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.