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What Makes Me Happy?

10/31/2014

As Charles Spurgeon once said, "It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness" Hey Everyone! What makes you happy? Getting good grades? Playing a sport? Well for this week's constructed response, I'll be talking to you about what makes me happy. Happiness is different for all of us, but for myself, three things come to mind. Three things that make me happy is the STN trip, helping others, and spending quality time with my friends and family.
I was very happy during the STN Trip last year to Florida. The STN trip made me happy for several reasons. The first reason is that we got to go to all these extraordinary places like Disney World, Universal Studios, Gatorland, etc and got to see things I've never seen before. Before the STN trip, I've never been to Florida before, let alone seen an alligator! So that was extremely cool, and we would be amazed seeing a squirrel on the side walk. Another reason that the STN Trip made me happy was because I was with all my friends! The class really bonded and I became very close with some of them. What better way to experience that trip than with some of your best friends! The last reason why the STN trip made me happy is because we got to compete in the STN, or student television network convention. Competing made me happy because I really liked the closing ceremony. The closing ceremony was intense, suspenseful, and fun. I was very happy when CKTV won awards and how all the Hawaii schools supported each other. The STN trip was fun and made me happy.
Another thing that makes me happy is helping others. Helping others make me happy for a few reasons. One reason is that giving and helping others distract me from my troubles. The best way to cheer up when I'm sad for me, is to help others. Helping others is just a kind and generous way that will put a smile on their face and yours too. Another reason is that it's a great thing to do. If you can just help a person with a simple task, you could make their day! Helping others can also inspire others to be kind or help another person in need, in fact, happiness is contagious. The last reason that helping others make me happy is because doing good, just makes me feel good too. For example, we all know what karma is, right? Well if you spread good karma, then something good will come back to you.
Last, but certainly not least, spending quality time with my family and friends makes me happy for a couple of reasons. First off, my friends are funny and can always put a smile on my face no matter what. They always make me laugh and I love hanging out with them. Also, my friends and family are very supportive. I can always go to them for advice or if I need someone to talk to. They support me in everything I do, and I cannot be more blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. It makes me happy that I know I have great friends and family members that I can count on.
To wrap things up, everyone has different things that make things happy. But for me, the 2013-2014 STN Trip, helping others, and spending quality time with my family and friends make me happy. So let's all try to be happy for the rest of the school year and spread positivity, because life is too short to be unhappy all the time. If you aren't happy, surround yourself with people and things that do make you happy! Get rid of all the negativity and just be, happy. Thanks for reading! Bye!

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Essential Knowledge for Shooting Interviews

10/23/2014

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Hey Everyone! As you know, we have started our second quarter projects and are now into the interview phase. That means that we are calling and scheduling interviews, and also filming them. Now that it's second quarter, we should all be improving from last quarter so, for this week's reflective response, I'll be talking to you about a document I created to remind myself, my partner, and maybe even you on some things to remember when you go out to shoot an interview. This document contains almost everything I know about shooting interviews. I created a checklist for the equipment you need and also some tips too! In addition to that, I gave specific advice about framing the interview, like the rule of thirds, how much to zoom in, nose knows, audio, and many more. Along with the text, I inserted some pictures as examples, like what would happen if you were to put your interviewee in front of a window, etc. I can't really say anymore about this document, I have to let it speak for itself. You can read the document, "Essential Knowledge for Shooting Interviews" below or download it if you'd like. Also make sure to read this week's constructed response, "Interviewees?" posted before this blog by clicking here. Thanks for reading my blog! Bye!

essentialknowledgeforshootinginterviews.pdf
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Interviewees?

10/23/2014

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Hey Everyone! As you all know, the second quarter has started, and so has our second quarter projects! This quarter, my partner and I are doing another news story, but this time, on Lanakila Kitchen. Lanakila Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that employs adults with cognitive, social, physical, or age related challenges that may restrict them from getting jobs. If you'd like the read more about our second quarter project on Lanakila Kitchen, click here to be directed to the tab under the projects page. Anyways, we are now calling people to schedule interviews with them. For this week's constructive response, I'll be talking to you about 3 people Herenui and I plan to interview. We plan to interview Carol Horner, Kana'e Soto, and a member of Kana'e Soto's family.
One person Herenui and I plan to interview is Carol Horner. Carol Horner is the project manager of Lanakila Kitchen. We actually called her on Monday, and set up an interview with her. Because we can only film interviews and b-roll on Wednesday, we set the interview for next week Wednesday. We chose to interview Carol Horner because she's been the project manager for Lanakila Kitchen ever since they opened in 2011, which means she will know a lot about the take-out restaurant. I think Carol Horner will help our story a lot. She would kind of be the "experts" in this story, so she'd give us factual sound bytes for our key points about Lanakila Kitchen, it's job training program, and it's parent company, Lanakila Pacific. Carol Horner is one person we will interview because she knows a lot and could give us good sound bytes.
Another person Herenui and I plan to interview is Kana'e Soto. We are planning on having Kana'e as our central character. We chose her to interview because she was a former trainee but now is a successful employee at Lanakila Kitchen. We also chose her to interview and make her our central character because it would be more personal having someone who was taught and trained by Lanakila Kitchen and is now working there as an employee! She would help our story because she would tell us about her experience as both a trainee and employee there. Her sound bytes will hopefully help us with our first key point where we meet the character, and also our fifth, where she would tell us how this kitchen has impacted her life.
The last person we plan on interviewing is a member Kana'e Soto's family. We chose to interview them because they have a connection with Kana'e, and since they are related to Kana'e, having her working at Lanakila Kitchen has impacted them also. They would help our story because they could tell us about our fifth key point, how this kitchen has impacted the lives of trainees. They would tell us how Lanakila Kitchen has helped Kana'e and their family.
So, to wrap things up, Herenui and I plan to interview Carol Horner, Kana'e Soto, and a member of Kana'e Soto's family. We think these three people will give us good information and will help us fit our 5 key points. Carol Horner is the project manager of Lanakila Kitchen who could tell us what this Kitchen is, about it's job training program, and about it's parent company, Lanakila Pacific. Kana'e Soto is a former trainee and now is an employee at Lanakila Kitchen and could tell us about her experience there and how it's helped her. A member of Kana'e Soto's family would help us because they could tell us how Lanakila helped Kana'e and their family, and how it grateful they are for it. That's it for my blog! Thanks for reading! Also make sure to read this week's reflective response, "Essential Knowledge for Shooting Interviews". Bye!

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My Crazy Passion...

10/16/2014

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Pas·sion: noun \ˈpa-shən\ : a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. That was the definition of the word, 'Passion' according to the Merriman-Webster dictionary. Why am I telling you this you might ask? Well, for this week's reflective response, I'd like to talk about a group of videos of peoples' crazy passions. Today on Vimeo, I found a group named "My Crazy Passion" created by ABC Open. This group contains videos of weird, wacky, crazy, passions from breathing fire to the smurfs to a pigeon fancier. Yes, someone who loves pigeons. These videos are feature stories and lay's the line between a hobby and a passion. How does this relate to media? It's the same concept of our first and second quarter projects. They have to film interviews, b-roll, sequences, nat sounds, all of it! I wanted to share this group of videos for several reasons, actually. One reason is to see all the unique and interesting people in the world. I don't know about you, but I'd like to know more about someone who has made a hotel for chickens or a 80 year old woman who has done Aerobics for 30 years! But the second reason is so that you can see what you've been learning. We've learned how to set up and film an interview, shoot b-roll, edit, and many more things. But when you actually watch a news or feature video you can kind of know what the crew who made the video, had to do, and see the steps they've gone through because you've done the same. Before I was in media, I'd see a news or feature video and think, "oh cool, whatever" but now that I've been in media for a year now and am in my second year, I know how much work they had to go through and this makes me appreciate the video more and realize how good it is. Click here to be directed to the group website page and also watch some of the videos below.

Graham McLeod: Pigeon Fancier from ABC Open South West Victoria on Vimeo.

Bente: Smurfs from Marty Lewis on Vimeo.

Paul: electronics re-inventor from Elena Ornig on Vimeo.

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Improvements For The 2nd Quarter

10/16/2014

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Hey Everyone! Just in case you didn't know, we weren't assigned any blogs last week, since it was fall break. Fall break is now over, and so is the first quarter of CKTV Media Productions! We have all survived, and learned a lot on the way. Being that it was first quarter, many mistakes were made, and that's okay, because everyone makes mistakes and we are still learning. We are always learning, always making mistakes, and it's our job to make sure that we always improve. Improving is an essential part of everything in life. If you keep making the same mistakes and not learning from them, you will never get better at what you do and won't achieve your goal. Second quarter has started, and we are all diving into our second quarter projects, another news story! It's time to take everything that we've learned from the last quarter and put it into this quarter. This is where the mistakes should be corrected, and our work should go from good, to great. For this week's constructed response, I'll be talking to you about what I'd like to improve on for the second quarter. I want to film better interviews, meet my deadlines, and avoiding editing mistakes. I know these three points are broad, but in my following paragraphs, I go into specific detail so read on!
One thing I'd like to improve on for the second quarter is filming better interviews. More specifically, compressing the shot and the audio. I learned about compressing at the Hawaii Creative Media summer camp. Click here to be linked to their website about Compressing an Interview. When I say compressing the shot, I mean blurring out the background and focusing on the interviewee. When an interview shot is compressed, it looks clean and professional, and you're able to pay attention to the interviewee more. Another positive outcome of compressing the shot is that if there is something distracting going on in the background, it will be less noticeable compared to a shot that is decompressed. In first quarter, none of the interviews we shot were actually compressed. The problem was, we didn't give enough distance between the camera, subject, and background. This caused the shot to be distracting and overwhelming because you can see so many things going on, rather than a compressed shot where you only see the interviewee. So to improve the shot this quarter, we will try to compress the shot by distancing the camera, interviewee, and background. Another thing I'd like to improve in filming interviews is the audio. Last quarter, one of my interviewees audio was way too loud when I played it back while editing. I used the DXA-SLR Mini Box for all our interviews we shot, to listen to the audio while recording. The problem was, because I'm not familiar with using it, I don't know what all the switches do, how to control the audio, or how to know if it's being recorded too loudly. But that's no excuse, so I asked Kaden to teach me and he did (Thanks so much Kaden!). Now I know what the gain switches do, and the L and R control knobs so Herenui and I can improve our interview, b-roll, and nat sound audio.
Another thing I'd like to improve on for the second quarter is meeting my deadlines. Last quarter, Herenui and I met our final video due date, but the journey to get there wasn't so smooth. We missed the due date for scripts, and we were late to finish filming and start editing. I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure that this will not be the case this quarter. Herenui and I have already started to prove that because we have gotten our T.I.A.S. and our 5 Points finalized. We also have a list of possible people we could interview, and are trying to keep ahead of our deadlines and not slack off. This means, no procrastinating. However, this quarter will be difficult because the place we are doing a story on, Lanakila Kitchen, is only open from Monday-Friday 6:30 AM – 2:30 PM so we'd only have Wednesdays. But nevertheless, I still plan to be ahead of the game and meet every deadline by being productive and not procrastinating.
The third thing I'd like to improve on for the second quarter is avoiding editing mistakes. Last quarter, I was making the final revisions to the video and when I was finished, I didn't bother to watch the whole thing again. My laziness caused some sloppy, careless mistakes that I didn't notice until I re-watched it a few days after the deadline. For one, I accidentally trimmed off one of my interviewee's lower third. This could have been prevented if I just would have watched the video again, then I would have spotted the mistake and others too. So for second quarter, I will avoid editing mistakes by not being so lazy and re-watching the video each time revisions been made.
In conclusion, I intend to improve in the second quarter, more specifically, the three that I talked about in my blog. I want to improve the compression and audio of my interviews, meet my deadlines, and avoid editing mistakes. The second quarter has started, and I don't plan to re-live mistakes, so I will try to improve and strengthen my work. Thanks for reading! Bye!

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What Makes Me Happy?

Essential Knowledge for Shooting Interviews

Interviewees?

My Crazy Passion...

Improvements For The 2nd Quarter

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What Makes Me Happy?﻿

Essential Knowledge for Shooting Interviews

Interviewees?

My Crazy Passion...

Improvements For The 2nd Quarter﻿

Author

Categories

Archives

What Makes Me Happy?

Improvements For The 2nd Quarter