Metamorphosis Animation

Metamorphosis means to change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one. Our project was to create an animation where the subject goes through the process of metamorphosism.  The focus statement that we based our video on was "Kim Changes Dreams".

The story our group (Kaylee, Zoey and I) came up with was about a girl named Kim that can change her dreams with a push of a button. Kim is bored in class, so she falls asleep. She has a nightmare that she is on a plane and these evil gummy bears push her off, but a remote with a red button appears. Not knowing what else to do, she presses the button which transports her to a candy land. In the candy land world, the gummy bears attack her again and again the remote appears. Kim presses the button again which changes her dream to a video game world in which the gummy bears attack her again.

To complete our animation we used three types of animation: stop motion, claymation, and digital animation on Photoshop. For the scenes where Kim falls asleep and wakes up, we used stop motion animation. In the candyland scene, we used claymation. We used digital animation on Photoshop for the video game scene and the lab scene. 

The animation would not be complete with out sound effects, so we used Garage Band to create soundtracks. We split up the work by each taking up a scene and making a soundtrack to get the full effect.  

We did not think our video was very good, however the class seemed to disagree. A majority of the votes for our characters, sets, and props were that we went above and beyond on completing the task. The rest of our class said that we met the requirements.  We got varied results on how we executed our video and how creative and original our video was. 

Words of Wisdom

During the 4th quarter, one of our projects for GT was Elder Words of Wisdom. We got into teams of three or four. My team members were Zoey and Kaylee. Our assignment was to create a video for Hiki No, a statewide broadcast and the best video would be submitted for a chance to be aired on television. We had to interview a person who could give good words of wisdom. Our interviewee was Mr. Nunn, a 6th grade teacher. Mr. Nunn was one of our favorite teachers in middle school and we knew he had a lot to say and was a great story teller so he would be interesting to interview. We interviewed Mr. Nunn in his own classroom, a place where he would be comfortable. Our B- Roll mostly consisted of him teaching and communicating with his students.

Even though he did not exactly say "My words of wisdom are...", but he has his own words of wisdom himself. Mr. Nunn is all about inspiration and inspiring his students to try and do the best they can.

Five Tips For Getting Your Cat to Like You

My team, Zoey, Kaylee, and I, had to create a "Five Tips For..." video for Hiki No, a statewide broadcast put on by students. Before making our breaking off into teams and making our videos, we each had to individually had to think of five tips that we could give. My five tips were for how to get your cat to like you. 

We chose my idea because Zoey's tips were for improving your hula and Mr. Sanderl said that another group was already doing tips for dancing. Kaylee's tips were for how to improve in soccer and another group was also doing that. Because of our limited choices, we had to use my idea, "Five Tips For Getting Your Cat to Like You". 

We had a few problems while filming our video. First, we could not find my cat so we had nothing to film. My cat (Cuppie) is very shy and does not like strangers. Our video lacked B- Roll. We could not get good footage of Cuppie because she kept running away. To make our video better we could have had more sequencing because it was kind of boring. Overall, I think we did an okay video. 

Practice Profile Story

Before our making a final profile story that would be submitted for a chance to be aired on television, we made a practice profile story. It was a good thing that we made a practice video because we made mistakes that we learned not to do for our final profile story. Our story was about Kaylee and how teamwork is an important aspect in her life. We chose Kaylee because she would be the most interesting out of our group. Kaylee has a personality that translates well on camera, so she was a good person to interview and film. 

Profile Project Progress

Mr. Sanderl  recently wrote a grant and received brand new advanced cameras and microphone packs that were to be used for this project: Elder Words of Wisdom.  Mr. Nunn was always one of my favorite teachers throughout middle school and his outgoing personality made him our group's top canidate. We knew Mr. Nunn has a lot of things to say that would make for a great video. Our project was about Mr. Nunn and his life as a teacher and what led him to become a teacher. Mr. Nunn had an interesting life before teaching; he had a variety of jobs including owning an art gallery, but his passion always remained with children. Then, Hurrican Iniki hit, destroying his business, forcing him to chose another career so he decide to become a teacher. We interviewed him in his own classroom because we felt it was a setting where he would feel most comfortable. 

To help the audience make more sense of our film, we used B- Roll and voice- overs. B- Roll is the alternative footage used to cover the main interview. Covering the slip- ups of the interviewee or camera movement are some of the instances B- roll is used. B- Roll is used to help tell the story better or to make a point clear. Our B- Roll consisted of Mr. Nunn's classroom and him teaching. Voice- overs are used to narrate the story. They are used to create smooth transitions, add interest, or clarify something, when used properly. We planned our voice- overs very precisely; we had a production plan template that we used to write down what we had to record. Mr. Nunn sometimes did not repeat the question we asked him in his question so we recorded transitions to make the story flow and understandable.

To work together better, our team could envision what we want our video to be like so we are all on the same page. This would help our team to work better together by making ourselves plan out what we need to do to get the results we want. Our production plan helped us a lot because we could write our ideas down and see which ideas worked and which didn't. We have gotten better at spreading out the work and assigning jobs, but we could always improve.

Our critiques are very helpful on deciding what we need to improve on in our video. Judging from our results, we need better visuals. We have already filmed more B- Roll, but we might need more. Another helpful suggestion we got was we needed to make our overall story flow. This comment was especially helpful because we now know why our story didn't seem quite right. We have already planned out how to make our story flow better by simply rearranging the order of the interview.

Composition Techniques

Composition techniques are used in both photography and cinematography.  The four main composition techniques are rule of thirds, framing, unusual angles, and  leading lines. They are important because without them, the audience would get bored watching a video with the same angle. Even if you have a great video, without using any composition techniques it wouldn't be as interesting as if you did have them.

Rule of thirds is a widely used composition technique. When using rule of thirds, you align your subject on the outside thirds of an imaginary grid. Framing is when you use your surroundings to frame a subject and draw attention to it. Unusual angles are used to create interest; they add excitement by taking a shot from a different perspective. Leading lines are used to draw focus to a subject by using natural lines bring the viewer's eyes to look at what you are trying to show. 

Three Shot Sequence

A sequence is is a series of clips that are related with different angles that shows the action of something happening. When you sequence, you show action by using four different types of angles: wide, medium, close, and extreme close. Sequencing is important because with out it, the viewers would be confused as to what is happening. If you watched a video with no sequencing, it would be boring to watch and you would lose interest quickly.

One of our assignments in GT was to create a three to four shot sequence of a simple action. My group (Kaylee and Zoey) create a sequence of a girl opening a door. Our first shot was a wide shot of a girl walking towards the door. The next shot was a medium of the girl about to open the door. Finally, there was a close shot of the girl opening the door.