For all of you who haven't heard of a GoPro before, it is a small durable camera that shoots great action shots. It is small and portable and is expanding the field of digital photography. You can now film thins that you could never do before. You can film sports by mounting it on your helmet, you can film underwater shots with only a small housing, and you can mount it on helicopters. Our class currently has a GoPro and we most recently used it for the STN Challenge. We used it to film an arial shot from a helicopter and a moving shot on a water slide. The GoPro is really small, but it shoots amazing picture quality. The only problem I have with it though is its battery life. It also has many mounts, which is what makes a GoPro so versatile. They have mounts to put on your helmet, dog, and surfboard. They also have mounts to help take selfies and underwater shots. The link to the go pro main page will be below along with a few pictures of it. I think that you should buy one if you can spare the money, (they are in the neighborhood of 300 to 400 dollars) because they are powerful small cameras that are very versatile.

Main GoPro Page: http://gopro.com/

See how small and portable they are!!

   Thanks giving is  soon, and it is that day to give thanks for the blessings you have gotten. I personally am thankful for a lot of things. The top three things that I am thankful for are my friends, my family, and the opportunities that I have. My life would not be as it is if it were not for these blessings.

   I am thankful for my friends because they make my life a lot more enjoyable. If it weren't for them, I would be alone and bored. They make school fun because I see them every recess have I have them in a lot of my classes. I look forward to going to school because of them.

   I am also thankful for my family. They are very supportive of me and support me in everything that I do. Even if I make a mistake, they still support and comfort me, as long as I realize the consequences.

   I am also really thankful for all of the opportunities I get. I have the opportunity to be in this class. I have the opportunity to go to STN. I have the opportunity to create lasting friendships. These are opportunities that I have that some people don't, and I am thankful for that. 

   These are just a few of the things that I am thankful for. The long list includes friends, family, and special opportunities. This thanks giving will be my most thankful one yet! Happy Thanks giving.

   This week was our chance to do radios again. We get to do them every twelve weeks. Other times, I have been late with my radios, but this time, and my partner Carter Chihara have turned ours in on time. This is great, because when you are late with your radios, your grade goes down. It also is harder for the people at FM97 to clean up because they have less time to do so. We were on time because we followed the four week out plan that Mr.M made so that we are not late with our radios. If you are late with yours, then you may want to look at his plan which is on the class resources page. I'll post the radios on this blog post and on my inside scoop page tomorrow in class so that you guys can listen. Remember that they play every week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on FM97.

Monday Radio

Wednesday Radio

Friday Radio

   We've all made mistakes, its part of who we are. But some of these mistakes can have some pretty drastic consequences. One mistake that I would like to do over is not changing topics for pour first quarter project. We started off with a story on the rising population of the rose-ringed parakeets and their effects. We tried to get in contact with the people for about two weeks. We could not, so we went changed our topic to the lack of doctors on Kauai. It started off great, we got in contact with them and the lady was really nice. She helped us out and told us a bunch of information that would have been great in an interview. We asked her if we could do one with her and she said she would have to ask her supervisors. She went and asked and we waited about two weeks for a response, and she then said that it was against company policy to do an interview. So we panicked and we went back to our original topic and did a story on the parakeets. I would do over the mistake of switching topics for these reasons; the story was not as good as it could have been if I had more time, I got a bad grade for the quarter, and I also got my partner a bad grade for the quarter. 

The first reason that I would like to fix this mistake is that the story was not as great as it could have been if we just stuck with the first topic and didn't switch. We started interviews super late and a lot of the editing was rushed. We got our last interview the day before the project was due, so we had to script write and edit that very same day. This did not make for a very high quality video.

   Because the video was not as good as it could have been, we got a bad grade for it. This bad grade is probably what prevented me from getting straight "A's" this quarter. Media was my only "B". If this project was better I may have gotten principals list for last quarter.

   Because my partner Carter and I get a joint grade on our project, by botching up my grade, I also messed up Carter's grade as well. He was new to the class, so he was depending on me to get a good grade. I feel like I may have disappointed him. If I hadn't made the mistake of changing the topic to the lack of doctors on Kauai, both of us might have been able to get an "A" in media.

   So if I could, I would do over the mistake of changing our quarter project topic to the lack of doctors on Kauai. If I did not make this mistake, I could have had a better video and grade for both me and my partner Carter Chihara. 

   On Friday in media class, Mr. M got a man from Oahu that was here for the film festival speak to us about the components of a story. He was a professional film maker, so he knew a lot about building a story. He told us that the main thing that a story must have to be interesting is it must have a conflict. He then said that there were four parts to a story, the setup, the response, the attack, and the resolution. In these parts, the setup is where everything gets introduced, the response is where the hero starts taking action, the attack is when the hero takes on the bad guy, and the resonlution is where the hero wins. There can be variations, but a story will usually always follow this structure. The cool thing is though that this structure can also sometimes work for our news stories as well. Here are all of the notes that I took during the session.

   STN is just around the corner, almost, and Mr. has requested that we do a blog on which category we would like to Participate in. I would like to be in the movie trailer competition. I think that I should be put on the movie trailer team because I could be a good editor, a pretty good photographer, and I would like to give it a shot.

   I think that I could be a great editor for the movie trailer team. I know how to use Final Cut X pretty well. I have been using it before any one else in the class. This means that I probably know more little tricks and shortcuts on there than anyone else. I personally believe that I am better at editing than any other media skill. I can also pair up with another editor as well without trouble, and I don't usually complain about editing. 

   I also think that I am a pretty decent photographer. Sometimes I forget to film b-roll for interviews, but that is not going to be a problem in the movie trailer competition. I know all of the shot types and some of the composition techniques, which I learned in another class called "Intro to Computing A". I also know how to use the equipment really well. Another reason why I am a good photographer is that I know how to adjust the settings really well so that the shot will look great in almost any situation.

   The final reason that I think that I should be put on that team is because I would really like to try out movie trailer before I go to high school. This year is my last year, so this may be my last opportunity to do a STN competition. I have done commercial for two years in a row and I don't think that I want to do it a third year. Me being new to the movie trailer competition won't be a problem because we will do practices. 

   So I really would like to do movie trailer this year. I think that I will benefit by being a good editor if I can, and I am also a pretty good photographer. I would also like to be on the movie trailer team because I want to do the competition at least once.

 

   This Saturday was fundraiser palooza. We had a Zumba fundraiser, a craft fair fundraiser, and a food truck fundraiser. The band class also had a book fair fundraiser. It was so much fun. All of my friends were there the entire day. They were even there the day before hand, where we set up the cafeteria and shucked the corn. It was really fun, although cleaning up was hard work, because all of the hair on the corn was all over the floor. Then came the craft fair itself. It was kind of slow at the beginning, but then it picked up around the time of the Zumba event. About fifty people came to dance Zumba, and the media kids did as well. It was really fun and it made you feel energetic. It was also really hard, and I had difficulty walking after two hours of dancing. When it was over, we ate lunch at the food trucks, and it tasted amazing. Cleaning up was also fun because I got to do it with my friends and play with them at the same time.

   This quarter project is going a long much better that last quarter. This quarter, our (my partner Carter Chihara, and I) project is on the Pay as You Throw Program. I am currently on schedule with my project. We have done three interviews, transcribing is almost done, and our script is partially done.

   For our interviews, we are pretty much done. I am trying to schedule another one with Mel Rapozo after another group interviews them so we take less of his time. The Interviews that we have done are from Alisson Fraley, Donald Fujimoto, and JoAnn Yukimura. These people are the people that are for the PAYT Project or they are experts/creators of the project. The side that we still have to get is the side against it, which we hope to get from Mel Rapozo. Once we get his interview, I think that we will have all of the interviews that we need for our project.

   Transcribing is also almost done for our project. We have already transcribed our first interview and the second and third are nearing completion. By Monday, we will have finished all three. Transcribing is not hard, but it is time consuming so Carter and I will be focusing hard to finish them.

   Our script is also partially done. Instead of waiting till we finished all of the transcribing, as soon as I found a sound bite that I liked, I copied and pasted it into the script, so the first, second, third and fifth points are already done. We are only waiting for Mel Rapozo's interview now.