Monday, April 7, 2014

Words of Wisdom

 In our newest project, we interviewed Cambria's mom, Jessica for our words of wisdom. We thought of doing Jessica for the project because of her career and how she went to college and is per suing her dream job. Also, we liked that she had an interesting back round story of being a single mom and thought we could make an interesting video because it would have showed the struggle she had and how to make it motivational, inspiring and informational on how people can still follow their dreams even if they have things that can compromise it. In the project, we worked with One, Charlotte and obviously Cambria, since Jessica is her mom. We also used FinalCut Pro for editing the video and with really fancy and professional cameras. Our words of wisdom are stay true to who you are and choose a career that makes you happy as well as beneficial to your family. These words of wisdom are very important because you have to work at that job every day and if you don't like it whats the point? 


Wednesday, April 2, 2014

5 Tips For...

Hello! Today I will be sharing with you the 5 Tips video we did for Hiki No at the beginning of the year.  Charlotte, Cambria , and I  made our 5 tips on how to do fancy nail art.  We showed nails with polka dots, water marble designs, etc. In our video I did the voiceovers, Charlotte was the person in the video and lastly, Cambria was the camera woman.  Our team worked pretty well together and looking back, a lot of people did better subjects or better filming but I am still proud of making it because it was one of our first videos and we learned a lot on how to make it better for the future and was happy to have learned and made a difference in videos in a good way.

Our team could have done a lot of things better. For example, we could have made the audio even because there are parts that are louder than others which would have made it smoother. Also, we could have done the video in better lighting and gotten better shots in which would have made the video quality better. We also had a person walking in the back of one of the shots in which could have been resolved by taking another shot of it. Yes, it wasn't very good but without this video we would have been a lot worse than we are now.


Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Practice Profile Story



Our progress story is about Me and how I would like to become an actor or a directors assistant. The purpose of this video was to get us ready for the Hiki No video on elder's words of wisdom. This video helped us know what we need to work harder on and what we could do better next time when we do our final.

We chose this subject because in our group we didn't really have a lot of hobbies we did so we just chose what I wanted to be when I grow up and my plans for the future because we thought it would make an interesting video with a different side to the story. We chose me I guess because other people didn't want to be the main focus of the video and I was fine with it. All in all I think that we made an okay video and shot some great interview shots but we needed to work on time management and the main story of the video. It was good for us to practice before we did the final that way we knew a little bit on how to make this video great. It was a good experiment.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Profile Project Progress

In  our project My team has Cambria, One, Charlotte and me in it. We interviewed Cambria's mother , Jessica on what it is like to be a nurse. She works at Wilcox Memorial Hospital in the babies section and works with people that are pregnant and planning to have babies at the hospital.We wanted to interview her because we thought it was inspiring that she went through four years of college to get to where she is today while raising kids and being a single mother. She has worked for the hospital for 3 in a half years and enjoys what she does.

Our B-Roll was a little difficult because we had to go to all the stops required in our video in one day. This could have been easier if we had planned it a little better but we made it work and got it all done. With B-Roll it is extremely important that the B-Roll has at least some connection to the interview and story you are trying to portray. So we went to the Kauai Community College and filmed because we had talked to Jessica about how she got through college so we made a connection that way. We also filmed her walking into the hospital building and her hanging out with her daughter to get an inside perspective. The voice overs we filmed at lunch in the news cast room with our mic that helped the story make sense and make the story flow more at ease.

Our team has worked pretty well this time around and got things done. We have all (I personally think)  have worked equally as hard as one other. I was working on the template drawings while One and Charlotte were working on writing out what Jessica had said during the interview. Cambria was also working on the template and we worked together and communicated way better and got a lot of things done. Our first time around we ran out of time and made a failure but this time I am proud of what has been done.All that is left to do is the editing.

The Editing didn't go to great because we didn't finish it all all and need to focus more on what we are portraying as our story line. We are failing right now with the maturity level of our film and need to step it up a little with our skills we have in the limited editing time. For our rough cut I was exited at first because I thought we had a decent video when we first showed the video to the class but as people started to laugh and I saw what was our B-Roll footage I realized how badly it really was.


Monday, February 24, 2014

Composition Techniques

There are many different composition techniques; rule of thirds, framing, Unusual angles, Leading lines, emotion, action, close up, reaction, contrast in content, repetition of shapes, group shot. parts of a whole, horizontal, and vertical. If you are filming , then do not use a vertical angle because when you edit or post a video on something, there will be extra spaces on the sides of your film.

The main four techniques normally used are framing, unusual angles, leading lines, and rule of thirds. In framing you want to frame the image you are filming or taking a picture of with things in your background. For example, if you are taking a picture of a girl thru a window your framing would be the window around her. In unusual angles, you would take a picture or film something from an angle or angles you wouldn't normally see. Another example would be a shot of a tree from ground level looking upwards. Leading lines occurs when a line of something leads to the focal point you are filming or photographing and rule of thirds is when your person is one third of the picture. The video will also help explain. If you would like to see more video examples you can go on vimeo for more.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

PolarPanos


Three Shot Sequences

A three shot sequence is a basic platform that you can build upon in filming videos. The three shot sequence has a wide distinguished shot to set the scene, a medium shot to bring the view closer, and lastly a close up shot to show up-close details.  A three shot sequence helps build up your story and set the scene. If you do this correctly you will end up with a nice flowing video steam. The one we did is a little choppy but you can look at more of Pd. two's videos using this link. Pd. 2's Videos of sequences 
It is important to have sequencing in your films to make your videos interesting and show different angles. If you do this correctly I am telling you you will have quite an audience watching your videos.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Practice Story Reflection




In our newest assignment we had to make a video for Hiki No. We made ours about  me and what I wanted to be when I grow up. I want to be an Actress or a directors assistant. So that is what we talked about for our practice video. The final project I think we will be interviewing Cambria's grandfather or someone else when the time comes.

I think we did a good job filming and coming up with the questions but we should have worked harder on teamwork with editing and prepared ourselves with more time to edit. In the filming we filmed me going into the G.T room.  We also filmed me being in the KMS morning news cast filming studio. Me, Charlotte, One and Cambria I think overall worked well together with the filming parts of the project. We made sure I wasn't looking at the camera and that the camera was at just the right angle.

On the other hand, We needed to have way better time management and correlation of ideas and focussing.The next time we do a video project I will definitely not want this to happen again and so I will try to prepare our team for better time skills and focus more so we don't have to rush to the end trying to edit as quickly as possible on Final Cut Pro. Our over all completion I think turned out pretty good but we need to focus more on the editing part of the video so we won't ever be late on a project again. I have definitely learned from this project and plan on success with our final project! I am very exited about the up coming filming for Hiki No. 



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Monday, January 27, 2014

Final Photomontages


These are my best Photo montages based on the work of famous photographer, David Hockney who first invented joiners which are a bunch of photos that capture a movement such as handing you a cup of tea which he famously took a photo montage of.In the photo montage I took with the people in it I let them just hang around the pole and captured their movement. They swung, talked and danced around and I got it on camera.The second one was a pillar I practiced taking photo montages on. The pictures on all photo montages are shot vertically and I got various shots and angles of the caution tape and most of all, the pillar.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

All About Me


Hello people of the internet!
 My name is Imani Belt and this is my first time being in a digital media class as well as having a blog.I go to school at Kapa'a Middle School and I am currently in 8th grade. I have attended Kapa'a Middle School for almost 3 years and have had a lot of fun making friends.

The classes I have most enjoyed taking throughout the years, are art and G.T ( Gifted and Talented program for digital media.) I like taking G.T because you get to learn cool techniques on Photoshop and explore new things almost every project that comes abroad. In art it is also very fun because you get to draw and learn about new Artists and what they are known for and what they have drawn.

I also enjoy the program K.P.A.C (Kauai Performing Art Center) in which we are in plays and act. Another thing that is fun for me is traveling to see my family in California, Arizona, and Oregon. When I grow up I want to be an actress un movies and t.v shows. If that fails I want to be a directors assistant. Please enjoy my blog and have a fun time on the information super highway. Stay fabulous.

Polar Panoramas

These are my Polar Panoramas I created in Photoshop. Here are some steps to help you create your very own Polar Panos. You can also check out my digital sketchbook with this link : My Digital Sketchbook for more help. 

Steps to a Polar Panorama

Step 1: Make sure you have all your supplies together and ready to go. ( charged, organized, etc.)
Step 2: find a location to shoot your panorama in and set up your equipment.
Step 3: Begin taking your photos vertically . They must be vertical so you can get the sky and the ground in your panorama.
Step 4: Then, Upload your panorama photos onto your computer.
Step 5: Open your panorama onto photoshop and crop and rotate your panorama.
Step 6: Apply the effects and retouch.

     To get the cut out on top of your Polar Panorama, here are some more steps: 

Step 1: upload your photo onto Adobe Photoshop and create a copy of the layer.
Step 2: Use the quick selection tool and set your brush size.

Step 3: Select all of your  portrait you want to keep.
Step 4: Use the minus button to subtract all the background parts of your image.
Step 5: Then use the refine Edge tool to smooth your remaining image . when done , file and save your now finished portrait.  






Friday, January 17, 2014

Spherical Panorama

These are my two best panoramas that I created by taking two sets of 10-15 images in a 360 degree angle. I then edited my photos on Adobe Camera Raw and complied into a panoramic image using Photoshop's PhotoMerge plugin.



Next, the rectangular 360 degree panorama that was resized to be square and filtered using Polar Coordinates. Lastly, the final spherical panoramas were selected using the elliptical marquee and feathered by refining the edges. A black or white background was applied before saving the finished composite image.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Magazine Cover


This is my finished Magazine Cover that I created in the fall of 2013 at Kapa'a Middle School.
We used digital cameras and photoshop to create a multi-layered image that describes who we are.
It was hard work but I made it work and got it finished on time. The magazine subject of my magazine was cooking and recipes as shown on the sub headings.

The first thing I changed on my original image in Photoshop was the black contour lines that I outlined my photo in. The next thing I did was add color onto the second layer of my drawing which was the black contour. We were taught to  use the alt button to select the color of my real drawing. Lastly I warped the background image which was a tree and edited the colors to make it match my color scheme.

When I first heard of this project, I was a little hesitant of what it was about and what we had to do since it was my first big project in g.t. Luckly I got the hang of it and discovered that it was actually really fun. We got to choose our color schemes and all these cool techniques learned on photoshop.