Percy Jackson Series Part 1

OK, hey everyone, I'm very excited to share with you the first ever post of my new label BOOK REVIEWS!!!!!! After a long time trying to decide what to choose for my first ever issue, I decided on one of my personal favorites......... The Percy Jackson Series!!!!!!!!!! When I first read the books, I was like 9, and I never wanted it to end! Now I'm twelve, and to this day I have reread it about a million times, and can literally recite all 12 major Greek gods. For those of you who haven't read it, and so I'm actually reviewing the book, it's all about these teenagers who are the sons and daughters of Greek gods.

The first book is all about Percy Jackson, and his normal human life at his boarding school. Then, when monsters begin attacking, he must leave his mother Sally and cruel stepfather Gabe to go to a demigod training camp. On the way there, his mother is taken by Hades through the minotaur, and Percy kills the monster before being knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he is surrounded by challenges such as the bully Clarisse, a daughter of Ares trying to stuff him down a toilet, and game of Capture the Flag which got unexpectedly dangerous when someone (SPOILER) cough, cough, Luke, cough cough, summons a hell hound. When he is claimed as Poseidon's son, though, his whole new life changes.

He is forced to go on a quest to find Zeus's lighting bolt before a war breaks out. He must find three pearls before going to see Hades, where the bolt is believed to be. His mothers life is also on the line as he is also headed there to find her- although no one but him knows about his secret agenda. After facing monsters, and gods, he finally saves the day, returns the bolt, and saves him mom. Gabe gets kicked out to. Percy finishes the summer at camp, before deciding to live with his mother for the rest of the year. Another perfect happy ending!

I know this is super over due, and I'm really sorry, it took me a lot longer than I thought. You know how life gets in the way. I hope you can all forgive me, and I will make sure to publish another one as soon as possible. (Which, since you know me, could be a little while.) See you soon, hopefully within the month!!!

Words of Wisdom

Hi everyone it's me again, and I just wanted to tell you a bit more about the last project we did in class for Hiki No, and it's called Words of Wisdom. What we did was we interviewed Kasiah's mom, Katie Vercelli about her time in the Peace Corps, and got shots of her pictures of her time there. We had to ask her questions, and turn her answers into a story. It was hard with the four very opinionated people in our group, but we did it! It took a lot of team work, but eventually, and just in time, we got it finished, and it was a great experience even though we didn't win.

The words of wisdom we got from Auntie Katie were great. She told us to always follow our dreams, and to work hard and find a way to work your dream out. Her words of wisdom are so important because no matter what, your dream should come first. She tells us all about how she wanted her whole life to be a part of the Peace Corp, and when she met Uncle Jason, Kasiah's father, they went, and signed up, and say it's the best experience. Her advice is truly inspiring, don't you think?

Here is our video, and it is utterly fabulous, so you better watch it!!!

Five Tips For…

Hi everyone, today I want to tell you about a project we did a while ago, our first group project actually! What we did was a five tips video for Hiki No. My group, strange as ever, did a minute long video about how to friends with your cat. The reason we chose that topic is because it was really the best one out of group, and because it was pretty funny. We also chose this project because we thought we could get some pretty good B-Roll of it, seeing as I have two cats.

So what I think we definitely done better was choose our tips better. Maybe something a bit easier to get B-Roll for, instead of how not shaking your cat from it's tail is a very good idea. (Don't worry, we used a fake cat for most of the daring stunts.) We also could have had better filming, but who can blame us, it was one of first videos, so it's not as good as some of the newer ones! Overall, it was pretty good for our second official film project!

Well, for those of you who are incredibly interested in our fabulous kitty video, HERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!
 
P3T6 Five Tips from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

Practice Profile Story

Hi there everyone! It's me again, and I want to tell you all about this piece, an interview! It was done as practice for the next project we did, the biggest one so far. The one we were practicing for is a competition to get on Hiki No, a television show produced by kids on PBS Hawaii. This one, however was much smaller, and only with our class. My group interviewed my best friend Kasiah, and it was about gymnastics, her favorite sport.

We chose her because we had a really good B-Roll opportunity. (Look at my last post for more info about  B-Roll.) Her doing gymnastics in the field really was a great visual.  The sequencing we could get for our B-Roll was great, and it was nice knowing that we had B-Roll that applied without having to waste a ton of time thinking about what to do. Interviewing her was a great opportunity because we had a really clear story, and great questions. It really helped shape our overall story.

Thanks for reading my blog, I hope you enjoy learning all about my G.T media class, and I hope you try some of it out too!

Profile Project Progress

Hi everyone, it's me! What I want to talk about is the newest project we have been working on, an interview for Hiki No. We have interviewed Kasiah's mom, Katie. She volunteered for the Peace Corps, and was stationed in Senegal, West Africa. She and her husband, Jason spent a lot of time working in their village as agricultural extension agents. They helped the people there to use their resources to help themselves.

To shoot interviews, you definitely need to use this thing called B-Roll. If you don't, your video won't be interesting at all! B-Roll is extra visuals besides the basic interview shot, the head and shoulders. The visuals have to relate to the interview, meaning if your interviewing a cow herder, don't go off and shoot B-Roll of the wildflowers in his garden. Go out there and take some sequencing shots of his cows!

Also, to have a great interview, you need to have great voice overs! A voice over is a narration for your video. Unlike the interview itself, the voice over faces the camera, and talks directly in to it. They are usually used as transitions, or intros and conclusions. The B-Roll's job is to cover the person talking. We needed to take lots of B-Roll in order to cover our very long interview.

My team can work together better by being less stressed and more focused. We got this project rough cut turned in on time, unlike the practice one, and when we were shooting it, it was a much calmer environment. Now we have a week to edit it again and get it ready for the final project. We have to try and keep it together though. No stress allowed here!

To improve our video, and to take it from good to great, we plan on re-filming some B-Roll to reduce very shaky shots, and to edit our story. We also plan to improve our audio and shorten our story. The most important thing to remember though is to split up the work and be a team, not just a group of independent students. As long as we stay calm, and plan carefully so we use our time to the fullest, then I know we can do it! Use those time management skills! We plan on working hard to finish on time for our class film festival!

Composition Techniques

There are four main types of composition techniques, and they are; Rule of thirds, Framing, Unusual Angles, and Leading Lines. Rule of thirds is when you get a shot with the subject's eyes on one of the grid lines. It really helps to make your stories a lot more interesting. Framing is when you frame your subject with trees or something. Using Unusual Angles is when you take a shot from an unusual angle. (DUH). They help create interest, just like Rule of thirds. You use Leading Lines by pointing the lines to the subject.

We create

d a video about this in the beginning of the year, and our videos showed how to use certain composition techniques, and how not to. Our video included both Framing and Leading Lines. We showed examples on how to use them, and gave descriptions about them. For Framing we used two trees, and put Kasiah in the middle of them, and for Leading Lines we used Preston, and had him sit on these lines on the sidewalk.

Three Shot Sequences

Three shot sequences are very important parts of visual story telling. When you are making a great video, sequencing is key. A sequence is three great clips with changing perspectives from wide to medium then to a close-up. It is important to have great sequencing skills because it makes your movies better and more interesting. Sequencing helps to show detail in the closest shot, gives you an establishing wide shot, and helps give you an idea about the details that will pour forth with your close up by giving you a great middle!

At the beginning of the school year, we did a project about sequencing, just a nice short video to prepare for the bigger one we did later. It was a sequence with a wide, establishing shot of a boy picking up a piece of paper and a pen, a medium shot of him writing on the paper, and a close up of what he was writing. It was one of the first one's we did, so it's not exactly the best video we have ever done. But it's a good example of a sequence!

Here it is....