Music Video Finale

P1T4 Nice Guys from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

Our newest project is music videos! On my team are Raiden, Tim, and Kynan. I like my team because it consists of my friends, who also turn out to be hard workers, so I think it will be a fun time. The storyline of our music video is guys believing that nice guys finish last, which is the title of the song we chose. However, in the end the guys turn into the "nice guys" and realizing it's not so bad. Our storyline relates to our lyrics because the song starts off by saying nice guys finish last, which is how our minds think in the beginning, but as it nears toward the end of the song it starts to talk about how the girls want nice guys, so in our story we turn into nicer people.

My favorite fast edit montage sequence is the sequence in the very beginning, where Raiden follows the script and bullies Loren, who plays Raiden's girlfriend. The reason I like this is because I think it was well executed in having a different variety of visual effects that match the theme of the shot. For instance, you wouldn't put an upbeat light colored filter on a sad shot, and you wouldn't put a sad looking blue color on a happy shot. I also think the timing is good because it matches the lyrics sung in the song. I have to say a big thanks to Raiden for that though, because he did all of the editing. Literally all of it, while Tim, Kynan, and I were working on our music video poster.

This music video showcases my best work because we put in different varieties of shots and lots of effects. I also think we did a good job acting and syncing up the lip syncs with our song. We also used a bunch of different composition techniques. It also shows our photoshop and editing skills. I think we did a good job on the poster because it shows we have an understanding of visual effects and the quick selection tool.

Animated Life Lessons

P1T9 Student Enter Game from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

For our new project we are doing animation. My teammates are Arianna and Raghav. We are doing an animation about students entering the internet, or entering a game they created. The goal is to try to escape while their other friend doesn't know it's them playing the game. Raghav is the friend playing the game and Arianna and I are the ones in the game. The personal character trait I feel we are most exaggerating in this animation is procrastination. The character traits Arianna has, and the ones we will be exaggerating, is her leadership and her attempt to work hard.

This time around I don't think we were really aiming for humor. Although we did add some funny parts. For example, I tried to keep the theme of Raghav crying. In the story he was supposed to feel left out and sad, so I thought 'what shows sadness? Crying!' We also tried to make it funny by using expressions in our voices. Like, Raghav at the very end said "What the heck that was actually you guys?" Except his voice sounded almost expressionless.


Considering we have never worked together I would say we did…Okay. Our level of productivity was not very good. We were the last ones to get our script approved, but we still needed to make adjustments. We also cut it pretty close to the wire, by finishing our scenes on the day our project was due. One of our teammates was out during the two days we had to animate. Overall it was a lot of stress. Although the best moment we had would be when we finished it and we could sit back, relax and submit it. Sorry I don't have any behind the scenes pics, I was more focused on turning in the project, after all a 3/4 on my blog is better than a 0/4 for our animation.

Character Development

For our new project we have to animate ourselves in a GIF. To do this we have to exaggerate some personal traits we have and what type of person we are. For example if you are usually a loud person you can exaggerate that by making yourself a lot louder than everyone else. Personally I think I'm a type a person that follows the crowd. I usually don't go off on my own, I always try to work with people I know. I am also a quiet person, which means I usually don't talk to other people other than my friends. Since becoming a teenager I have also found I am a genuinely lazy person. I have become a pretty big procrastinator, but I'm trying to get out of that habit.

The character traits I plan to exaggerate in my animation are my laziness and my quietness. I'm going to exaggerate my laziness by showing myself on a couch. I am going to exaggerate my quietness by showing myself walking through a hallway and making no noise. Although I won't be making any noise the hallway around me is going to make lots of noise. For example, If I open a door the hinges are going to squeak louder than they usually do. To do this I will make foley of a door opening, then raise the volume bar in iMovie. I know this is the same paragraph where I said what I would do for my animation, but apparently I didn't get to it. Just a showcase of my laziness... No just kidding. I actually didn't get to it, I didn't have enough time. Sorry!

They way we made our .GIF's are by first taking pictures of ourselves from the front, back and side (we didn't take the pictures though, our teacher did). Then we used photoshop to quick select our bodies and cut it out from the background. Next, we took our bodies that we cut out and put it into one photoshop layer and put it into animation mode. Once we have our bodies moving through the screen we can use the puppet warp tool which allows you to move any part of a picture that you want. Animating is a very annoying and slow process, since you have to go frame by frame, so I don't like it very much.

.MOV Film Festival

P1T4 People Stereotype Hawaii from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

In our new G.T project we are creating either sitcoms, movie trailers or animations. I chose to do a sitcom with my team Kynan, Raiden and Tim. Our animation is about a group of friends stereotyping Hawaii. Our keywords, which are the words we based our story around, are Hawaii, Stereotype, Local and Friends. I feel the keywords connect with my audience because everyone knows what a stereotype is or knows of a stereotype. Our overall message is not to be mean to your friends or your friends culture. The culture we are stereotyping is the Hawaiian culture, not saying it's okay to do that. Oh yeah, and none of the jokes are true about Hawaii. Yes Hawaii has all the things we said, but Hawaiians are civilized people.

Our overall message is to not make fun of peoples cultures. Sometimes you may not even know what you're talking about. In our film we have Kynan, or Kawika, rage at our jokes because they weren't true. This connects with our audience because sometimes we hear things that may not necessarily be true. Yes, it's ok to make fun of it, well maybe sometimes it's not okay, but you still need to honor their culture, or whatever you're making fun of, with knowing that it is a lie.

The biggest problem my team faced was probably that our team had different opinions on how to do things. For example we had different opinions on the script and how to resolve it. Another challenge we faced would be getting distracted as well. Since we had a PS4, no brand loyalty Xbox1 is good as well, we got distracted very easily. Especially because we had to be playing video games in the video. Anyway, thanks to Raiden because he basically played team leader and told us to get working when we were just being no life people.

Tiny Spherical Worlds

The point of composite images are to make a different unique picture, that is more interesting and captivates you more. For example would you rather try many different slices of pizza to try, or just one big pizza pie? Okay, maybe some of you would stick with the same pizza, but what I'm trying to say is that diversity is good. Multiple images gives you more to look at and if you have lots of great images, then you have a great piece of artwork. It doesn't always work that way, but for the style of art I'm making it works way better to have lots of images.

The difference between polar and spherical panoramas is the way they look. The spherical panoramas are the ones with the sky on the inside of the tiny world, and the polar panoramas are the ones with the sky on the outside of the world. I've had very many struggles on remembering which is which. Whether the polar panoramas are the images with the sky inside, or the spherical panoramas are the ones with the sky on the inside. I had a moment in class where I completely brain farted and made two polar panoramas to turn in instead of a polar panorama and a spherical panorama. Another difference is how they were made. The spherical panoramas were made by flipping the image upside down.

My finished tiny worlds are very convincing. I feel that way at least. I have done the best job I could playing doctor and making the seams go away in my tiny worlds. What makes them convincing is the overlap that I took in order for them to work perfectly in photoshop. Instead of the 20% overlap that was recommended I did around a 50% overlap. So, my worlds might be a little smaller, but they're more realistic. I also tried very hard to get sky and horizon lines in my pictures. I sometimes forget and the panoramas sometimes come out with trees extending into space. I also think I did a good job keeping my hand steady, for the most part, so you don't see gaps of the floor missing.

Hockney Style Joiners

David Hockney's photomontages are different than my photomontages because to me, his photomontages look a little cartoonish. What I mean by "cartoonish" is that they don't have a real looking quality. If you look at them most look over saturated and the colors look unnatural. You might have a different opinion, but to me his colors look like he edited it to look like computer generated colors. I created my photomontages with the intention to look real, but still have enough color to pop out at you. Look at my photomontages and comment down bellow to give me feedback on my work!

Some images can send positive and negative messages to the person looking at the art or a picture, and they wouldn't even know it. There are some colors that just make you feel good, bad, happy, ecstatic and so on. For instance, what do you think when you see black. Do you see evil? Death? Comfort? Try that with all of the colors you can think of like green. Usually, green, you associate with good. For me white is associated with clean and neat. You can also use symbols to make people feel things. Look at some photos on the internet, see if you can find a symbol.

In my final photomontage I took a picture of pine trees. The message I wanted you guys to see in my photomontage is that I do well in groups. I am also sharp, or smart, and that's why they're pine trees. The last thing I wanted you to see was, I am tough on the inside or I have a strong will. I edited the pine trees to make the colors pop out at you even more, because in the original picture it looked a little dull. I changed the saturation to make the blue look bluer, (is that a word?) and the green greener. I don't like the look at the bottom of the trees though, for me it's too colorful and the colors just look too random. That's me though, I'm a colorful person.

2016 Aspirations

It's 2016 and I have some goals I would like to share with you! The first goal is to get a 4.0 Grade Point Average (GPA) in school. I would also like to try to be more social in 2016. For those of you who know me, yes I might seem social but, with people I don't know I hardly say a word to. My third goal is to eat healthier. Yeah, I know, it's cliche but I eat a lot of junk food. My fourth goal is to go on the computer less, because it ruins your eyesight if you stay on it too long. Finally, I want to try to be less of a procrastinator. Literally I procrastinate at almost everything. Sometimes I even procrastinate at procrastinating... If that makes sense.

The most important goal to me is the second goal. I want to be more social because it seems life an important life skill. If you're not social then I don't think you will get very far in life. What I mean by that is you'll never get that big breakthrough that's always in movies. You know, the one that you're at a special event and someone of importance comes and introduces themselves to you, and you rise to fame. Then again in movies it all comes crashing down afterward. I think that's just in movies though. I think you would probably keep your fame and glory in real life. Maybe.  Hey, I'm just a kid so I don't know.

The steps I will take to ensure success is first, to get out more. Even the little things like going out to run errands with parents. Next, I will try to keep a small talk going. I have a tendency to shy away from conversations. Third step, I want to start some conversations. Do you remember when you were a kid and your parent used to start random conversations with strangers in line with both of you, and you used to ask "Who was that"? I want to be that adult to be nice to people and start small talk. Lastly, I want to actually do things! Instead of sitting at home in my pajamas all day watching television I can get a hobby. Like taking pictures or even sports!

Scratch Game Design

Coding is very hard. Coding is very very hard. I have created a game from "Scratch" though, in "Scratch". Now I'm not saying my game is going to be the next Mario. I personally like my game even though it has a lot of bugs. I just couldn't figure out how to get the frogs to stop moving when the knight did. Not a lot of people played my game to give me feedback to improve. I tried to make it like a game where you had to chase a bunch of frogs running away, so that's why their movements are random. Their movements aren't random though. They move according to how you move the knight, but they don't all move the same way.

I definitely got better at coding the second time. I don't know everything there is to know about code, but I did get better. Now I actually know what most of the blocks do, achievement accomplished! I still have some bugs in my second game, like how you automatically lose sometimes when you start. I just figured out you can just press the flag twice though. I haven't yet figured out how to fix it, but I probably will... Eventually. Also, you might have noticed that after you lose all of the characters stop. Unlike my first game. I also have a preset timer in the first game, but a variable timer in the second. For those of you who have no clue of what I'm talking about here is a link to help you.

The best code I wrote was the crabs code in the second game. His code is all one giant block, with C Blocks inside of C Blocks inside of more code and more code. The last part of the code, with the purple and yellow blocks repeating, is my party room. You can get there by beating the bonus level of my game. How I made it was I had a lot of different backgrounds, that are filled with only one color, and switching them every 0.01 seconds. I still have some pretty big bugs I still need to fix, but I had a lot more than I had before. I overcame my most difficult bug fixes by asking the people around me. I mainly just viewed other peoples games in progress and if I saw something that I could incorporate in my game I asked them how they did it.

Invention Commercial

P1T4_Invention from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo

We finished our invention idea! In my opinion our main goal was just to make a great, funny commercial. I think we did pretty good, and in the end we got class best! Our entertainment factor was off the charts and everything else was good as well. When we first started our project we knew what we were going to do, but not how to make it. Also, we only had about one and a half weeks to complete this project, so we filmed it over the weekend. I was personally getting anxious when other teams were half way done with their filming in school and we hadn't started. In the end though we pulled through and won best in class by a landslide!

The best team moment we all had together was when preston came out of the closet. We had to film and film again that moment so many times just because we had kept laughing every time he came out of the closet. Now I am mentally scarred from that moment, because it was my closet he came out from! Even on the critique day some people went up to me and did the motion of opening a closet door. I would have to say it was the best moment filming so far for this class. We also added another moment where I asked Preston "but wait aren't ornaments only used on christmas?". Then Preston shoved my face away and said "Silly Boy".  We added a lot of funny things in our video, like when Preston was running away because technically he did sneak into my house.

During the editing stage of this project Raiden and I did the main editing, while Preston searched for a song. Editing wasn't too hard for us. It only took about two class periods for us to get this all done and exported. I thank the plan for that, without it we would have to figure out where everything went. I guess Mr. Sanderl was right, the plan actually does help you. Preston was searching up the song for the team because in our very beginning shot, which we didn't add in, Preston was singing the song that you can find in our video. At first we were thinking of just leaving Preston's "amazing" singing voice in, but then we found the actual song. There wasn't much to do after that other than place the clips into the right place and add some voice-overs if needed. Raiden and I placed the song as well, but it didn't take very long. We didn't use any sound effects from iMovie so it was easier on our part.

Composition Scavenger Hunt

P1T4_Composition_2015 from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

The more random votes the worse

Oh hi, didn't see you there! We are now in groups of three people and in my group are Preston and Raiden. We did a composition video about several different techniques. The composition techniques were Birds Eye, Ants Eye, Low Angle, High Angle, Flat Angle, Macro, Ground Level, Forced Foreground, Point of View and Eye Level. I think that the most important composition technique is leading lines, even though I didn't use it in my composition techniques video. I think leading lines are the most important composition technique because they lead you to the subject. We took a survey in class which showed us two images side by side and we had to state whether or not they had the technique or not. Without leading lines your eye would be taking in the whole picture without seeing what the artist really wants you to see.

The most difficult composition technique, in my opinion, is ants eye. I think that is the most difficult technique because it's just so hard to get that low on the ground to make it just low enough so it's not a low angle, and angled just right to not make it a ground angle. I think ants eye can be used more because it is an unusual angle. The film producers use unusual angle all the time because it keeps the audience's' attention.

My team was made up of Raiden, Preston and I. In our composition technique video we all did everything. For example you see everyone at least once in our video. You can hear all of our voices as well. Some people did more than others though, like how you saw me in most of the shots. Anyway, since we all did everything we all did editing. Preston did the main editing, getting all of the shots on the board, Raiden labeled the shots on which composition techniques were showing and I did the transitions. The project was pretty easy overall, it took us about 2-3 days to complete it and if you're a film maker out there you know that's nothing. Well, that's all for know folks!

Cracking the Code

I think everyone should learn to code at least once in their life. You don't have to learn code as of now but it would benefit you a lot in life. Now that the world is revolving, and technology is advancing, we need to learn about the new world so we don't get left in  the dust. More and more jobs are involving coding and computers, and anyone who doesn't know how to operate a computer will be left without a job not knowing what to do. There is this really cool coding program our teacher showed us, and at the very end you get a special certificate and a basic knowledge on coding. The program is basically a game and it's really fun! Can you crack the code in less than an hour?

I aways liked coding, I found it to be a language within its own that you could use any language to access. My first experience with code was last year in my science teacher Ms. Bandsma's class. It was the same program as this class and another one called code combat. I thought it was really fun because we got to play around in the class and have a great time! At first it was difficult because at the time I couldn't think outside the box as well as I can now.

If I could design any program or game I would get really creative. First of all, I would want it to be an app because then people could play it anywhere. I would base it off a game game called Anger of Stick. In my game you would be a stick figure running. I'm so original right? In my game, though, you could run, walk, slide, jump, punch, pick up weapons and use them. The plot behind it is you are a spy during World War 2 and you were captured, but you escaped, and you want to get back home. Soldiers are firing guns at you and you have to jump and slide to dodge them. You have a hunger bar so sometimes you would have to walk to regain hunger. I think I want my game to be leveled, so there would be fifty levels (one for each state in the United States) continuously getting harder. All in all I just really think it would be fun just to design a game! Leave a comment below and tell me what game you would design and check out my classmates blogs and see what they said!

My Humorous Monologue

WeinerH_Comedy from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

These were the results for my video

Okay, first of all HERE IS MY VIDEO CHECK IT OUT, and my joke plan is at the bottom but I didn't use all of the jokes. I also didn't include my list of what shots I was going to use so you guys can check it out for yourself! We are doing the comedy monologue project and I have learned a lot from it. For instance I have learned that I am a very big procrastinator. I still got my work done on time, but I admit I didn't do everything I could have done. I also learned that checking out a camera early is crucial in this project. In our class we have a camera sign out station, where we can check out cameras to do our projects. Without the early camera you have to rush to do your project, and me being a procrastinator, can't do that. Another thing I learned was, that it's really hard to come up with visual shots for comedy, and ever harder to film the shots without making them look awkward. Well, one of my shots was about being awkward, but that one wasn't awkward! Well I tried to make it awkward.

We learned a term this year called padding. Padding is when you add around five seconds before you do anything in your video. So, if you were recording a humorous monologue script before you say anything wait about five seconds so if you want to have silence for the first three seconds you have it. (Hmm wonder where I got the idea of a humorous monologue?) You also need to leave padding so that parts of your speech doesn't get cut off, incase the camera man starts the recording after you start speaking. For example if you said "I like fluffy bunnies", without padding it would probably sound something similar to this "like fluffy bun" and I don't think your intentions were to compare anything to a fluffy bun. Over all I think padding is a simple task to make your life easier and editing even easier.

Here are the project requirements!!!

Yes!! 4/4

I think my best strength is making it bad. I know that might sound funny, but today I had two people walk up to me and watch my comedic monologue and say "Hahahahah it's so bad that it's funny". I tried to make it funny, but it was turning out really bad, so I just rolled with it and made it even worse. I don't mean worse as in nothing there but just voice overs, I mean worse as in it looks like a bad editing job, cheesy jokes and really corny visuals. For example I had a scene that had the joke "Doesn't everyone love computers, hackable, glitchy, ruin your eyes computers?" and I had a video of my looking at a computer, slowly turning around with cross-eyes. So, I took a small clip off of it and made it have a black and white effect so it flashed a black and white image for a second. So, if you are reading this right now and have not watched my video but planning on watching, and get scared easily, watch out. My weakness would be that once I have the camera I don't know what to do with it. I don't know what shots to do or what angles to get.

Comedy Writing

We now have to make a comedic monologue in our class, but first let me tell you what a sense of humor is. A sense of humor, in my opinion, is the most important character trait. Whenever you are feeling down and someone tells you a funny joke, you just can't help but start laughing. A laugh can bond together random strangers, or lighten the mood in a really tense situation. If we didn't have a sense of humor as people then, yes we would work a lot more efficient, but we wouldn't know how to enjoy ourselves. We wouldn't know how to have fun and "joke around", literally. Well I guess if you were born into that world you wouldn't know about laughter or humor, unless you were in one of those movies where you were traveling through different dimensions. Then, you would have to find a world with humor and laughter. Anyway, it would just be depressing if you were born into a world without laughter.

Five tips for writing a humorous narrative are, creating original jokes, choosing the right expression for the joke, timing, how you tell it and being yourself. Creating original jokes is the best tip someone could give you because you never ever want to tell a joke that's already been told. Choosing the right expression can get difficult at some jokes so establish the mood first, then make a funny face relating to the jokes mood. Timing can also be difficult, but just try to string up jokes that have something in common. You can also tell the joke in a funny voice to make it go from funny to hilarious! Lastly, just be yourself because no one likes a try hard in general, but if you don't try it all the joke might fall short.

My comedic monologue ranges from bad puns, to "sophisticated" jokes. My monologue is all about an everyday life of something, whether it be man, muffin, baseball or baseball mitt. In this project you could choose whether you did a whole comedic story or a lot of little one liner. As you can see I went for the one liners, mainly because I have no good stories to tell. If you do comment down below, I'm always in the mood for a good laugh. Here is my monologue!:

So, one day I met two muffins who were best friends, they could talk to each other, and they agreed with each other! So one day they were hungry and the first muffin said “I’m hungry where should we eat?” and the second muffin said “I know, Starbucks!” So, they were eating at starbucks and the first muffin said “mmmm this is delicious what is it?” The next muffin said “I don’t know, but it kind of looks like… YOUR BROTHER!!” *Gasp*

Doesn’t everyone love computers, hackable, glitchy, ruin your eyes computers?

I never got why everyone in middle school needs a boyfriend/girlfriend. (Really shocked/annoying voice) Wow I want someone to stare at and not say anything to as well!

I also never got why people like to eat junk food. You know the kind of food that makes you sick, and unhealthy, (starting to drift off) the kind of food that is tasty, and flavorful and convenient and… (Snaps out of it) Huh I’m kind of hungry. Eh I’ll just have some potato chips.

You know what really bugs me? Misleading titles. “Hey look there’s an article in the newspaper titled bugs endangered! Wait this article is only about technology starting to get rid of errors.”

and what is it about people always saying “oh you’re so cute” or “oh my god look how handsome you are”, yeah this is my natural state, I already know I’m beautiful

What did the mitt say to the baseball “Catch ya later”

I think my jokes are funny because I based them on reality. Okay, maybe not all of them are from reality. I still based most of them though, and most, if not all of them are relatable to you. Yes reader you. Take a look at them and see. 

Motivational Poster

The expectations of our motivational poster are four images. Three of them are symbolic images that represent you in some way, and the other one is a picture of your face. We also need our manifesto in our poster and our personal quotes. Our text should also be kerned to make it so that there are no spaced without text. We also need a Triadic Color Scheme which is one color with two other harmonious colors on the color wheel, to make the image more visually pleasing. Last but not least we need Blending options and Adjustment layers. We basically need to adjust some of the setting to our text, make an outer glow, bevel and emboss, drop shadow etc.

I did my whole poster just using photoshop. Don't get me wrong though photoshop isn't easy, but it has a lot of power if you use it right. What I did was, take all of my photos ( the three symbols and my portrait) and put them underneath my manifesto and quotes. Then I kerned my text, and picked my triadic color scheme. I used some layer adjustments and color balances in order to turn my pictures a different color to match my color scheme. I then, changed the opacity of my text so you could see the images with my text.



My biggest challenge in this project was definitely kerning the text to make it fit the page. At first I didn't know that your text had to cover the page, I thought that you had to leave room for your images to fit in. I forgot that we could turn down tho opacity to make the text see through, but hey, this is only the beginning of the year so don't blame me. I think I could improve by listening to the teacher a bit better. Also, by asking the teacher what to do, when I need help with the project. I don't think I did so bad though, I got a 3/4, which means I only missed one thing.

Personal Manifesto

Hey guys, long time no see. Five interesting facts about myself, is that I love to run around a lot. I also play a game called Magic The Gathering, which is a very cool card game. I am part of our schools morning news team and I like to read. My favorite color is blue and I like to eat food. I am also a twin. I am really not an interesting person as you can see. I don't know why teachers always tell you to write about something interesting, there is almost nothing interesting in a teenagers life.


Our new project is a manifesto which is when someone declares what they are going to do or believe in, in a certain time period. My manifesto is "You can do it. Live life to the fullest and don't let it go. Go to work and make it work. Cease the opportunity, and make the best of the moment. Do what you can and forget what you can't. Don't get down on the things that get you down. Get up on the things that get you up. Have dreams. Make them happen. Do good on tests. Try hard. Be a role model. Turn school into summer. Turn around and try a new way. You may like it. You may not. A bad truth is a lie. Take chances, do it well, make it great, do it again." So, it doesn't matter how old or young you are, anyone can make a manifesto! It could take you years and years or 5 minutes.

My manifesto applies to my readers because everyone needs to step up and take a chance in life. Everyone needs a moment where they can shine, and not get overshadowed by someone else, that's why people need to step up in life. That is what I wanted my manifesto to be about. Taking a chance, and if it doesn't go your way then oh well, try again next time. As well as when it does go your way, then you know that you can do it and attempt it another time. So, the next time opportunity comes your way what are you going to do? "Cease the moment" or back down and cower away. (Oh no, sorry I just realized I used the wrong seize. Instead of seize I put cease, gosh dang it homophones.)