Music Video Finale

We are making music videos in our GT class, like we do at the end of every year. This is our last and favorite project of the year. It's the project we all wait for. My team consists of Kaile, Katy, Jeanne, and Eve. The song we chose is Man in the Mirror by Micheal Jackson. We chose this song because we all know and like it. Also, there could be a really good story added to the song. I can't wait to start working on it!

Our storyline is about a bully who changes and becomes a better person. This relates to the song, because the lyrics talk about looking at what you are doing and making a change. So, this bully sees someone else bullying a kid, and "take a look at yourself and make a change." So, just like the lyrics in the song, this person is doing something wrong, and realizes it. By seeing that what he is doing is wrong, he changes. He becomes a better person. Out storyline relates to the lyrics in our song, Man in the Mirror, by Micheal Jackson.



This music video showcases my best work. It shows us being able to work as a team and being able to make time to film our music video outside of school. It shows us cutting to the beat, and quickly changing shots and shot types. In the music video, it shows what we learned about camera movement. Also, it shows what we learned with visual effects and enhanced color. And finally, it showed us memorizing our song, and putting a lot of emotion into both our storyline, and our lyrics. Our music video is our final project, and it is used to showcase our best work.

Movie Trailer Premier

In GT, we are currently making movie trailers. The goal for our movie trailer is to plan a fake movie trailer that catches the audience and doesn't give away the ending. It is supposed to 90-120 seconds long. There should be a dramatic voice actor who can expressively hint that everyone should see our movie. An original movie poster needs to be included. Our movie trailer provides the audience with a high production value, so that they stay glued to the screen. Before we start making our movie trailer, we have to create a plan. I contributed to the plan while helping with the synopsis and movie poster.

We had many challenges and successes throughout our movie trailer. One of our biggest challenges was finding time to film. There are 5 people on my team so it was very hard to find a day when all 5 of us are free. Another problem we had with finding time to finish was that some of the people on our team were sick. Although we had challenges, we still had many successes. We were able to get out movie poster in early, so we got extra credit. Another success was finishing our plan on time and keeping up with our progress report. We had both challenges and successes.

For our movie trailer, my team got all expectations met for both audience and creativity. Then we got room for improvement in requirements because our movie trailer was out of the time frame. By creating this movie trailer I learned how to create an original movie poster that provides the audience with a high production value. I also learned how to make time in order to help film and create our movie trailer. And finally, I learned about the different types of music for the different genre. I learned a lot by creating this movie poster.

Metamorphosis Animation

We are making metamorphosis animations, in our GT class. With animation team, we have to come up with two metamorphosis ideas and present them to the class, and they decide which one we are going to do. Then we create a plan and a 1-2 minute animation with a custom soundtrack. We are using different animation types. Some of the animation types are stop-motion, photoshop, flip book, whiteboard, Stykz, etc.

First we needed a focus statement. My team's focus statement for this animation is, Ant Achieves Confidence. Every animation, even plays and movies, need scenes. For our animation, we have five total scenes. Each scene has 3 shots. The first scene will be about a foot coming and stomping on the ant hill and then the ants run around panicking. Then, in the second scene, the main character, James tries to calm everyone down. But, his sister, Meah, tells him that he is to small to do anything. Then in scene three, James runs away and and hides behind some blades of grass. But then, he hears his colony's shouts and panicking, while running back he thinks of an idea. Scene four is him turning into a drill and digging tunnels. Scene five, the final scene is of all the ants being saved and James digging a new home. Also, every animation, has to have a plot. The plot pretty much just sums up the entire animation into a beginning, middle, and an end.So, there is this kid the starts to stomp on an anthill, but James thinks he is to small to help. When he gets the courage to help his colony, he turns into a drill. With this he gains courage and saves he colony. Every animation has a focus statement, scenes, and a plot.

Our class watched each animation and graded them. We graded on audio, completion, visuals, and overall animation. My class decided that my team deserved a 3. I don't think our animation deserved a 4, but I am positive that it did not deserve a 1 or a 2. So, I agree with my class. Our animation was pretty good, but there definitely were some flaws. For example, our background music was too loud, so it was really hard to hear the voices. Also, some of our shots, weren't the best quality. Our results for our animation was a 3, and that is what I think we deserved.

Geometric Portraits

Universal means that something is done by all people. So, facial expressions are universal. No matter where you are from, or how you grew up, everyone has the same facial expressions. However, where you are from, and how you grew up, most of the time, influence which facial expressions you most often use. When we are born we all automatically have facial expressions. In an article I read, Do facial expressions convey the same emotions around the world, it says, "basic facial expressions are universal -- implying that are hard-wired within us, the product of natural selection. In other words, you would know if someone looked happy, or sad, etc., wherever you were in the world." So, no matter where in the world you go, everyone can tell what your emotions are through your facial expressions.

I created a geometric portrait. I first had to take a symmetrical photo of myself. Second, after putting the photo in photoshop, I had to get myself organized. I had to make layers like, background, nose, hair, and outline. Then, I changed my background to white and began creating the outline of my image. The hair came next, putting in the triangles as I went, only doing half my face. Then so on until all of my facial features, including my skin, were covered with triangles. Then I merged my facial features together, and started blending in the colors. After that, I flipped my image and put it on the other side. Then I saved it, and I was finished.


For this project, I made a poly 1 and 2. Poly 1 we made an outline and made triangle inside our face. After that, you fill color into each triangle. But, for poly 2, we completely took out the outline with the triangles. Instead, we created triangles using the lasso tool and from there we filled in the color. Poly 1 was a picture of ourselves on the computer, while poly 2 was a picture of my mom at my house with a camera. I think that poly 2 was better then poly 1 because it didn't take as long and had less steps. Also, it had more of a pop and the background had lots of color. Poly 1 and 2 had some similarities but, still had some things that were different.

 

Verbal Landscapes

I love to be out in nature. In English we took a test about ourselves, and I got a 10/10 in the nature part. Some of my favorite activities, are running along the beach, hiking, going to the beach, etc. Whenever I am in nature, I feel calm and happy. I am pretty sure that I got it from my parents, because when my mom was little, some of her favorite activities, was gardening, and just laying in the grass and staring at the leaves rustling in the tree. My dad lived on a farm growing up, and he loved, and still does love, to go hiking. So maybe it is just a family thing, to like being in nature. Whether it is playing soccer in the grass, or laying down, and staring up at the leaves of the tree, I love to be in nature.

Timelapses and slow-mos help make videos more entertaining. Timelapses are created by taking a wide angle shot, then speeding it up. If you are using final cut, like we are in out GT class, first you import your shot and drag it to the timeline. You then go to the arrow that looks like it is spinning, and make your clip faster. Slowmos are created by taking a close-up and slowing it down. Also, if you are using final cut, you do the same thing, but with slowing down instead of speeding up. Videos are more entertaining, with the use of slow-mos and timelapses.

This re-time nature project, is really fun. The hardest part, was definitely filming. Either the horizon line wasn't straight, or there wasn't enough ground. Then with the slow-mos, I feel like I hadn't gotten closer to the object that I was filming. The main problem I had with filming, was finding the time to do it. For the time-lapses, the clips that I had to film, needed to be from 5-10 minutes. Because of this, and since I needed to film multiple, I had to make sure I had enough time to film all that I needed. The hardest thing that I had to deal with, during this project, was filming.

The majority of my class gave me a 3/4. I think I deserve this grade other then a 4, because my shots could have had more quality and lighting in the ocean scenes. Also, my video was one second less then the time requirement, 50-60 seconds. I think I got this grade instead of a 2, because I had the requirements of 3 time-lapses and 2 slow-mos. Also, I have text-overlays, and a poem that uses the free-write format. The score that I got, I completely agree with.

Poetic Personal Statement

Poetry is a way to express yourself through words. Poetry is a piece of writing that has a certain rhythm, rhyme, and/or style. It can be used to express feelings and emotions. Also, poetry can be used to share ideas. It is a type of genre in literature that flows smoothly. Poetry is one of the best ways to express yourself.

Work through day and night,through dark and light

I love to play soccer, but I am not a major talker

My family motivates and inspires me

I want to inspire and motivate also

My goals are to live in color, not black and white

Live everyday, because tomorrow there is always new light

I used rhythm and rhyme in my poetic personal statement. I used rhythm and rhyme to make my poetic statement flow smoother.In my statement, the rhyme was used to help describe me. For example, "I like to play soccer, but I am not a major talker." Rhythm and rhyme helped to improve my poetic statement in many ways.

Music Video Finale

P3T1 Fight Song from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

Hey! In GT we are making Music Videos!!! Our song is Fight Song, by Rachel Platten. Our storyline is that my partner, Danielle, wants to play soccer, but doesn't think that she is good enough. Throughout the song, I encourage her to play, and in the end Danielle scores a goal. This matches with my song, because like the song, "I've only got one match," Danielle is telling herself that she can't do it, and that she isn't good enough. Then, later she "smashes the mirror," which symbolizes that her match is defeated. This matches because the song talks about how you are strong and you will keep on going. Our video matches this, because I keep on trying to encourage Danielle so that she will play soccer like she wants to. Our song matches our music video.



We have many fast-edit montage sequences in our music video. My favorite fast-edit montage sequence is when Danielle is scoring a goal. Is because our scenes are switching quickly, it gives our audience a feeling of anticipation. It also gets the audience nervous for Danielle and hoping that she will score the goal. This is my favorite because not only does it make the audience get worried, but it also makes me feel worried to, even though I know what is going to happen. We have many fast-edit montage sequences, but my favorite by far, is when Danielle is about to score a goal.

This music video showcases my best work. Like in some scenes we use the green screen, which I have never done. Also, we use both photoshop, and iMovie. We use both slow-motion, and speed-up. We use a lot of different effects and have a cover page. I also get to do the fast-edit montage sequence, which I have never done before, either. This music video showcases my best work, and all that I have learned this year.

Animated Life Lessons

Hey! In GT we are making team animations. Both my teammates have personal character traits. Treysen can be serious, overthinking, and high achiever. In our story, we are going to exaggerate this by making him super serious and is always overthinking the jokes that me and Ashley tell him. Ashley is a fun, happy, positive, and clumsy person. In our story, she is going to be always cracking jokes and falling. I am also, fun, happy, clumsy, and positive. In our animation I am going to slip on bananas and I try to make Treysen laugh by telling him jokes. In our animation, we are going to exaggerate our character traits.

In my team's story, we use humor. Me and Ashley are very humorous people. Also, we use humor to try and make Treysen laugh. In our animation, our life lessons, and messages relate to us.Our message is that it is great to have fun and laugh, but there are some times when you need to be serious. This relates to us because Me and Ashley are super happy and funny, Treysen is serious. So, we teach Treysen that it is good to have fun and laugh, Treysen teaches us that sometimes we need to be serious and focus. In our animation we dont just use humor, but we also use life lessons and messages.

Considering we've never worked together before, I had a very challenging animation. Our team's level of productivity was very high, but we still had a hard time getting all of our scenes done with just three animators. I had many challenges while making this animation. One, was that puppet warp was super hard, because I would mess up and go back to fix it, but it would just mess up even more. Also, I had a hard time communicating with my team, and making sure that I was doing my animating right. The best moment, during our animation, was probably when we were planning our script and doing voice overs, because we tried to make it funny, and we laughed a lot. Overall, we had good and bad times during our animation.

Character Development

Hey, everyone! In GT we are using the puppet tool and animating ourselves in Photoshop. There are many character traits that I have. One, I'm very sarcastic. I'm really sarcastic, mostly when I'm tired or bored. I love to laugh even when it hurts. So, most of my friends are super funny. I can also be super clumsy. You will see me fall down when I am just standing on flat ground. One humorous characteristic, is that I say I am tired, when I can't think of anything else to say. I also get the hiccups when I am excited or nervous. Third, I always feel like I'm forgetting something. Fourth, if I want to memorize something I have to pace while I say it to myself. Lastly, when I am bored I go and open the fridge, cupboards, and pantry even when I am not even hungry. Those are my character traits. What's yours? 

While animating myself, I plan to exaggerate some character traits that I have. One, is my sarcasm. I would like to exaggerate this through my dialogue. Like, most of the time, when someone asks me a question, I can say the opposite of the actual answer. Another character trait that I would like to exaggerate is my clumsiness. Just casually falling down every five seconds. When I am animating myself, I want to exaggerate some of the character traits I have.

 There was a long, step-by-step, process that we needed to follow in order to create my .GIF animated character. First, my teacher took pictures of me in front of the green screen, front, back, and side. Second, I needed to cut myself out, using the quick selection tool, in photoshop. Then, we made different scenes in photoshop. Finally, in the center of my scenes, I puppet warped myself to shake my head and do a little dance. I like my animation, but I don't totally love it. If I had more time, I could make it
better. I would probably make it better, by having
myself do a dab, or something like that.
Until next time, BYE!

.MOV Film Festival

P3T5 Ala Becomes Baller from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

How do my keywords connect with my audience? Keywords are very important in any film making. It is VERY important that your keywords connect with your viewers. How do I do that? There are many ways. One, the words have to relate with the audience. Also, the words have to be descriptive. Lastly, they need to help the audience connect with the characters and feel what they are going through. My keywords are embarrassed, and shy. These connect with my audience because we all have times when we feel shy and embarrassed. It is very important that your keywords connect with you audience. Are you making a film, what are you keywords?


Every film, needs to have an overall message. The overall message in our movie trailer is to not be shy and try your hardest. Even when people try to bring you down, just get back up and do what you love. In our trailer, one of the characters is shy and people try to bring him down. Another character comes and tries to help him, so that he is not shy and embarrassed to play basketball the best he can. By the end of the film, he gets over his shyness and embarrassment, and plays to the best of his abilities. Every film needs to have and overall message, our message not to be shy and always try your hardest.

There are many team challenges when making a film. Our biggest challenge would probably be trying to make time for us to film. We decided to film on Saturday at 6:00 PM. We had to film on Saturday because it was the only day that the entire team was free. At 6:00 PM, we had to film because we all had sports that day. Our biggest team challenge was trying to make time for us to film, because we didn't have a lot of time with our sports and other activities, and also it was hard to make it to the certain place at the time that we were all free. We faced our biggest challenge, and come up with time and place that we could all meet. Now we have all our filming complete even when this challenge got in our way.

Tiny Spherical Worlds

What's the point in composite images? Isn't 1 image enough? The point os composite images is to make the image look creative. Sometimes, it even gives the photo depth. With composite images, you can make parts of your photo eye catching. Composite images make your photo look unique and different. What's the point in composite images you may ask, this is the point. They are creative, have depth, eye catching, unique and different.

What's the difference between polar and spherical panos? Polar is more at a bird's eye view, or a high angle. Spherical is a lot like ant's eye view, or low angle. Also, polar is like a snow globe where the boarders are white. While, spherical is a lot like a world or a planet where the boarders are black. What's the difference between polar and spherical panos? Basically, polar is like a snow globe, while spherical is more like a world.

My tiny worlds are convincing. They are convincing for many reasons. One, it looks like a real planet or snow globe, because I shaped it using polar coordinates. Second, It looks real because I blended the colors in to make the line in the middle disappear. Lastly, my polar looks like a planet from outer space because of the black background. My tiny worlds look super convincing and unique.

Hockney Style Joiners

David Hockney's photomontages  are different from mine in many ways. They are different because he would base his background lighting and color lighting, on the music he would listen to while creating his photomontages. Also, some of his photomontages were created to make stage and costume designs. Lastly, his subjects were mostly of his friends, while my subjects are some people, but also objects. These are some of the things that make David Hockney's photomontages, and mine differ.

Images can send positive or negative messages. For example, if your photo offend someone, then you will probably get a negative message from that person. But, if you take a picture of you and someone else having a fun and happy time, you will probably get a positive message. Next, if a picture is posted that teases someone, then it will probably get a negative message. Images can send both positive or negative messages.


There are many messages that I want you to see through my photomontage. The main one is family. I want you show you how important my family is to me. Every night, after our hard day, we all come and sit down at the dinner table. We talk about our day and other important things. This time, is the one time of the day that the entire family is together. My kitchen table is an                                                                             important place to me. What is your important place?