I was watching short films when I came across this one. I think it is one of the better short film I have seen. The shots  were nice, but you can tell this was not made with a lot of money. The guy made this short film just for fun and I think that it is pretty good for something that you made in you free time. The story is  a little questionable because it doesn't make that much sense, but other than that, it was a really good film. I hope when I grow up, I can animate short films like this as a hobby, because that would be a lot of fun.

This is my last year in CKTV, and I have encountered a lot of surprises, some good, some bad. Three of the times that I was most surprised was when a tripod almost fell, when we won fourth at STN, and when we didn’t even get one award at Olelo.

   One of the most surprising and horrific experiences in my life was when someone knocked over a tripod with a 60D on it. It scared the bajeebees out of me. 60D’s are a really expensive camera, so when I saw it falling, I was not happy. Luckily, the tripod was caught and all was safe in the universe. The last thing you won’t to do is brake a  thousand dollar camera, so I was horribly surprised when I saw it falling. 

   A good surprise I got was when we won fourth place in the crazy eights STN competition. I was really happy because in my last year in the class, we won an award. That’s a great way to end out my middle school years. I also didn’t know if we would place at all. Last year our film team didn’t place at all, so this was a pleasant surprise.

   The third surprise was not all that great. It was that we did not win at all in Olelo. This was kind of surprising because this was the first time that our class did not even win once at Olelo. Its kind of sad that we broke the CKTV streak. We did have three finalists, so even though we did not win, it was not all bad.

   These were a few of the surprises that I got this year. They were some good ones, and some bad ones. A thousand dollar camera almost breaking and not winning at Olelo were two of the surprises that I could have done without, but winning at STN was awesome. This was a great year and I’m sad that it will be my last in the class.

   The field of video production is not limited to only news stories a cinematic films, there's also commercials. I think that commercials can sometimes be the funniest thing in the world. Humor plays a big part in a lot of commercials because humor makes people remember and you want possible clients to remember your product for as long as possible. I participated in the commercial category for two years, and it was a lot of fun, even though I didn't win. Commercials are a really great category for those with a creative mind. The super bowl is always full of great commercials. I think that the funniest commercials are probably from Doritos.

   In the three years that I have been in this class, I have learned a few lessons. These lessons came form the mistakes of myself and those around me. The three most important lessons that I have learned were; pay attention, don't be shy, and don't fool around.

   One of the most important lessons I learned was to always pay attention. Time and time again, someone isn't paying attention and they knock over a tripod with a camera on it. It is then up to the reflexes of the person next to it to catch it so that the camera doesn't break. This has happened multiple times to the point where I think that my reflexes are honed past the point of a ninja. If no-one is around you when you bump into the camera, you may have just destroyed a thousand dollar camera.

   A lesson that I learned which is paramount in value is to never be shy. In our class, we tend to ask a lot of strangers for things, whether it be monetary through donations, or a donation of their time for an interview. Being shy can make you lose a lot of opportunities. You have to be outgoing and not let a man on the street walk away from an interview just because you couldn't muster up the courage to ask him.

   The third and maybe most important lesson of all the three is not to fool around. When you fool around, nothing good ever happens. You may knock over a tripod, you may trip over a wire, you may rip a mic cable. Only bad things happen when you fool around. Fooling around puts you, others around you, and the equipment you need in danger. Not fooling around is not hard and it is an excellent way of avoiding havoc.

   In conclusion, the three most important things that I have learned in my three years of media are lessons that include being aware of your surroundings, being outgoing, and not playing around. Following these three lessons can make your, and the people around you's life a whole lot easier.

   I'm an eighth grader, so in  less than a year I will be moving on to high school. In high school, they no longer use Final Cut Pro X, but they use Adobe Premier Pro CC. So before I go to high school, I have to learn how to use Adobe Premier. So to do this, I turned to the internet. Here, there are tons of informational videos and there were even tutorials on the product page. With all of these informational videos that I can watch, I'll be an expert by the time summer is over. The editing program closely resembles Final Cut Pro, so learning it should not be that hard. The product page is at https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro.html. The youtube video that basically sums it up is below, along with a you-tuber that I found especially helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bai

   I have been in the class for close to three years. Through these three years, I have learned a lot. Three top things that I learned that I want to share with you are; don't ever go shooting without a tripod, don't leave without adjusting your camera settings, and always make sure that you bring extra batteries and extra SD Cards.

   One of the most important things to do is to bring a tripod wherever you go. Without a tripod, your shots automatically go form awesome, to not so awesome. Shaky shots are horrible, especially when you are in a competition, because steady camera work can be the difference between winning. Bringing a tripod also makes it easier to film because you don't have to hold the camera the whole time. Basically, having a tripod just makes your filming life easier.

   Before you go to shoot something, you should always make sure that you have previously adjusted your camera settings. This usually includes the white balance and the recording levels for the audio. You want to do this so that you don't waste valuable filming time. If you are shooting an interview, you can also waste the interviewees time. While you may not know exactly how loud your actors or interviewee, or how bright a day it will be,  it is always possible to just take an educated guess.

   The third thing you should always do is to bring backup equipment. As Murphy's law states, "Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong." This really happens, so the best thing to do is to come with backups. Always bring spare batteries and SD Cards, and try to bring a backup camera.

   All in all, I have gained a couple of pointers through three years of working in this class. These tips are to always use a tripod, always adjust camera settings before you go shoot, and never leave without backup equipment.

   Once upon a time, back when it was a long time ago, I saw this really cool short film. It played right before a movie and it was really good. After the movie, I could not remember the name so I could watch it again. Three years later I remember it. The name of the short film is Paperman. It was an awesome short film and I hope that when I grow up, I can work on project like this. There is not a lot of dialogue, but the point still gets across very well. I think that it was great and you can watch it below.

   If I had the ability to change the bell schedule I would change it so that there would be three new important events. The changes I would make would include making x-block an hour, changing the lunch schedule to how it was last year, and having advisory every day.

   The first thing that I would change would be to have x-block every day. X-block is a class were a lot of students have classes to help them do better in school, like Avid, or other classes to help them in math and english. If you have x-block everyday, then these students can get more help for their studies, and that could be really helpful for them.

   The second thing that I would do is change it so that the lunch schedule would be like how it was last year.  Las year had a good lunch schedule because everybody was eating at the same time, so that if you had friends that were not on the same team as you, you could still play with them. Another reason is that some students skip advisory to play with their friends that have a different lunch period then them. The cafeteria was also too crowded on wednesdays due to the new bell schedule.

   The third and final thing that I would change about the bell schedule would be reverting it back so that we would have advisory every day in the morning. In advisory we play the morning announcements, so that students would know what was coming up that day, by playing it half way through the day it kinda defeats the purpose. Another thing is that somedays you do no have advisory at all, so that lessens the effect that advisory has and the announcements to help you prepare for your day don't play.

   All in all, I think that this new schedule change was a cool idea, I just don't think that it worked very well. There are some things that I would like to keep, like the amount of electives. I would change X-block, lunch, and advisory schedules though.

   Vimeo is full of awesome videos! The other day I was watching animated short films and looking at which ones looked the best. Then I stumbled upon this one minute short film that I thought was pretty cool. The film was called Damp Spirits. I think that it is more like a PSA than a short film. It is a cool little video that has a nice ending with a message, much like a PSA. The animation looks really nice and clean.  I don't know how else to describe it. I hope that when I grow up I can just make small little films like this for fun. The video is below.

   Family night is comming up for this media class and its time to start thinking about what videowe want to show. This year I think that I want to show our Crazy Eights Submission for STN. The title of the movie was "A Buck Short", and as the name implies, is was about this girl who was a buck short. We tried to make the movie funny, and I think that we did a pretty good job. I want to show this video because I think it is a cool video, it was well made, and it was th funnest video to make.

   The video is a cool video because it is the only video that I made that had humor. In the class, I have mostly stayed with shooting stories that come form peoples interviews, but this is the first one that I and my classmates wrote to be funny and entertaining. We have wrote other fictional stories, but most of them are about tragedy. The story is an interesting one, and I think it is one of the best stories that I have made.

   The second reason that I want to show this video is because I think that it is one of the better videos I have helped make in terms of camera work. The shots were all pretty good and all of the lighting was balanced. The editing was pretty good, so the shots seemed to flow. I think that our audio was iffy at certain times in the video, but overall I think that it was pretty good.

   The third and final reason why I want to show this video at family night is because it is a pretty fun video to watch. When its in the afternoon, and you already watched a couple videos, I think it would be nice if they saw a little bit of humor. This may make family night more fun. It also would be cool to show because it was award winning. It may not have placed in the top three, but it still got an award, and it would be fun to show.

   The video that I am planning on showing for family night is our STN Crazy Eights video. This is an interesting video that was well shot and would be fun to watch. I will have to collaborate with the rest of my team to see if I can play it, but if not, then I am hoping to play my final project.