Music Video Finale

P1T5 Live While We're Young from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

For our last GT project of the year, or in most of our cases, our last GT project ever, we are creating a music video. My teammates are Kyla, Shaday, and Kyllie. The four of us decided to do the song "Live While We're Young" By One Direction. Honestly not a song I would listen to but we chose this song because of what its about. We want to show people who watch our music video that we should all live while were young and not take everything so seriously. Having fun with you're friends while you still have the spare time is stress relieving. We also thought it would be something fun to do together before we move on to high school. We plan on filming us having fun and we can't do that without actually having fun together. Due to having to film this music video, we got to spend a lot of time together, play games, eat candy, and much more. I think this song was a good pick for our last GT music video. We may as well leave happy.

Our story was pretty easy to figure out. Obviously, the songs about having fun in your youth, so our story is about the exact same thing. We plan on it being about students who are excessively stressing over work and grades only to realize it really doesn't matter that much. Sure, you should focus on your studies but still, you're not in the real world just yet so why not have some fun. If you're going to cause trouble and create huge messes you may as well do it while you're young. Anyway, Shaday and I are meant to be stressing over our work when we decide not to do it. We straight up walk out of the room and go to another classroom to sneak out our two friends, Kyla and Kyllie. We basically skip school. But its okay, its just a music video. Afterwards, we walk to the beach and have fun there and we're no longer tense. Later in the video we have Kyllie stressing out over her homework and Shaday, Kyla, and I sneak her out of the house so we can go have fun. We go to the bowling alley, the mall, and just have fun. Filming this is basically an excuse for us to have fun together. It is our last project in GT for good though so may as well make the most of it.

Overall, I do think this music video showcased my best work and my team's best work. I really did put effort into finishing my music video poster and I think Kyllie did learn something about Photoshop when doing this project. I think Shaday was our main editor really and she showed off with how good she is at editing. She really does pay attention to detail and put 100% of her effort into this project. Kyla also did great filming. Kyla mostly helped with the camera but she also did edit as well. I do think Kyla and Shaday contributed the most in this project. I tried my best to keep every show clear but other than that, I didn't really touch or position the camera. I think Kyllie also contributed, mostly on camera. Overall I can actually say Im proud of this music video. Even if some shots are dark and we only have a couple lip syncs, I really enjoyed filming this and the overall product wasn't too bad either.

Movie Trailer Premier

Our newest project in GT is a movie trailer. I'm working with Sophia, Ella, and Cara. Our movie trailer is intended to be a horror but with our acting skills, it might just turn out to be a comedy, no offense to my amazing teammates. In short, our movie trailer is about two best friends, played by Ella and I, in the woods. The two are playing hide and seeks which obviously never ends well in a horror movie. My character goes missing and Ella searches for hours. Desperate to find me, she accepts a mysterious girl's offer to help. Ella follows the unknown girl deeper into the woods until she finds herself lost. Will Ella ever find her friend (me), or will she be lost in the woods with the mysterious girl forever? Anyway, we are currently finished with our plan, we just need to work on the storyboard. I contributed to our plan by drawing the poster sketch. I'm not so proud of it seen as I kind of rushed it but the rest of my team seems to be okay with it. As for our storyboard, Sophia did most of the work. Ella and Cara worked on it generally, then Sophia revised it, and I just kind of stood there and tried to help Sophia despite her not needing my help.

My team and I have met up once, I'm not sure if we'll meet again but its a maybe. So far, we have been able to film all of our scenes successfully. There may be a couple to re-shoot but its unlikely. So far, I think the only thing we are struggling with is our movie poster. Cara and I both have to create one and hers is doing great, its just that mine isn't. I missed almost a whole week of school so I was'n't able to complete anything. So far, I've just started and the images I'm working aren't the best. Another challenge would be our script. We've already written and recorded it, but our acting skills aren't exactly the best. Keep in mind, we're middle school students so not much was expected anyway. Its just that parts of our script were poorly acted, like we weren't even trying. My only "acting" part would be in the beginning when I push Ella into a tree. I don't have any lines but my facial expressions are just awkward. Overall, our acting was a main challenge of ours. I am, however, proud of being able to film everything in one meeting and half of my team's editing. So far we are doing pretty well.


When our project was finally turned in, we critiqued it. We ended up with pretty good results. They were what I expected anyway. I knew our work wasn't exactly overachieving but I think we met the criteria perfectly fine. From doing this project I learned that acting is key in a movie trailer, but thats pretty obvious. I also learned that having teammates that live near you saves a lot of time. Ella lives the farthest away from us and we happened to film at her house. It took a while to get to her house and we could have used that extra time to get more filming done.

Metamorphosis Animation

P1T9 Metamorphosis from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

In our new GT project, we are creating a metamorphosis animation. This means we are turning one thing into another. For example, we could turn a human into a cat or a lion into a cat. The goal of this project is to make a creative story using various types of animation. It must be original and it must capture the audience’s attention. We also have to use audio sound effects and music correctly. The types of animation we can use are White Board, Stykz, PhotoShop, and Stop-Motion. Using these three animation types, we will create a story that can capture the interest of the audience. In the story, one thing must turn to another through the metamorphosis process. In one of our story ideas, our character changes both physically and mentally. However, in the story we chose to do, Ashley changes only physically.

My teammates are Ashley and Shaday. Our focus statement is 'Ashley Becomes Coordinated'. Ashley is our main character and she starts off as a waitress who losses her job due to her clumsiness. She desperately wants her job back and when she has no hope of doing so, she turns into a cat. Then realizing she can teach herself how to be coordinated. She trains herself and works hard which eventually pays off. When she finally thinks she's ready to talk to her boss again, she poofs back into a human, then rushes off to the restaurant of which she got fired. Her boss gives her one more chance and she proofs she can do her job right. In total we have 6 scenes. In the first scene, like I said before, Ashley is a waitress and she's doing her job normally until she accidentally trips over her foot. She spills the food and to make it worse, on the customers. In the next scene, her boss is furious and fires her in an instant. Ashley loved that job and really wants it back but her boss just wont listen. In the third scene, Ashley goes home and suddenly turns into a cat. She then gets the idea of teaching herself how to be coordinated.

Our finished product was actually not that bad. I liked it and I think our results were pretty accurate. We didn't go above and beyond with it but I do think we met the standards at least. Most people seemed to vote 3 for us but a few voted 4. Hopefully no one voted 2. We worked really hard on it and again, I think we got what we deserved. Even if we did run into a few bumps here and there, like our whole project being deleted twice, we did make it in the end. Our only projects with filming outside of school was the clothes. We didn't want it to look weird like we were wearing the same shirt each day. Other than that, this project was pretty perfect. I'm not surprised that our message was voted the lowest. It was a little confusing in certain parts. I think our story was pretty original. I think our main reason for getting the idea was the opportunity to throw food on people. Although I'm not sure how we got the idea exactly, I did enjoy putting this project together and I'm happy with our final video.

Geometric Portraits

Our new project in GT is to create low poly portraits. Because we are using portraits, we are focusing on facial expressions as well. Facial expressions are universal. They are learned all over the world in the same way. Using facial expressions is a way for people to communicate rather than actually talking and using words. People use facial expressions to show their emotions which make it easy for others to understand how they are feeling. It may sound odd when I say its a way for people to communicate, but it is in a way. For example, if two people are mad at each other, they probably won't want to talk. They might just use an angry glare or expression to communicate to the other that they don't want to talk. 

To create our low poly portraits, we first took a photo of ourselves or our subject. For our first portrait, we took a symmetrical photo of ourselves and opened it in PhotoShop. The we sized the image to fit the requirements. We placed a grid onto the image and drew a red line with the size of 5 pixels straight down the middle of our portraits. We decided to only use the left side of our faces since it was a symmetrical image of ourselves. From there, we traced around the left side of our faces and created an outline of all our facial features, using the 5 pixel red line. The lines had to touch the grid in some way. Then, we filled our faces with triangles. Next, we used the polygonal lasso tool to select a triangle. We then blurred it. We had to outline, select, and trace, every triangle we created. After finally finishing this part of the project, we used the polygonal lasso tool to select our half of our faces that we blurred. Then we copied that and created a new layer. With that layer, we stretched it to the other half of our face so it was symmetrical. Then we made our outlines white, turned on the white background, and turned it in. We also create 2 more low poly portraits, however we take a little bit of a different approach for those. In the second one, we started by using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to create triangles and blur them without an outline.

With the first low poly portrait, we used our own faces and the process was very different from the second one. In the first poly portrait, we outline half of our face using the Line Tool in PhotoShop. After doing so, we blurred each triangle on that half of the face. In the second one however, we did not use the Line Tool to outline triangles first. We also did not just do half of the face. We started by using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to create triangles and blur them. We did not use an outline first. We also used a picture that we took of someone rather than ourselves. By adjusting the original image, we created a unique background. In the second image, because we did not use an outline, I found that there were more noticeable gaps without it. Another thing that is different in the second one is that we added in the whole person rather than just hair and face. There are a lot of differences between the two but both and still Low Poly portraits, just created in two different ways.

Verbal Landscapes

SacramedD_Retime from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

Nature seems to impact everyone's life in some way. Whether its only for a moment or everyday, all day. We all are affected by nature in some way. I rarely go outside but still, it affects me. Nature allows us to live so of course it impacts us. But, looking at a beautiful view from the top of a mountain or just looking at the ocean also affects us. Who wouldn't want to catch the sun right before it sets. Seeing an orange and pink sky is something that would probably change how we feel while seeing it. Hiking a mountain for an hour is worth it when you reach the top. Seeing the beautiful view just makes you feel like you've accomplished something.

Time-lapses are created by taking a wide angle video and speeding it up in an editing program. What we have to do is take a few videos thats at least 5 minutes long then import it into our computer and edit them. One of my time-lapses is a sun set on the west side. What I did was leave my camera on the beach for maybe 20 minutes as the sun set. I made sure it was a wide angle so you could easily see the sun set and the clouds around it move. Then what I did was import it to my computer and into an editing program. Then I used the retime feature to speed it up so the video was only a few seconds. As for a slow-mo, its kind of the opposite. What I did for one of them was a rock falling into a river. So I got close to the water and took a video that was around 4 seconds long of a rock falling into the river. What I did next was import it into my computer and slow it down in an editing program. That way the video would be around, maybe 8 seconds. When I watched back the video, you can see the water splash all around the rock as it hits the water.

I think the hardest part about this project was going all around the island to get our time-lapses and slow-mo's. It was difficult to find the time to do it. However, it was very fun. For one of my time-lapses, I went to the top of a mountain with two of my friends and it was a lot of fun. Tiring, but fun. It was also the first time I went to the top of that mountain. For another one of my time-lapses, I went to the west side with Shaday and Ashley. We all got a really nice sunset and we also got to swim. We did this right after hiking that mountain too so swimming was very well earned in my opinion. I did fall during the hike and got a few cuts which made it difficult to swim in salty ocean water. Overall, getting all the footage was difficult but really fun.

In class, we did a critique of everyones video and chose whether our videos were a 4, 3, 2, or a 1. 20 people seem to have given me a 4 and 7 gave me a 3. Luckily, I didn't get any 2's or 1's. I think I would have to agree with this. I mean I didn't think I would do this well in the first place so seeing this kind of surprised me. I did wake up at 5am in the morning for this project and go all the way to the west side for this. I seem to do a lot because a GT. I'm glad all that tiring work payed off because I got a quite a few 4's. I retook a lot of these videos which took my multiple days to get the actual ones I wanted. I'm just hoping I get an A for this class. 

Poetic Personal Statement

Its a new school year and our last year of GT. Its sad, and we'll all miss it but because its our last year, we will defiantly make it the best. The first project of GT is to create a poetic personal statement. I think poetry is a way of expressing your feelings and emotions through meaningful words. Poetry can be used to inspire or motivate others. It can also be used to tell a story. Poetry can be personal because it can describe someones feelings. It could be something the writer feels and is meaningful to them. It can also be personal to the reader if they feel the same way the writer does or if the poetry reminds them of something or someone close to them. It is a creative way to express feeling through words.

An awkward and strange person
Easily stressed making situations worsen
Trying my best to succeed
Staying focused is what I need
When I'm with friends, I enjoy myself
Other times, I grab a book from the bookshelf
I see myself in my own way
Which is how I make it through day after day


In my poetic personal statement, I decided to use a rhyme every line. I seem to doubt myself a lot so writing this poem was rather difficult. I thought rhyming would help me come up with more things to say. For example, when I used the word person, it helped my think of the next line because I thought of worsen, which rhymes, of course. When I wrote the poem, I had no idea what I was writing about. When I used rhymes, it seemed to help me a lot with coming up with ideas. Still, I don't really know what the topic specifically was in my poem, but in general it's about me I guess.

Music Video Finale

P3T5 Don't Stop Believin' from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

The song my team and I choose was "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. My teammates are Kyla, Jhoanna, and Ashley. In the story Kyla meets Ashley (She plays a boy) and the two become very close. Kyla leaves her home hoping to follow her dreams. Along the way she meets Ashley. He has also left his home to follow his dreams that are similar to Kyla's. They meet and instantly become best friends. At one point they both reach for the handle of a door. Their hands touch and their friendship becomes a little more. This is a like a prequel to Kyla's music video last year. Last year her music video was about her and Ashley together.  The reason we wanted it to about a boy and a girl was because the first lyrics are "Just a small town girl" and later "Just a city boy" The song is, in a way, about a boy and girl meeting. The boy and girl are following their dreams together and they should never stop believing. I think that is what the song is a little about. That is why we chose to do our story similar to that.

My favorite fast-edit montage is when Ashley and Kyla spend time together. We cut from shot to shot of Ashley and Kyla hanging out on the beach. We cut from them sitting on wall to a lip sync and then back to the beach. The two were walking away from a camera and then sitting on a log at the beach. This represents them going after their dreams together. I liked this fast-edit montage because it says a lot about the story. Its not the best but I think you can tell what some of the story is about by watching that montage. Again, its not the best montage but its my favorite.

This music video showcases our best work because we tried to film as often as possible. We also made multiple photoshop documents to include in the music video. Another thing we did was film several lip syncs. This way we could use them as backup if we need it or we could use it to switch the shot multiple times. I actually think we could do just a little better by adding more story to it. The reason it was difficult to film the story was because Raiden was always busy. Thats why we decided to replace Raiden with Ashley. Ashley plays a boy in our story. However, we did try our best to work with the footage we had. We created 2 Photoshop documents overall. One as the intro screen, and the last being the bloopers screen. I worked on the intro screen. I added a gradient of teal fading to white as the background. I cut out the four of us in the image from a screenshot I got from our green screen lip sync. I also used effects on the text, for example, stroke and bevel and emboss.


The song "Don't Stop Believing" is by Journey

The 2 minutes we used were...

"Just a small town girl
Livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train
Goin' anywhere
Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train
Goin' anywhere

A singer in a smokey room
The smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlight people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin' somewhere in the night

Workin' hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win
Some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night"