Words of Wisdom

Kapaa Middle School MEDIA Check us out on Vimeo!

The Elder Words of Wisdom project was very unique. We had to complete a project plan and script before doing any filming. Jaycee, Zoey, and I were wondering who really spoke to us and encouraged us. We all picked our 6th grade honors English teacher Mr. Nunn. He really gave us a great story and made our job really easy. These words of wisdom are important because they really encourage students. Also, His words of wisdom can tell you that no matter what knocks you down get back up and you can succeed.

Five tips for...

In Zoey, Jaycee, and I's G.T Media class we had to do a "Five Tips" video for a PBS kids program called "HIKI-NO". We decided to do our project on "Five tips for getting your cat to like you". We decided on this topic because mostly all of the good topics were already taken. With that being said we went for something unique. We all thought it would be cool to have a cat in our video. I think we could have gotten a little better B-Roll with maybe less camera movement. Also, on the part it says when it catches an animal actually have a dead animal haha. Lastly, the third thing we could have done better is have better Voice-overs  I noticed in the beginning I messed up and stuttered.

Practice Profile Story

The purpose of our Profile Practice story was not only to teach people about the importance of teamwork, but also how to be a team leader. We wanted to do something not just about sports. We wanted something more than just a story about soccer. My team and I wanted to dig deeper than that. So we were thinking what is behind the sports? What do you need to succeed not only in sports but in life also. Then Mr. Sanderl gave us the perfect idea, teamwork...

Zoey, Jaycee, and I had to decide who were we going to interview. It had to be within our team. We wanted it to relate back to sports and life. Since we wanted it to not only pertain to sport teams but leading like a team captain. We decided to choose me. We chose myself because soccer is my life I love playing it all day everyday. I also am a team captain on my soccer team. We saw this as a perfect opportunity.

Overall, I think this video was nearly perfect. We the story and interview was terrific. Not only the story itself but the editing took a lot of hard work and came out great. The steps taken by each team member to complete this video was great. Not only did we just do a story on teamwork. Making the video took a whole lot of teamwork.

Profile Project Progress

Zoey, Jaycee, and I interviewed a teacher at Kapa'a Middle School named Mr. Nunn. He was our 6th grade honors English teacher. Mr. Nunn is probably one of the best teachers that have ever taught me English. He made English very fun and easy to learn. That is not the only reasons why we interviewed him. We also interviewed him because he told outstanding stories. He would always tell us crazy stories about how he became a teacher and his life before teaching. That is exactly what out project is about. We interviewed Mr. Nunn in his classroom. Zoey, Jaycee, and I figured that Mr. Nunn would be the most comfortable there.

Besides the interview there is a way more technical part to it. This is including the B-roll, and Voice-Overs. B-Roll takes your video to a whole other level. The B-Roll was pretty easy to film in general. We filmed Mr. Nunn teaching his classes and talking to students. It was a little challenging considering we only went during one period to film so it is all of the same students. Also, it was very challenging to find different shots and angles to take. Not only are you focusing on what shots you have you also have to sequence, and make sure the lens are focused. Now, another technical part of the Profile Project were Voice-Overs. You have to come up with what to say without repeating what the Interviewee says. Also, you need to make sure you are putting personality into your speaking and reading fluently. It is very very hard.

Sometimes I think how can we work better as a team? We could work together better with splitting up all of the group work. Or maybe we can focus on having people put all of their ideas together. Although we did get a lot of things done together. We got our ideas on  the production done super fast. Also an argument never phased us we always ended up agreeing on everything. As an overall group I think we did awesome.

 To improve from good to great we need to make our story flow more. We also need to work on our visuals. Our B-Roll was going through to fast we need to make it longer. Also we need to make Mr. Nunn seem like he is engaged in his teaching not just slouching back. Making it go from good to great would be improving on our Audio would also need to be re done. Maybe we could have them talking slower and not rushing. Also by taking in our suggestions.

Composition Techniques

Composition Techniques are quick and easy ways for how to make your pictures/videos go from good to great! There are 14 Composition Techniques. 
Starting with the most important:

1. Rule of Thirds
2. Framing
3. Unusual Angles
4. Leading Lines
5. Emotion
6. Action
7. Close up
8. Reaction 
9. Contrast in Content
10. Repetition in shape
11. Group shot
12. Parts of a Whole
13. Horizontal
14. Vertical (Pictures Only)

Now we are going to talk about what the main four Composition Techniques. The main four are Rule of Thirds, Framing, Unusual Angles, and Leading Lines. First, Rule of Thirds is basically splitting your image into nine different sections. To me Rule of Thirds reminds me of drawing a Tic-Tac-Toe game across your screen. When using rule of thirds you never center the subject. It is either on the left or right of the screen, or in the upper or lower section of the screen. These are called Upper Thirds and Lower Thirds. Now, We re going to talk about Framing. Framing is Usually used to draw more attention to your subject. Framing shows more layers and adds context to your photos and videos. Sometimes what the viewers can not see is what draws them into the subject. Next, We are going to talk about Unusual Angles. They are huge attention getters. Unusual Angles add crypticness or mysteriousness to your photos. They are more interesting to the eye. Unusual Angles are going to different places and taking weird angles. Going down on the ground taking pictures of a crowd. Going up in a tree pointing down on a crowd. Unusual Angles are a definite must use. Finally Leading Lines, This is just a technique used to add interest and coolness to your photo/videos. Leading lines will take your eyes and direct them straight to your topic. All of these composition techniques will make you pictures and or videos fantastic!  

Three Shot Sequences

Three Shot Sequencing tells the story. It goes from wide to medium to close to extremely close. There should be no camera bobbing.With establishing sequencing it makes a very good story. If you watch the video it goes from wide watching me walk in. Then, it goes to medium watching the me grab the handle of the door. Then a close up of me opening the door.

Three shot sequencing is really important while filming. Three shot sequencing also compresses your video. Say you wanted to film a girl driving her car to school. Instead of watching the whole thing of her getting into the car and driving for a hour or two you could use three shot sequencing. Take wide shot of her getting into the car then maybe while she is driving get a medium shot of her in the car maybe from even in the back seat. Finally as she is parking her car at school you could get a close up of her hands. You just showed her getting in the car at home, driving, and then turning off her car at school. That is why we use Three Shot Sequencing.
 

Practice Story Reflection

When I first was teamed up with Zoey and Jaycee I knew we were going to make an awesome video. We had a hard time deciding what we were going to do with the video. At first, we were going to do Kaylee plays soccer. It was already taken though! Then, we were brainstorming our ideas trying to come up with a cool video. Zoey recommended "We should do Kaylee loves sports!". Although, Mr. Sanderl though outside the box he recommended that we do teamwork. Finally, we decided to go with that topic and make a video about teamwork.

After figuring out what we were going to do we started writing our transcript. We were coming up with questions to interview me with. Once we had all of that done it was time to interview. Using to new lavalier microphone and new camera we were able to shoot and awesome interview. Then, we imported the interview on to final cut pro. So far this is going great everyone is getting along, there have been no problems. Next, using headphones we listened to the interview and typed it on to our transcript in google docs. Finally, after that was done we could move on to shooting B-roll. We got a lot of shots of us working together and playing soccer. I talked a lot about soccer in the interview. Shooting the B-roll did not take very long in about two class periods it was done.

Finally, it was time to have a massive editing session. We started editing it final cut pro cutting certain things out of the interview and adding other parts too. Once the interview was done being edited it was time for B-roll. We started editing the B-roll and putting it together with the interview. It was coming along great and we had no problem working together! After finishing the interview and B-roll we needed a  narrator to make the story really connect. Jaycee then started talking into the microphone on the computer and narrated the story. We then did the same exact thing as everything else. We started editing the narration. Finally we put that into our story and it was terrific. The video was really good! Zoey, Jaycee, and I made a really great team. We worked together using teamwork had no arguments, and got things done super fast. This was a really great team.

What could we do better? Honestly I don't know what we could do better. A lot of our things were in an advanced category. Maybe next time we can get clearer audio with less wind. Also, we could make our story have a little more flow and make a lot of sense. Our visuals were pretty good maybe we can get even more visuals. I think audio was basically the most we need to work on. Overall, The video was fantastic the team was fantastic we did an amazing job.