turned out and I had a lot of fun with this project.

Hockney Style Joiners

David Hockney is an extremely influential artist from the twentieth century and a pop artist known for his photomontages. You guessed it! These past couple weeks in Kapa'a Middle Schools GT class, we have been working on photomontages. We started by taking a picture of a doorknob and creating a photomontage from that, then we took a picture of a friend and made a photomontage of them.  The final photomontage we have been doing is one that is supposed to send a message out to others. Though both the images are photomontages, mine are very different from David Hockney's.

In our world today, anyone with the access to a smartphone can post a photo within seconds, whether they want it to be of something fun they did, a beautiful view they saw, or even just a quote they want to share. With this instant ability to take a picture and share it with people all over the world there is bound to be both positive and negative messages in these images.  One way images send messages is the colors, certain colors can make you feel or view things a certain way.  For example, when I think of the color yellow I think of happiness and family because I had a  house that was the color yellow. Not only does the color make a difference, but also how vibrant the color is.  For example when I think of a soft pink, I think about love or valentine's day, but hot pink (which is more vibrant,) sends a different message.

I am the second oldest of five, all seven of us live in a small house, we don't often get one-on-one time with each other. Me and my little sister are two years apart and we are really close.  The only times we get to be together, just us, and talk about is when we walk our dog or just go one walks together.  I wanted to portray the time that I get to spend with her, so I took a picture of my street. When I first started making this photomontage I didn't really like how it was turning out, someone told me to align the side of the streets and when I finished doing that I ended up liking the finished project.

2016 Aspirations

2015 was full of laughter and tears, the memories and friends that I made in 2015 are unforgettable. I'm excited to make new memories and complete my new goals in this coming year.  My goal this year is to be less of a procrastinator and try harder at doing my homework and other projects right when I get them. I want to try and be a better person, I want to try and think more about other people's needs and feelings more than just my own. The people who know me know I can be a really big grudge holder, I am hoping that I can try and work on forgiving people. I want to try and get a 4.0 if not this semester than when I get to high school.

All of the goals that I want to accomplish are very important but to me the most important is to be less of a procrastinator and try harder to do my homework the day that I get it. I think this is the most important because I am going to High School at the end of this year and when you are a procrastinator you typically either forget about the project or assignment or it is not done to the best of your ability. All of my grades in High School are going to count on my record and colleges are going to look at them so I have to make sure everything is done on time and to the best of my abilities so that I can get an A.

The first step I need to take is to do my homework and projects the day I get them, if I do it right when I get it then I won't be stressing about it and there is no way I can forget and not do it.  The second thing that I can do is be less lazy when I'm doing my work.  I have to make sure that every thing is done to the best of my abilities and that I try as hard as I can. The third thing I have to do to ensure that I complete my goal is to start now. If I develop the habit now of doing my homework and projects right when it's assigned I will have the habit through the rest of middle school, high school and college. With the habit, it ensures that I do the work to the best of my abilities.

Scratch Game Design

It's that time again! The time that I get to show you what I've been working on! These past couple weeks we have been working on coding our very own video game! We started with a simple chase game where we had one or more sprites chasing a sprite. Then we continued on to a Platform game where we had a sprite jumping on platforms towards the goal.

My game starts out on a hill one a clear sunny day, then you go to another point on the hill where it is a little cloudy. The next backdrop is a "drop" where you go down the hill into a desert, then it switches to the desert during the day etc. In my second game the backgrounds also switch, but the first time the background switches is when you touch the pink cloud.  The other thing both of my games have in common is that both of the main sprites, the girl and the reindeer, are trying to complete and objective. Though the objective is different they are pretty similar.  In the first game, the girl is trying to get away from the mice.  In the second game the reindeer is trying to get to the pink cloud.  I'm proud of both of my games, even though I know they are simple and have a couple bugs that I need to fix.

In my first game, the chase game, my best code was probably making the girl move smoother.  When I very first made the game the girl was moving weird and it looked very far from good. In my second game I think my best code was probably that I made the reindeer jump, though the code I used was simple I still think it was the most complicated. When you are making your character jump you need o make sure they don't float and you have to make sure your sprite doesn't jump too high or too low. I started with the block change y by _____ and in the blank space I put 10. It was too little so I increased it but then that was too much.  It was kind of difficult but I finally got the right number! So far with the two games that I have I am pretty proud of my work and the fact that I actually coded that and made that game. Even though I don't think I will ever go into coding I think it is pretty knowledge to know how to do.

Invention Commercial

Throughout the past couple weeks students in Kapa'a Middle School's Gifted and Talented program have been working very hard to invent, write and create a commercial.  You guessed it, it's that time again, the time I get to show you what I've been working on! My team was the same team as I had during my previous project "Composition Scavenger Hunt." My team consisted of Makena and Emma, we are all people who really enjoy having fun and laughing, so our goal was to make the class laugh at our commercial, the funnier it is the more memorable it is.  If it's memorable more people will want to buy our product.  We didn't want it to be too serious, so if you watch our commercial there's some jokes and funny things throughout the commercial.

We got most of our filming done on one rainy Saturday afternoon, and I think one of the best team moments were captured during that afternoon. At the beginning of our commercial there is a part where Emma falls and spills her drink everywhere, she then proceeds to have a funeral for the drink she "lost," in the middle of the funeral I jumped into the shot and yell "is this you?!" Makena proceeds to walk into the shot and is telling the audience that we need help. This shot too us about an hour to film.  The first thing we had to do was create a funeral looking thing. The was some flowers on the fence so we took them and placed them all over the water supply thing that's on the ground.  After we did this we gave Emma water to put on her face to appear as though she was crying.  By this time we were all laughing really hard.  By the time we were able to get a perfect shot of Emma it started raining, and we realized we needed me to jump in! We ran inside and waited for the rain to stop.  When the rain stopped we went back out and set-up again, to make a long story short, I fell a couple times, my head got cut off by the camera, Makena's ace was cut in half, I fell on the floor laughing, Emma laughed till she had real tears streaming down her face.  It was fun, and it was the best part of the commercial. I think it was the best part because we would watch the clip find something to make better and then we filmed it to make it better. We did this over and over again till we got the perfect shot.

After we finished all of our filming, it was time to move on to editing, we all helped with the editing, sitting around with earbuds in our ears. Emma was the person who was physically editing it, she was the one with the pen placing the clips in order. Even though Emma was the one moving the clips around and adding effects we all helped out. We would take a clip and we would all talk about where to put it, what effects should be on it, if we needed text layovers, sound effects, transitions, ect. When we had a final decision that met all the requirements and satisfied the entire team we would move on to the next clip. We all listened to the music and sound effects and chose which ones would  best fit the clip, the entire commercial and what point we were trying to get across. When we were filming, whoever wasn't in the shot was filming and who ever need to be in the shot at that time was doing what they needed to do. Overall I had a lot of fun filming and editing this project, we had a couple misunderstandings, like any team but we dealt with it in a positive way so the outcome of it was positive.   

Composition Scavenger Hunt

I think the most important composition technique is probably rule of thirds, I think it's the most important because you can use it for so many different things and it makes the picture a lot more interesting.  For example, you can use rule of thirds when your taking pictures of scenery, it draws the eye to what you want to be seen.  You can also use Rule of Thirds when you are doing an interview or taking pictures of a person.  The Rule of Thirds is much more interesting than a flat angle, when you are taking pictures of a subject directly in front of the subject(s) against a blank wall.

I think macro is one of the more difficult composition techniques to use because you have to get really close to the subject and make it so it's not blurry. I also think it's hard to find things to film using macro because typically when you are filming people or taking pictures you don't want to get extremely close to them.  Also, when your filming nature sometimes you want more than just a macro shot of a flower you want all the scenery, (mountains, valleys, trees, bushes, etc.)

My teammates for this project were Emma McGinnis and Makena Kahananui, we all worked very hard to finish this project in the short time we had.  We each took turns being the subject, talking about the technique and filming.  When we were editing Emma put all the videos together, one of use did the text lay overs and one of us did the music. Over all the three of us worked really well together and had a good time filming and editing this video.  Because we worked so well together, the next upcoming project will be with the three of us so be prepared to see some awesome work!

Cracking the Code

This week at KMS GT classes have started coding, after sitting through a couple class periods trying to code I've learned that there is many jobs that you need to know coding to get the job, or be good at you job.  I think it is pretty important to know coding, especially in todays world where we all rely on technology so much. We use our phones to find information everyday, we use washers and dryers to clean our clothes, we use lights to see everything around us, we use car keys, every single one of these things has code in it to know what you want it to do.  With all these things surrounding us that have code, don't you think it's important to know how to code?  The other reason I have is a lot of jobs need software designers and computer programers, a lot of these spots go "unfilled" because not many people know how to code. 

The first time I coded was in third grade when I was in the schools robotics team.  We had to program the robots to do the missions we wanted them to do.  It was pretty difficult to get it exact, the perfect amount of rotations of the wheels, which side wheel to turn so that it would turn the direction you want it to.  In robotics, we never really called it code, the first time I did it calling it code was in my seventh grade science class.  When I did it in science I never really understood what i was doing, because it wasn't the same thing I was used to.  Even though I didn't understood what I was doing I still thought it was a lot easier.


If I could design any program or game, I would probably design a program where you can take a picture of a textbook or any information you need and it all automatically goes to your brain.  Like photographic memory! The phone or tablet you use some how connects to your brain like a Bluetooth, I don't know if this is actually possible, but let's be honest that would be the coolest thing in the world.  I know you are all thinking, Tessa there's this thing called studying, but let's be real no one can remember everything in the textbooks!

My Humorous Monologue

JensenT_Comedy from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.
For the past couple weeks in Kapa'a Middle School's GT class, kids from sixth grade to eighth grade have been working very hard to memorize and film their comedic monologues.  The long class periods of editing, filming and memorizing have come to an end, the monologues are complete.  Each person takes knowledge away from this project, knowledge of how to edit, film, and use a camera.  Each has made their own mistakes, but I am here to tell you all about what I learned.  I think the most important thing I learned is to not procrastinate so much.  I didn't film my B-roll till the very last day, this made me really stressed out and I was searching high and low for footage to add.  Lucky for me we got extra days to film, but I know that I can't expect that to happen all the time.

Pad is when you add extra time at the beginning and at the end of your clips.  It is important to pad your clips because when you just start right when the camera you're going to cut a lot of your video, clips or sound off.  Also if you don't add pad you are going to have to re-film and no one wants to re-film.  Pad is also really good to have because it's really easy to do and it only takes a couple seconds. Make sure you pad when you are filming, it makes editing and your life ten times easier and way less stressful!

My biggest weakness is I procrastinate way to much and by the end of the project I am stressed and struggling to finish the project.  My strength is editing, I love editing and I think it's pretty easy.  I can improve by trying for the best
not the average.  I think if i tried harder to make it perfect my work would be a lot better.  I really enjoyed this project and I can't wait to do another one like it soon! 

Comedy Writing

Having a sense of humor is a very important trait to have because it makes you really fun to be around because you can joke back to someone when they are joking about you.  I also think it's good because you can make people laugh a lot and that makes you really fun and likable.  Having a good sense of humor also makes you a happier and more positive person. When you have a sense of humor it allows you to understand when someone is joking around with you vs. when someone is purposefully teasing you, this will make it so your not overly sensitive when someone is joking with you.

If you decide to be crazy and attempt at writing a humorous narrative here's a few things you should know before you venture off into the unknown! The first is write about something you can relate to, like for example one of my jokes is about school dances, I know about school dances because I've been to a lot of them before. The second tip I have is use your own voice, if you are sarcastic write a sarcastic joke, if you aren't sarcastic write about something else. The third tip I have is to make sure you find your joke funny before you decide to present it in front of an audience. The reason for this is because if you don't find it funny, others may not. Also, if you don't find your joke funny then you won't be able to deliver it properly, if you don't deliver it properly it more than likely won't be very funny.  My fourth tip for you is that you should make sure to be descriptive but not too much that it causes the audience to get bored and stop listening.  I suggest throwing jokes everywhere throughout the story.  For example "I had this really bad day once why don't I tell you about it... Why did the chicken cross the road? So about this really bad day...." Doing something like that will cause the reader or audience to laugh more.  I'm just kidding don't put a joke in the middle of a sentence, but you get the idea of it. My fifth and final suggestion for you is that you have the biggest joke, with the biggest laugh at the very end, that way you can lead up to it the whole story.

I have two comedic monologues, the first one is "When I was little I watched a lot of Disney channel movies and every single one of them made school dances look absolutely amazing, but now that I’m in eighth grade they’re really not all they were cut out to be, it’s really just people sitting around eating and listening to music. Like isn’t that what you all do at home? Why would you leave the comfort of your home to sit on uncomfortable bleachers?" This joke would only be funny to people my age because the generation before us did dance at school dances, but my generation doesn't.  This joke is funny because it's one of those "that is so true," jokes.  My second joke also only appeals to teenagers. "My mom always used to tell me teenagers think they know everything, but they really don’t. Now that I am a teenager I realized she was wrong, I do know everything," this is funny because it's proving that what my mom said is right.

Motivational Poster

For our motivational poster we need to have four pictures.  The first three are pictures that we took of things that symbolize us.  I took a picture of a bush in the desert in front of these big canyons, this picture symbolizes me because I am a small part of a big and beautiful picture.  The second one was a picture of a corner of a path, this symbolizes me because I never know what's going to happen in life but I just keep walking.  My final symbol is of a rainbow,  a rainbow symbolizes me because I can make someones day brighter even after a terrible day.  We also had to include a portrait of ourselves, we had a partner take it and we took theirs.  We wrote manifestos and needed to include those along with personal quotes that we wrote. To make our motivational poster visually appealing we had to kern our words to make it fit the entire page.  Not only that but we needed to have different text and font sizes.  We had a Triadic Color Scheme which is three colors evenly spaced around the color wheel.

The very first step of our first 2015-2016 GT project was to write our own personal quotes, the second step was to write our manifesto.  After we wrote both of those things we copied and pasted those two pieces of text into Photoshop and kerned them so that the text went from one side of the page to the other without any gaps. When we finished kerning we added our four images that we took, three symbols and one portrait of ourselves.  Once we added the images we laid them out so there was no spaces and they all fit nicely.  After adding and adjusting our images we started getting creative and using or triadic color scheme to change the color of the text, to our text we added strokes, bevel and emboss, drop shadows etc.  As soon as we were done adding effects to our text we started with the images.  I individually edited each of my images before adding my effects to all of them.  I saturated each of my images, to make them stand out more. I also adjusted the brightness and contrast of all the photos individually.  I then added the adjustment layer curves to all of my images.    

I think my biggest challenge was trying to get the text to cover the whole page without any gaps.  I think this was my biggest challenge because I was only thinking about having the text one way and I wasn't open to any more ideas.  When I finally found another way to do it I kerned it so there wasn't any more gaps.  The other reason I had trouble with it was because I wanted it to be obvious that there was two separate pieces of text, my manifesto being first and my personal quotes being last. As soon as I figured out a way to make it obvious it was two separate pieces of text (by making the font size and font color different,) I was able to make it look nice and I was able to show the two separate pieces of text. 

Personal Manifesto

Hi guys! School's started up again so I'm going to be updating my blog again! My favorite color is a pastel pink or a pastel green. I love to sing and eat spaghetti and pizza. I have been to Disneyland 5 times and I have traveled out of the country before. I have four siblings, two brothers and two sisters and a puppy named Nalu. I am the second oldest right after my older brother, then there's my two sisters and my little brother. I play soccer and dance hula, music is my life and my sanctuary, I love to sing and dance. I am the type of person that laughs easily and is quick to crack a joke. I'm overly confident and I can easily blow off an insult.  I am the person you come to if you  need to laugh or need someone to talk to.

Here is my 2015- 2016 manifesto: Today I will be strong and stand up for what I believe in! I will believe in myself, and no one can bring me down. I am beautiful and strong and no one can tell me otherwise. I will live my life the way I want to not the way someone else wants me to. I will be strong and courageous. I will do my best and try my hardest. I will be kind, I will smile, I will laugh and I will not be afraid to be myself. I will smile at everyone, someone always needs a smile. I will be happy simply because I'm alive. I will be friends with everyone. I will bring someones confidence up today. Today I will be helpful, happy, friendly, kind, supportive and I will believe in myself.

My manifesto applies to my readers because it talks about how you need to be kind to everyone because you never know what they're going through.  My manifesto also talks about how you need to be strong and have the courage to stand up for what you believe in.  It talks about how you need to believe in yourself and be hard working.  It talks about how you need to compliment people and make their day even by a simply smiling.  My manifesto talks about how you need to smile because you're alive.  I think my manifesto can apply to everyone because everyone can be helpful, happy, friendly, kind and supportive, and they can believe in themselves.

Music Videos Rock!

My team consists of Tu and Meagan, I have worked with both of them on previous projects.  We all contribute something to the production of the music video.  Meagan was the person that chose the song she's also the person who films most of the music video.  Meagan is also my best friend that I get in a fight with at the very beginning of the story.  Tu is the person I go to when I need a friend, she becomes my new best friend.  I am the main editor and the main character in the story.  At the beginning of our story Meagan and I get into a fight, I then find a new friend but "the end of the world" is coming and I want to spend the last little time with both of my best friends. Towards the end of the story we begin to make up but not everything is working out, in the end we all become friends.

I think the audience will probably enjoy the part where Meagan and I fight the most because it's really funny. When Meagan and I fight it's supposed to be serious but both of us are trying to keep a straight face and it' really funny to watch. I think they will also really enjoy watching the bloopers, they are pretty funny.  I also think people will enjoy our story because it is very relatable, everyone get's into fights with friends for doing something they regret.

We used photoshop and created a poster for our song, we also used all the knowledge we have about the rule of thirds and other types of things you need to know for filming.  We also used the knowledge we have about how to use the cameras safely without hurting the cameras.  I think one of the most important things I learned in this class this year is how to work with people better and how to develop strong friendships, I think this was used a lot in this project!

Lyrical Livelihood

Music is a huge part of my life, it's where I go when I'm upset,  it's where I go for comfort, it's where I go when I'm happy, and it's where I go when I'm excited.  My favorite song is "I'm Your Angel", by Celine Dion, the instrumental part of the song is amazing but the lyrics touch you in a way that's indescribable.  The song talks about how there is someone there for you no matter how far you think they are.  My favorite part in the song is when she sings "I'll be your cloud up in the sky, I'll be your shoulder when you cry, I'll hear your voices when you call me I am your angel, no matter how far you are I'm near it makes no difference who you are I am your angel."  This song is amazing, I also really like "Human" by Christina Perry.

Ariana Grande is one of our favorite singers so we all wanted to do a song by her, we also wanted to do a popular song.  My team picked "One Last Time" by Ariana Grande, we chose this song because it's a popular song by an artist we all enjoy listening to.  I really enjoy listening to this song and I am beyond excited to work on this project! I think this project is going to be the best we've done this year.

Our song is talking about a girl who lies to her boyfriend and realizes her fault, she wants to spend one last day with him.  We are going to make the story about a girl that gets into an argument with one of her friends.  She finds a new friend but it's the "end of the world" and she wants to spend her last days with both of her friends, they make up and all three of them become friends.  Every thing turns out fine and they are all really happy!

Our Animation Story

Our story is about a girl named Tu who get's cyber bullied, she begins to get very sad and depressed. Her friends begin to notice and ask her what's wrong, she tells one of them and she starts to feel a little happier. The cyber bully continues to cyber bully her but eventually her and her friends find out who the cyber bully is and tell him to stop and he stops. Our focus statement is "Cyber bully affects Tu" this tells our story very clearly I think.

I think our audience will learn that it's better to tell someone if you are getting cyber bullied. I think they will get this message because when Tu tells her friend she is a lot happier and feels better. When the bully confronts her again, Tu is able to stand up for herself, the bully eventually stops bullying her. I think our audience will also learn that they are perfect the way they are and to not let other people get to you.  I think they will learn this because in the end the bully tells Tu that she's ugly.  Tu tells him that she doesn't care what he thinks and that she's happy with being herself.

I think the worst moment with my team was probably when we were filming, we just started filming without actually doing the storyboard. Not doing the story board made it hard to figure out what to film and how to lay it out.  I think the best moment our team had was when we turned the project in fully completed and looking very nice. 

  

Animation Outtakes

In my team I have Dylan, Tyler, Leilia, and Tu, we are telling Tu's story about her being cyber bullied. Dylan is amazing at poetry and is a very hard worker. Tyler is also a very hard worker but make everything a lot more fun. Leilia is funny and extremely fun to be around she tries as hard as she can and the end result is usually pretty great! Tu is a very fun person to be around, she is always smiling and she is extremely photogenic and she's really pretty!

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Stop-motion is a type of animation that makes a set of images look as if they're moving. GIF means Graphics Interchange Format, this is another type of animation.  These animations are usually drawings and many animators use them.  Animators typically start by learning the bouncing ball like what I have made here:

We are telling Tu's story about when she was cyber bullied, cyber bullying is probably one of the greatest problems for kids in middle school and high school, Cyber bullying could be a simple accident, you could read or misinterpret a text message very easily! People all around the world are committing suicide because of cyber bullying and we just want to send the message out there that you need to talk to someone and that you should be careful when you are texting.  

Typography Images

Typography is the style and appearance you make your words or text.  Typography is also like kerning, arranging the space between the words or letters in a text.  When your kerning you can also make the words curved up like a smile, or down like a rainbow.  When you are using typography it make an impact because, it can describe a person to you using only a few words instead of using a lot of words that you a lot of times don't understand.  Also when you  are creating a typography portrait it makes the picture look a lot more interesting, especially when you take the colors from the image and use it in the words, making the words look like they are part of you.

I think my biggest challenge during this project was having no help, I think I lean on people too much.  I'm also not very good at reading a tutorial then trying to do that.  I had to read the tutorial over and over again till I finally got it.  Once I figured out what the tutorial was saying it was actually really easy to do.  I know that when we do another one of these projects I will get it better.  The other problem I had was making it so that their was less mid tones and more shadows and highlights.  It took a long time to get it right and make it so that you can see all the features in Mrs. Sampels face.  

The first typography we did was of an innovator, I chose Marissa Mayer, she was the first woman to ever work for Google.  I don't really like this image, because you can't really see her face and it just words on a black background.  The second typography picture we did was of a teacher of our choice.  I chose Mrs. Sampels, my social studies teacher.  We had to talk to them and get the words to put on the picture.  I like this one a lot better because it's really colorful and you can see the words better.  This project was hard, but I like the final product so I might try to make another one soon.