CAP Hollywood (Reflection #3)

As our CAP Hollywood project's deadline is soon approaching, we still have a lot of editing to do. Although we have a rough cut of our film finished, we still have to work on the audio. Our audio is not the best, we did not pay close enough attention to the audio of the dialogue while we were filming. 

On a positive note, we finished our poster and opening. We also put in all the music and credits and put in the necessary voiceovers.

We still have to polish up the audio and some final things, but I think it is coming together nicely. I think we will be able to complete the final proejct by friday

Movie reflection

We just finished our first week of our editing process of movie "Criminal Murder". We divided up the roles in our movie. Some of my group members edited the move production and others did side jobs that needed to get done. This past week,I found music that would work well with our theme. It is slow piano music that has a gloomy tone. It works well with our movie because it takes place in a dystopian society where the government is forcing the main character to kill some of its innocent citizens. We might add another piece of music at the end which is sounds more rebellious and a little more intense.

This coming work, I will finish up the music than move onto another role. I will help my group members edit the movie, giving some suggestions. Also I will help work on the movie poster.

Overall, the process is going really well. We are looking good time wise. I'm pretty sure we will finish in time with a good product.

Cindy Cole Cup

On Saturday my boat and I in the competed in the Cindy Cole Cup. It is one of the smaller races, my crew team competes in. Although we did fairly well coming in 3rd place out of 8 boats, we thought our race could of gone better. First of all because the race is only about 1500 meters, the start is extremely important. Our start did not go well because of bad communication, we started a second after everyone else. Second, the racing conditions were terrible. There was a lot of wind and there were strong white caps on the water. Because of the conditions, we had trouble keeping  our set which is basically the stability of the boat. However, I am proud that we were able to advance in the race. Apparently,we started the race in last place and we were able to power ahead into 2nd place out of 4. Because there were two heats, ( In the first heat there were 4 boats racing and in the 2nd heat, there were 4 boats racing) we came in 2nd in our heat, but 3rd overall ( for the overall they compare the times between both heats.)  This week we will work on our set and our start for our upcoming race, next sunday.

 

Here is a picture of us ( with the red oars) from our last race, approaching the boat in 1st place. I am the one 4th from the back.

Documentary Reflection

In the past few years, for various reasons, thrift shopping has become more popular. That was the focus of our documentary. We captured how the attitudes about shopping at thrift stores have changed.  We were able to interview two experts, our classmates and also we were able to do some shopping at thrift stores. It was great to also interview our classmates. They shared their experiences with thrift stores and what they loved about the stores. Making this movie has made me even more interested in thrifting. I learned that people have careers and hobbies in finding outfits constructed mostly of items bought at thrift stores and then they blog about them. We interviewed two experts who devote their lives to buying cheap outfits from thrift stores and blogging about them. As we made this documentary, we pursued the topic even further. We decided to enter a contest where someone had to model an outfit constructed of clothing bought from a thrift store. Although we didn’t win, it was great that this documentary enabled us to explore the topic even more in depth.

It was great that we could choose our own topic.  It gave us the opportunity to explore a topic that we are interested in. Choosing a topic is a crucial part in the documentary process. We had to find a topic that we are not only interested in, but also find a topic that we can make a documentary about in a specific time frame. It was amazing the number of jobs and steps there are in the process of creating a documentary. One person had to find the music, another was more in charge of the editing and another needed to create a title slide.

Even though our documentary was overall a success, we did face some challenges along the way.  The most difficult part was the editing. We faced many computer problems, so it was hard to work around them. If it was either our computer was being slow or we couldn’t import the proper clips, It seemed like every day we had some sort of issues. Therefore the most challenging part was probably overcoming with all the different technological issues. After having to change computers and mostly just being patient with the computer, we finished the documentary.  If I were to do it again, I would try to interview manager of thrift stores. It would be great to get the manager’s perspective on how attitudes have changed about thrift shores.

My only criticism about the whole process is the amount of time we had to make the project. Although I know, we were running on a tight schedule, it was hard to finish the project in time, considering all the technical difficulties.  I think we should of spent less time on the researching phase, so we could have had more time on getting footage and editing.

I am very pleased about how our documentary turned out.  It was at times a very stressful process, but I think we did a good job of capturing how attitudes of thrift stores have changed. 

Crew Workday

I am on the Crew team at school. Tomorrow is the first day of Spring Water Practice (for the past 3 months, we've been working out at school because it had been too cold to row on the water), so today was a workday to get ready for practice. We all went down to the boathouse and we preped the boats and oars. We rerigged the boats. A rigger is a metal things that holds up the oars that are next to every seat, so we had to put them back on the boat ( at the end of last season, we took all of the riggers off) We had to make sure all of the other parts of the boats are in place like the shoes and seat.   Also to prep the oars, we had to replace all of the handle covers. It was hard ot take the covers off because they were glued on.  You had to twist the covers off and sometimes use a knife to cut them off. By the end of the day I had blisters and cuts from removing the handles and we haven't even started the season!

I am really excited to get back on the water! And I hope we have a great season!


Here are the parts of the boat:

Too Many Words...

For about the past 2 hours, I've been trying to memorize 60 words for my English Test that I am taking tomorrow. I've been starring at my computer screen, trying to think oof what to write and I glance down at my vocab book and I decide that I can write a post on what I've done for the past few hours.
I've always had a pretty bad memory, so I absolutely hate vocabulary test. Everyone says there the easiest kind of test because all you have to do is memorize, but they are pretty difficult when you cannot remember a thing.
This year, we take a vocabulary test every couple of weeks and because I am not so succesful at them, I decided I needed to change my study method. In the past, I've stared for hours at my vocab book, repeting each word and it's definition out loud, but that was not a very successful method.
For recent vocabulary test, I've decided to try something new.  I write down all the words on index cards and then I go through each one.  If I know what a word means I put the card in one pile and if I don't the meaning of the word, I put the card in another pile. When I finished going through each word, I pick up the pile of the words I don't know and I go through the process again. I do it over and over again until all the cards are in the pile of Words that I do know.
Hopefully this method will work for my test tomorrow!



The process sometimes takes forever because there are so many words. Next time,I'll start it earlier...

Thrifting

When I was younger, a majority of my clothing came from thrift stores and consignment shops, I remember always feeling kinda embarrassed about it. In elementary school, all my friends would be wearing the "popular" brand- named clothes like hollister and aeropostale, and I felt out of place in my second hand clothing.

Recently, due to the economy and other reasons, thrift shopping has become more popular. That's why I am excited about making our documentary on the rise of thrift shopping.  It's interesting to see how times has changed. How in elementary I felt like I was the only one not wearing the named brands, however, now a majority of students have at least some clothing that they have purchased at a thrift store.

Now I am not embarrassed about shopping at thrift stores. It's cheap,you can find clothes in good shape, for less. Sometimes it takes a while and you have to do a lot of digging through clothes, but you can find something really nice that you might not of come across anywhere else


We found a website called "http://thriftstorerunway.com/" which holds contests every month, where people model their clothes bought at thrift stores. The only requirements are that you must spend under $50 on the outfit and most of the outfit has to have come from a thrift store. On the website, there are some really nice outfits where the person only spent $30

We decided it would be a great touch for our documentary, if we were to enter, so we did. Annaleigh modeled some thrift store clothing and we put the pictures up on the website. Sadly, we didn't win, but it was cool to do!

Here are some of the pictures we put up:

Silver Spring. Video Challenge.

Here is my video for the video challenge. I shot around downtown silver spring using a point and shoot camera. I used a song from jamendo.com. In the video, I interviewed my British neighbor named Greta. She is usually really loud, but she got shy when I turned on the camera, so her dad asked the questions.

Inauguration

Last Monday I went to Barack Obama's inauguration. It was one of the coolest experience. We had seating tickets, so we were able to be really close to the stage which made the experience even better.
At the inauguration, I saw celebrities like Rob Lowe, Mary J Blige,  John Mayer, Aretha Franklin and Newman from Seinfeld!

The whole thing was amazing, but my favorite part was Obama's speech. It had some lines that people will remember for forever. He focused a lot on "All men are created equal" and he metioned everyone. He mentioned the gays, straights, poor, rich, men,female which  admire him for.

The best part of the whole speech is when he said, ""We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth."  

This line used such imagery, it was unbelievable. It had emotion. When he said, "through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall," it really made me say "wow.'


I was so lucky to be at the nation capitol to witness the historic day.  I wish you luck on your second term Barack Obama!



Below is a picture my dad took of the inauguration. We were really close to Obama!

Starting 2013 on the Ground

It was 20 seconds until midnight, everything was ready. The four champagne glasses were on the table and the TV was turned to the station showing the NYC ball.With 15 seconds left, we realized that the champagne was still upstairs,so I ran up to get it. I ran back downstairs as the TV was counting down 10...9...8...7...6..5.... and suddenly... I was on the ground. Everything happened at once. Glass was shattered around me, Esther was bleeding, Samantha was screaming,my parents were yelling "Are you okay?" and suddenly we hear HAPPY NEW YEAR from the TV. it was defiantly an exciting way to start the new year. But I guess if you start the year on the ground, the only way you can go is up.

Documentary Review: Man on Wire

A few nights ago,I watched the documentary "Man on Wire" directed by James Marsh. It was a fascinating movie about high walker, Philippe Petit's journey which led him to walk across the twin towers. The movie captures the long years of preparation for only about 45 minutes of routine on the wire.
It really showed how determined Phillipe Petit was to complete his dream, he knew it was illegal and extremely dangerous, but he wouldn't give up.  From the time he saw an article in a magazine about two huge towers in NYC being built, he was determined to walk between them. He encountered many obstacles. For example, he and a few other people had to rig the wire in complete darkness with high winds and in only a few hours. His friends told him to give up, it's impossible to rig this in such a short time,but Phillip didn't give up. And finally it was a majestic moment when he walked across the wire between the towers.

I really liked that is it had a lot of different footage and it kept cutting back and forth between all of them. It had archival footage of the building of the World trade Center,present day Interview of Petit and all the other people involved, reenactments by a different actor who played young Petit which portrayed the preparation and ideo and still images of the performance between the Twin Towers. All these different shots made the documentary seem so much more real.

I enjoyed how they would cut back and forth between shots of the preparation of the performance ( practicing, discussing how they'll do it) and sneaking up to the top of twin towers.

The filming was great because it made it seem like an older film. In particular the reanactment scenes, were either in black and white or had a color tone that is used in many old movies.

I barely noticed the music in the movie. I found it odd because it used calming, soft music even in the more exciting parts like the walking between the towers.However,it somehow worked.

I really enjoyed the movie, it was was well told, creating a lot of suspense. I defiantly recommend this movie.


Here is the trailer for "Man on Wire":

BARCODE

A few weeks ago, we finished our dystopian trailers. Ours was called Barcode and portrayed a society with citizens who lacked a identity. Everyone dressed the same, they had earpieces to stop them from hearing, to communicate they had only a few cards with words on them and to identify themselves they had a necklace with a barcode necklace. Our main character fell and broke her earpiece and was then able to hear. She then realizes how much the government is hiding from them and wants to end this dystopian society.

What really set our trailers different from the others was the fact that the first half of our trailer did not have music, only a low drowning noise in the background. When the main character falls and her earpiece breaks, intense music starts playing to signify the upcoming battle she will go through. Another thing that made our trailer unique was our costumes. All citizens wore the same thing: A white shirt, jeans, the bar code necklace and a paper bag over their heads. On one side of the bags were two eye holes and a drawn happy face and on the other side was the two eye holes and a drawn sad face because the citizens only had 2 emotions. 

I enjoyed the project a lot, but it was very time consuming. To film we had to work on weekends and for editing, my group and I went in many days after school and during lunch. However during the project, I became more familiar with the editing software that we used, Final cut. 



I am really proud how our trailer and I hope to use some of the tools I learned about while making the trailer, in the upcoming documentary project.

Capture the Fall

For my Capture the Fall challenge, I filmed a park in Virginia last weekend. It was a great place to film because it was close to water and surrounded by trees. It really portrayed the beauties of fall For example, the leaves were all different colors. It was a beautiful view. In addition to the amazing view, it was a great day to film. The weather was an amazing fall afternoon, not too cold and not too hot.

I filmed this using my friend's DSLR camera, which was a great in comparison to the Iphone that I used to film my  last 5x5. The DSLR's shots were wayy better quality than the Iphone's. It really helped show nature's beauty.
For this project, I used 10 different shots:

1.  The first shot was the trees that I shot on a trail.This was a great show in my opinion because you can see all the different colors of fall. For example the leaves were brown,yellow and green.
2.  The second shot was of my friends running to a tire swing that we found on the trail.I included this one because it showed the joys of fall and I found the house behind it adorable.
3. The third shot is of them playing of the tire swing.
4. The fourth show is another shot of trees. The camera starts at the roots of the trees and moves up until it is pointed at the sky.
5. The fifth shot is more trees and the front of the adorable house that I spoke before quickly moving by. I shot this in the front passenger seat of my car, I held it right out of the window as my mom drove out of the park.
6. The sixth shot was zoomed in on the leaves. In the middle of the shot, you can see my friend come in the shot to play with the leaves
7. The seventh shot is a shot of the water surronded by trees. The view is absolutly amazing! Than the camera zooms in on the leaves on the tree.I included the second part because I loved the way the sun is seen through the leaves
8. The eighth shot is another shot of the nature trail. You can see people enjoying the fall weather.
9. The ninth shot is really short, but I wanted to include it because I loved the lighting and the water in the background that is barely seen, but creates a nice view.
10.  The final shot is of my friends walking away on the trail

The hardest part of this project was finding good music to put in the backround. It really wanted it to signify the joys of fall weather. I used a creative commons website, www. jamendo.com, and I settled on the song "Built to Last" by Fall Walk Run. It's upbeat, but not too crazy.
I used Wevideo to edit my video.It wasn't too hard this time because I used it to edit my 5x5. However, it took me a while to figure out how to upload the song, but finally I figured it out.

I hope this video captured the fall!

Later Start times for schools.

I have recently read an article about starting schools later in the morning. I completely agree with the article.
Most high schools start about 7:30 in the morning which is completely ridiculous. I personally wake up about 5:30 am every morning to catch my bus and go to sleep at about 11 pm- 12 am every night, depending on the amount of homework I have. According to the article, teenagers my age are theatrically suppose to have about 9 hours of sleep every night ,but I get only about 5 and half or 6 hours every night.
According to the article sleep  deprivation can lead to alcohol/ drug abuse, social problems and depressions. Personally, my lack of sleep reflects on my grades and attitude at school. Last week, I did not get much sleep because of homework and other activities which lead my whole week to become miserable. For example,i had a couple of tests last week and even though I studied for all of them really hard, I knew I did not do as well I could of done. In addition, the whole week I felt pretty sick which was probably due to my lack of sleep.
If school systems would simply push the start times back only an hour, I feel results would be extremely beneficial. The article talked about two studies done by Center for Applied Reaseach and Educational Improvement  in two different schools districts in Minnesota. In "Minneapolis-area school district—Edina, a suburban district who changed their high school start time from 7:20 to 8:30, and the Minneapolis Public Schools, who changed their start time from 7:15 to 8:40." After CAREI recorded data  on grades and school habits of the students and the data  "showed that there was a significant reduction in school dropout rates, less depression, and students reported earning higher grades."
 I think school systems around the country should follow the example of the these two districts. 
Click here to see the article

Bake Sale

This past week at the CAP open house, my change project group had a bake sale. It was a great experiment and very beneficial. We raised almost $200 dollars which is way more than we expected to.
Every member of our group had to bake something. We had many bake goods including brownies, different types of cookies, muffins and homemade granola bars.
I decided to make snicker doodle cookies, ginger cookies and chocolate chip cookies.I ended up making more than enough cookies. Today, a week after the bake sale, I still have many containers of cookies in my freezer. However, the cookies were very popular, especially the chocolate chip cookies.
It was hard deciding what we should charge for the bake goods. We wanted to charge enough to get a substantial amount of money in the end, but not too much because than no one would buy. We settled on $1 for everything except for the smaller cookies and muffins which were 50 cents.
I learned that if you told people your cause for the bake sale, they are more willing to buy something.
Many people bought things,but when you told them that all proceeds were going to the Children's Medical Center, they usually bought more. A few people just gave us donations without even buying anything which was very thoughtful. Thank goodness the meeting were for teenagers because those we our best customers.
It was a good thing that we had  5 people in our change project group because at times our table became very chaotic, especially after the CAP meeting finished. After the meeting at times we had 10 customers at our small table.
If we are to do another bake sale, next time I feel that we should include a beverage. Many small children came up to us asking if we had anything to drink.
In conclusion, having a bake sale was a very fun and helped a lot towards our change project goal. We hope to raise about $300 in the end and because of the bake sale we've almost reached our goal.

2nd Weekly Post

 I babysit a lot to earn money. And every time I babysit, I am amazed about how different little kids are from teenagers and adults in the way that they think. Some times I babysit for a 8 month old boy and I every time I say anything his face will light up, as if he truly appreciates the magic of words. When we speak we don't think about how amazing words are, how they roll out of our mouths and is our manner of communicating. If only we we were as amazed with words as the 8 month old.When I babysit for children a bit older, mostly aged 2 and 3, I love how curious and interested they are about the world around them. Once I took a walk with a 2 year old girl and she asked me many questions about the environment, such as " Why is the sky blue?" and " Why do birds move together?" When I couldn't give her an answer, she would think for a long time and offer her own. For example she would say " it is probably blue  because the rain turns it that color" and "they move together,so they won't get lost." Although these may not be the correct answer, just the thought that she was so interested and almost concerned proves how determined and intelligent young children are. If you hand a young child a simple toy, they can play with it for hours without getting bored. Just the other day, I gave a 4 year old girl some bubbles and we played with them for 3 and a half hours. As teenagers we are exposed to so many different forms of technology and even with all that we still get bored. It is pretty sad how I get bored with a phone and laptop, but the 3 year old is entertained for hours with just some bubbles.  Adults tend to doubt the intelligence of young children. Although adults may know more things, young children are intelligent and posses character traits that many people, including myself, can learn from.

Weekly Blog Post # 1

 Last night, I watched the vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. I thought Joe Biden did an amazing job, but i thought he could of brought the attacking down a bit. At some points he was overly attacking Paul Ryan. Even if I agree that what Paul Ryan was saying was ridiculous, Joe Biden should of not interrupted him every time. However,  Joe Biden gave the impression that he knew what he was talking about. He spoke with the tone of authoritative, but spoke in a manner that that felt like many people could relate to him. Unlike President Obama's performance at his debate last week, Joe Biden called Ryan out when he was giving false information. Biden did not let Ryan get away with lies. Joe Biden was filled with emotion and power which I felt was very convincing and a job well done.  I hope President Obama learns from Joe Biden at his next presidential debate. Although President Obama should not completely attack Mitt Romney, he should not let him get away with lying to the American public.

Music and Sounds for our Trailer

 Our trailer describes a society where the government has taken taken away all speech and hearing from the citizens. I found two music options that we can use for our trailer.

The first one is: Survival Theme  
This music will begin playing soon after the main character gains hearing. It shows the dramatic and suspenseful tone which I hope our trailer will keep. It starts off slow and soft and then begins to crescendo and become louder, so as the  music gets more dramatic, we will show more dramatic shots.

The second one is  Peaceful nature
We will probably play only a little bit of this music. It will be played when the main character becomes able to hear.  This piece portrays nature, for example you can hear the birds and crickets. As the piece is being played, the character is confused because of this peaceful noise she is now hearing.

5x5

 5x5
I filmed my 5x5 at the Sligo Creek Trail.
The clips are..
1) Sligo Creek itself
2) A man riding his bike
3)A squirrel in the tree
4) Two people playing tennis
5) A girl playing in the creek.

I filmed the clips on an iPhone. I filmed 6 or 7 clips of about 10 seconds, the cut it down to 5 clips of 5 seconds. I used the web-based video editor, Wevideo. After I got a hang of it, it was not too hard, but the hardest part was figuring out how to use the editing software.

I am pleased about my 5x5 because it was my first one, but next time I will deifantly use a actual camera to film.

For our next independent video challenge, I feel like we should be able to add music because that would make the project more challenging, but more enjoyable.

Dystopian Trailer

Dystopian Trailer

Title: V for Vendetta
Director: James Mcteigue
Rating: R
Release date:  March 17, 2006 

Synopsis: A young women named Evey ( Natalie Portman) meets V ( Hugo Weaving), the man who is trying to overthrow  the tyranny of England. Evey works with V to convince the citizens of England not to be in total fear of their government.

V for Vendetta's trailer is an excellent example for what our own dystopian trailers should resemble.  The trailer gives off just enough information to show how V's vengeance towards the government is an powerful tool for wanting to overtake them. The audience can tell from the beginning that Evey is working with V, and that she is very determined to not give the government what they want.
 The trailer shows the dystopian and totalitarian society that the movie is set.  Scenes of armies marching and the ruler speaking are shown as a voice over of V saying "There is something totally wrong with this country," is heard. In addition, the trailer shows the propaganda of the dystopian society. For example, recurring images of the posters that the government uses. Also there is a voice over that says "fear became the ultimate tool of the government," showing how the government gained and kept power. The powerful music plays throughout the trailer, creating an suspenseful and dramatic tone.At the end of the trailer, the music begins to speed up as 1 second scenes from the movie flashes in front of you, it crescendos until the scenes cut off and the title comes up the screen. The increase of speed and volume of the music, leaves the audience in awe and suspense, wondering what happens next. Scenes from the movie during the trailer are only about 5 seconds scenes,but shows the powerful scenes and quotes of the movie. For example, many of the violent scenes are shown. There is not much text in the trailer, but the one one sentence comes in the middle of the trailer saying " A uncompromising vision of the future," it is in bold and in dramatic red.  

We will use similar tactics in our own trailer. Everything we do should add to the tone we want our trailer to have. We will also use powerful music, to build suspense for our audience. We will also use a lot of propaganda to show how the government keeps power. Unlike V for Vendetta, we will use less color in our trailer to create a more somber tone