.MOV Film Festial

P3T6 Jhoanna Discovers Personalities from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

A film festival is coming up soon so everyone in our class is making a film in attempt of being in it. We're working with teams of 2-4. I am working with Ashley, Kyla, and Jhoanna. We have to the choice to make a movie trailer, a sitcom, or an animation. We ended up with a drama soap opera. Not sure how but somehow we got there. Our soap opera is about Jhoanna being a new kid in the neighborhood and trying to make new friends. She has three little personality traits living in her mind who are going to be played by me, Ashley, and Kyla. Im playing her over dramatic side. Ashley's playing her clumsy side, and Kyla is playing her weird crazy wild fun side. Our keywords are personality, friends, yourself, and together. The reason we chose these words is because our purpose of the film is to show people that you should always be yourself and never act like your someone your not. Thats where yourself and personality comes in at least.

As I said before, our message we are trying to tell people is to be yourself and never act like your someone else. You should be proud of who you are and if people don't like you, then oh well because there are thousands of other people out there in the world.  Kyla, Ashley, and I play the personality traits of Jhoanna. Im over-dramatic, Ashley is clumsy, and Kyla is weird. The story can get pretty confusing, but if you know that the three of us are in Jhoanna's mind, it makes a little bit of sense. The reason we went with this was
 because our idea was to originally be a new student at school who is weird and has odd personality traits. Then we made a few changes and we got to where we are now. We decided to add in something about being yourself since it is about personality. That's when we added in making friends and trying to fit in. We think this would probably relate to our audience if they have ever been a new kid or if they have ever had a friend who's been a new kid.

The biggest problem we faced was trying to work with other people who are not in our group. The first day we filmed, we worked with 3 boys trying to get them to act in our film. In all honestly we all got so annoyed with them but in the end they pulled through and helped us. I was at Sophia's house with Shaday, Kyla, Jhoanna, and Ashley. Yes, Shaday and Sophia are not in our group but they still helped. We need some people to play as a group in our film, so, what we did was call over Sophia's brother, and two of his friends. It took us forever to get them to act for us. We originally wanted a girl to act in their little group but Shaday, the one girl, didn't want to play with a group of  boys. The 3 boys played together but then one of them just randomly left in the middle of filming so we ended up with only two boys. But after we got the people settled, the filming turned out pretty okay. They cooperating and even kind of told us how to film things. But, those things were just really small things that we forgot of course. So, overall our main problem was working with other people who weren't in our group. The second group we filmed with did a better job than the first. We got Raiden, Shaday, and Harry. Harry is not a GT student but he's a close friend of Kyla's that we asked to help us. They cooperated pretty well and I think we did good. Of course we did have those moments when they didn't cooperate but that happened a very few amount of times.

Tiny Spherical Worlds

Composite images are made to go beyond the capability of a camera. Taking multiple images and putting them together to make one composite image is something that you can not do with just one picture. With composite images you have to take time to edit them. You also have to take time to take multiple pictures. This is more of a creative way of showing an image. With composite images, I like how things look a little more surreal I guess.

Our latest project in GT is to create spherical panoramas and polar panoramas. These panoramas are may seem similar, which they are, but they are not exactly the same. They both make it seem like we live in a tiny world. In a polar panorama, it looks like a small planet surrounded by sky. In a spherical panorama, you see the sky in the center of the image and the land surrounding it. Its as if you were looking up to the sky as an ant. The spherical world really interests me. I love how it just shows a different point of view as if you're tiny looking up to the huge world that is actually pretty small.
If I were to spend hours and hours of my time to make these tiny spherical worlds, I think I could make it looks convincing. I mean, if I covered up the line perfectly and shaded and did a bunch of things to make it look realistic, then I think it would be convincing. When I added my little person to my worlds, I added a shadow of course. That was one of the requirements, I believe but thats one thing we all did to make the image look a little more realistic. Another thing we did was play around with the angle of my little person. I also put the person a position so it looks like they are standing on land and not floating on water or something. If it were a spherical, then I would probably put water on the bottom half of it and not the top so it doesn't look like theres water floating or something.

Hockney Style Joiners

The current project we are working on in GT is a photo montage. Before starting this project we looked at a few examples. These photomontage examples were created by David Hockney. A photographer who I believe created this style of photography. For our project, we had to take 20 to around 25 photos of one subject and put them together. At the moment we are still practicing, by that I mean we still haven't started our final photo montage. We have started one where we take multiple photos on one person. I took multiple pictures of Ashley. David Hockney's photo montages are defiantly different from mine in many ways. For example you can make out what the image's subject is.

Have you ever just been on a random website then from there you to the next website to the next and then at some point you end up looking at pictures of pugs or quotes or something? Well I have and I remember seeing many pictures that made me feel positive. However, there are a few images out there that aren't so positive. I'm sure you have come across them at least once in your life. Images can certainly send positive messages and negative ones. Seeing an image of a dog or something represented in a creative way always makes me feel positive. Seeing an image of something like a dog fight or a lonely dog out in the rain alone about to die might make me feel negative and think about all the poor dogs out in the world. I don't know. I'm just trying to think of examples. But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that images can make a negative or positive impact on people.

For my final project image, I hope a gives a positive message about friendship and other things like encouragement. In my image, there are three of my greatest friends. I hope that shows friendship. Also, my image is like a bunch of puzzle pieces put together. I hope it encourages people to not give on projects. This project can be a little difficult if you don't take the pictures correctly and it involves quite a bit of editing. While taking the pictures for my photomontage, my three subjects of the shot would not stop talking. That did not make editing easy for me because Shaday has about four heads. Although it was also my fault because I took the photos too far away.

I hope it can encourage someone to never give up on something even it is difficult.

2016 Aspirations

It is now a new year, 2016. This year I have made five aspirations that I would like to share. The first one is to take more photos. I really enjoy photography and I don't think I do it enough. So, this year I'll actually get out of the house more and take photos. The second one is to get better grades. By that I mean I want a 4.0 GPA. So, I have to work much harder in school to do that. The third aspiration is to hang out with my friends more I guess. In about a year or possibly a few years from now theres a possibility that I will we moving so spending more time with my friends when we still can would be fun. My 4th aspiration is to learn a different language. I know only how to speak english so this year I want to try something new and hopefully by the end of the year I will at least know how to say one sentence in a different language. 5th is to go to bed earlier. Simple as that.

The one aspiration I want to focus the most on is the second one. Which is to get a 4.0 GPA. I have gotten a 4.0 GPA before but I think Im starting to slip back to a couple A's and B's. I don't want that to happen though, I don't think anyone would. I reason I think my grades are important is because I just love seeing my hard work payed off by just seeing a couple of A's in a row. It just makes me so happy. Oh, and it will probably help me one day in the future.

To achieve my goal of a 4.0 GPA, I know I have to work way harder than I do now. I need to turn things in on time. I need to spend more time on my homework. I need to read way more. I also need to go to sleep earlier so I'm not so tired in school. That way I can probably focus better. Those are just a few examples of what I need to do to do to achieve my goal. 

Scratch Game Design

Recently, in our GT class, we have been working on coding. We made a simple chase game and mine is a polar bear chasing a penguin. User experience did effect how I made my game. For example, the way my sprites looks. The polar bear was originally just a happy little bear but then I made him look a little more intimidating by adding eyebrows. Another thing I changed was the timer. I added in a timer because the game is very simple and a little boring. I thought by adding in a timer it would make the game a little more exciting. In my platform game, I decided to make the duck appear at the bottom of the screen after touching the dot so ti wasn't so easy to win. The duck itself didn't change its looks at all. Maybe if I changed it's costume when it fell that would make it a little more interesting.

My chase game is about a penguin that saw a polar bear ad started to run. Its as simple as that. I made the background change maybe around 5 times. In my platform game, a duck is flying from cloud to cloud trying to get to the purple dot in the sky.  Both my games are pretty simple but their unique. My platform game has many levels and only changes the background about 3 times. By many levels, I mean the levels just keep going until the timer hits zero. If you get past 3-5 levels, you win! My penguin changes it's costume from normal to wide-eyed. As I said before, my duck doesn't change it's costume but the penguin does.

My best code that I was most proud of was probably the way my penguin moves. It moves very smoothly which I'm proud of. Although, I may have just copied the code from Ashley's screen so it wasn't very difficult. But another thing I'm proud of, is my duck because it jumps, and lands on platforms and ground rather than falling through it. Im very proud of that. It took me a while to work out how it works but in the end I got it. The most difficult bug to work out was the jumping as well. I mean the duck fell through the floor. Another bug was trying to get the duck to say "Next Level!" when it touched the dot. For some reason it wouldn't but it would change the background but in the end I fixed it. 

Invention Commercial

P3T4_Invention from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.



Our product was called the Quick Dish Dry. Our main goal was to finish on time and to actually get our product to work. Also to meet all the requirements of course. One of the main requirements was that we needed our video to be between 40 and 50 seconds. We met that requirement with 47 seconds. I believe we did meet the rest the requirements as well. As for our goal of the product working, we were actually a successful. The Quick Dish Dry surprisingly worked as we were filming. It dried the dishes so fast we actually had to soak the plates again in between scenes.


At the beginning of this project we created a production plan. The plan was due much earlier than the actual video and unfortunately not many people turned it in on time. Our team, well we were practically hanging on the edge of a cliff. Ashley and I worked on our plan through out lunch, the day it was due. We only had lunch to finish so we rushed trying to get it done. The bell rang which meant we had to get to our next class. We were NOT finished, although Ashley quickly typed in some words and we ran to Mr. Sanderl to get our idea approved, even though it wasn't completely finished. We did get it checked off and neither of us were late to our next class. So we just barely accomplished this goal.

The best "team moment" we had was probably the second time we met up to film. The first time we met up to film Ashton wore a white shirt. The second time we filmed he wore a purple shirt. Because of his appearance change we had to re film everything. But, that turned out okay. At first we didn't want to film but we knew we had to. We tried avoiding that fact by putting Ashton in a gray jacket. Well Ashley's gray jacket. It was a full on girl jacket with fur in the hood. It was pretty funny. Another team moment was when we needed a fan. We decided to walk up to Ashley's Aunt's house to get the fan. Ashton didn't want to put his shoes back on so he walked to Ashley's Aunt's house with us but in Ashley's bright purple slippers. I think overall the best team moments were when Ashton wore Ashley's clothes. He does anything we tell him too. I also remember we ate McDonald's together.

During the editing we had fun. In fact, through out all of this, we had a lot of fun. The editing was mostly done by Jhoanna and Ashley, again. Although this time Jhoanna took over a little more than Ashley. Also this time we all took turns editing but Jhoanna kind of cut in during my turn, also Jhoanna and Ashley took over when Ashton was editing. But, this time we did more than last time! When it was my turn to edit I tried to go back and attempt to fix a few errors. Then I added in a few clips but I never really had the time edit them hence the fact Jhoanna took the pen from me. But then I believe it was Ashton's turn. He added in a few clips and we showed him how to do a few things in iMovie so at least he learned something from that. I believe he added in transitions but I'm not really sure. We made him do a few more of the basic things because he didn't really know how to do much. He edited some clips to fit the length we wanted and then it rotated back to Jhoanna's turn, I think. She went back and fixed a few errors and added in some more clips. Ashley also dealt with most of the audio. Our commercial was pretty simple so it wasn't that hard to edit. It didn't take very long, it only took about 2 classes, or I guess that's 2 hours. Then, we turned it in, on time of course. Overall, I think we were a pretty successful team.

Composition Scavenger Hunt

P3T4_Composition_2015 from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

Out of these twenty composition techniques we have been using, I think the most important one is point of view. Its important because it makes the audience feel somewhat like they're the subject in the video or image. Or at least that's what I think. When I watch a video or movie with point of view I defiantly feel more interested. I think that point of view composition makes the audience a little more engaged in the movie or video. Another composition technique I think is important is contrast in content. This technique really brings out the subject and makes it clear for us to know what to focus on. I also just love to film with this technique. I find it fu
n because its meant for something different to stand out of a crowd. It's just so random, like me.

The most difficult composition technique, in my opinion, is parts of a whole. I think this one is difficult because when I first learned about it, I was taught to make sure it says something. But I'm not sure if the same thing applies in this class. So another one I find difficult was the unusual angle. You have to be pretty creative to find an unusual angle that no one else would think of. Its defiantly a challenge for me to be creative in the shots in that way. Another one I find difficult is repetition of shapes. Finding repetition of shapes in my everyday life just isn't  exactly my thing. I guess if you look at something like a key board or maybe the pattern on the floor your standing on (If there is one) but a straight up birds eye view wound't look so good with something like a floor pattern. It would look like a boring flat angle and no one likes those. You would probably have to do something creative like maybe make it look like leading lines or ants eye or ground level to make a repetition of shapes look good. To do that you have to be creative and that's pretty challenging for me.

My teammates are, Ashton Barker, Jhoanna Marie Domingo, and Ashley Ricciardi. Ashton is a sixth grade boy who got stuck in a group with three 7th grade girls. He has two older brothers and a younger sister. He also has blonde hair and amazingly nice eyes that we're all jealous of. He also nicknamed me "Da nae nae" although hes not the first so I'm used to it. Ashley is, Ashley. Last year we worked on a music video together which is some where in my old posts. Ashley is always so busy yet she always there to film. She does gymnastics and piano and she has a lot friends. This makes it difficult for the rest of us to film at her house. Jhoanna doesn't own any dogs or cats and she has a younger brother that's 9 years old.  In this project everyone has a team of three, but us, were that one team of four because our class is so big.

Ashley did most of the filming and Jhoanna did some of it. Ashton and I weren't allowed to touch the camera just because Ashley and Jhoanna felt a little safer if they held it. That's just them. But, we did contribute in editing and trying to find where to film the composition techniques. Ashton added around half of the clips in iMovie and Ashley did the rest. I guess Ashley just likes to take charge, and Jhoanna too. Ashton also added the transitions. I added the music and some of the text layovers. Well I played all the jingles from the top of the list of jingles we could choose. As soon as I played maybe the 6th one, Ashley and Jhoanna practically pushed me off of my chair in excitement. They loved it and added it in them selves without my opinion or Ashton's. Yes, they did do most of the work, but I guess thats just because they like taking charge, as I said before. But, in our next project Ashton and I will defiantly contribute more. Jhoanna added the most of the text layovers. Also if you watch the video, I think Ashton and I are in front of the camera a lot. Okay, not really me but Im in there maybe 2 or 3 times which is more than Ashley. Oh and Ashley also did the voice over. Yes she did do a lot didn't she. Although, remember I did help with finding where to film which is an important part in this.