Hey guys! For all of us who are in the media productions class, we know that unexpected things will always happen. Sometimes our mics will stop working, we run out of memory on our SD cards, or our actors might bail on us last minute. This class is full of small and really big surprises. Some good but mostly bad. This year in the media class certainly had a lot more surprises than I expected. The biggest surprise was the type of projects that I got to do like the Happy Music Video and the Kipu Ranch video. I was also surprised with all the friendships that we made this year. And i'm also surprised about winning at STN. 

     For most of us, we had the same type of projects every quarter. We start off with 2 news stories for the first semester and then a PSA in 3rd quarter, and then our own project in 4th quarter. Well, for me and Micah, things changed a little bit. As always, we did a news story for the 1st quarter but then when 2nd quarter came, Mr.M told us about an exciting project that the Visitors industry wanted our class to take on. We got to make a Music Video for the Kauai Visitors Bureau annual luncheon. It was such an big surprise because we were just talking to our partners about what news story we would do. Making the video was such a fun experience. And after the music video was done and showed at the luncheon, Mr.M told us that the owners of Kipu Ranch were at the luncheon and saw the video. And they wanted us to make a video for their New Years Party. It was so much fun making the video! We got to meet some really nice and funny people and we even got to go and ride on ATV's. We didn't actually drive them but it was so funny going over all the mud and the bumps. It was really fun making those videos and also knowing that we were helping the class earn some extra funding. 

     Another great surprise would be the great friendships that we made throughout the year with basically everyone. And even creating a stronger bond with our current friends. Throughout the year, we really got to know almost everyone one in the class. Especially during the trip. The trip is basically the ultimate event that brings us closer as a family. Staying in a hotel room with other classmates for a week will certainly bring you closer in some way. Especially if you put a whole bunch of dudes in the same hotel room with no chaperon.  We yelled at each other and made each other mad during the night but we became best friends again the next day. You build a bond where you can't stay mad at them. You also become greater friends with each other as you help each other with their projects. Hanging out with them and helping them make their videos forces you to collaborate and communicate and then you just become better friends. I am really sad that i'm going to be leaving the class but I know that I will never forget about the friends that I made in this class. 

      And the final surprise that I had was winning at STN. During STN, I was part of the Crazy 8's Film Contest and the Spot Feature contest. We won in both categories! For Spot Feature we won 1st place which was a really big surprise. At first, I was very skeptical about the story that we had. I didn't really think that it would win. I thought that our story was kinda weak and it didn't have a central character. But after thinking about it, our character was the statue. And we also got Honorable Mention for the film. Overall, I think we did a good job with the film. We kinda struggled a little bit getting the idea down but once it was solid, we wen't and filmed it, and got it edited. I was really happy knowing that we turned in the Crazy 8s video on time and that we had a pretty decent video. Hearing our school name being called at the Awards Ceremonies was a really great experience. 

     Overall, this was a very fun school year. I met new people, made some new friendships, and strengthened old ones. I got the chance to work on different projects and help the class out with some funding. I also got the chance to win again at STN as a middle school student because high school is where the big competition is at. Until next time, bye! Ill post maybe one more blog. 

Hey guys! I got back from watching a movie called Whiplash. For those of you who haven't heard of the movie, it is about a college student named Andrew Neiman, who enrolls in the countries top Jazz Band School in pursuit of becoming one of the best Jazz Drummers. His instructor at the school is named Terence Fletcher and he is one of the most intense teachers there. He mocks, insults, and discourages his students, trying to push them to their breaking point. Through the movie, Fletcher will constantly push Neiman to his limits expecting more of whats expected. The film shows the harsh truth of what it really takes to become the best. To become the best, it might cost your well being and even your sanity. Overall, I LOVED this movie. As you can tell from that brief description of the film, the movie had a very intense plot line. Neiman is faced with conflict, conflict, and even more conflict. The movie will build you up with some encouraging scenes and then hit you hard in the face with conflict. This movie really keeps you on the edge of your seat and you never get bored. You will follow Neiman as he does everything he can to become the best. In the film, Neiman gets into a car crash as he is rushing to get to the concert, but despite all his injuries he runs to the concert, with blood all over him, in hopes of impressing his teacher. His idea of Jazz turns from passion to obsession, nearly costing him his life. Even if you don't like Jazz, you will certainly gain lots of respect for those who are in the top Jazz Bands. You will find out how intense Jazz is. The acting in this film was also spectacular. You could feel the emotions that Neiman was feeling as his instructor was yelling at him. You could see the pain in both of their eyes. The cinematography was also great. The harsh and ugly lighting pushed and intensifies the emotions and tone while the camera movements helped to tell the story of the relationship between Neiman and Fletcher. I really recommend watching this film. 

     Hey guys! I can't believe that there is only 2 weeks left of school which means that quarter projects will be due shortly. For all of us, we have learned many lessons throughout the year in the CKTV Media productions class. We've learned about how to tell stories, how to effectively use a camera, and all of that goodness. But we have also learned a lot of life lessons. For me, there we three things that stood out. One of them is that you can always make things better. I also learned about how to lead a team. And I also learned 

     In life, we will always encounter set backs and failures. Even though it may bring us down most of the time, we have to remember that things can always be made better. It may not be fixed completely but it can always get better. One example would be our Crazy 8's Short Film Practice. We were in the middle of filming and then we all started to think that our story didn't make sense and our film wasn't going to turn out so good. We we thinking that the film sounded good on paper, but as we continued to film, our idea started to seem plain. At that point, we all just stood there and looked at each other in frustration. But we kept on going. We filmed the rest of our shots and headed to the editing room. As I was piecing the film together, it was starting to look better but not good yet. We then added some extra narration and some music here and there and then we reviewed the film. It looked pretty good at that point. I was really happy with the end result of the film and the comments that we got. Even though I lost some faith in our film before, we worked at it and it turned out great. 

     I also lean red how to be a team leader. I may not be the greatest leader but I really learned how to manage a team and make sure that the team is functioning well. This year, I took the lead in the Spot Feature team and the Crazy 8's film team. But the being the leader is one of the most stressful roles. If something goes wrong, all the blame goes to you. You are put in charge of the team and if the team fail, then that means that the leader did something wrong. By being the leader, I learned how to better communicate with my classmates and learn to give constructed feedback without hurting their feeling.  I also learned to trust my teammates, teach my teammates, and learn from my teammates. All of these things are important when it comes to making a movie. 

     I also learned how to accept criticism. There will always be people who will want to criticize your work and give some feedback. Some of us will gladly take some feedback but some of us will take it to seriously and think of it as someone talking negatively about your video. You can never make a perfect video and there will always be mistakes and flaws. But its important that you accept that fact and if someone has something to say about your video, then listen to them. People always say learn from your mistakes and thats 100% true. You will make a video and you will make mistakes but then you remember your mistakes and fix it in the next video. So accepting feedback and criticism is another lesson that I learned in the class. 

     Well I guess thats about it. I really hope that everybody bad some really great lessons that they learned in this class. This class has put you under a lot of stress, work, hardships, and all kinds of things. Sometimes they will slowly break us down but we always find a way back up and make an amazing video. It may not be the best video but you worked hard at it and you should be proud to say "I made that video!". So take all the lessons that you learned in this class and use it in the future. Until next time, bye! 

Hey guys! A couple of days ago, I watched the new short film called "Real Gone". The video was directed by Seth Worley and produced by Ryan Connolly from FilmRiot. Overall this film was a really good film in terms of visual story telling and creative ideas. Before you continue reading, I would like you to go and watch the short film. 

I'm going to guess that you watched the short film so i'll go ahead and continue. So as you may have seen, the film is about a guy who attempts to commit suicide but fails every time he tries. After saving a girl from a burning building, he finally fulfills his own lives goal and gets killed by a firetruck. As weird as it may have been, I really enjoyed watching the film. The first thing that you should have noticed would be the funny and creative ideas that they had. Instead of showing the common ways of suicide, the guy did a whole bunch of outrageous things like drinking motor oil and pouring gasoline all over his body. They ideas that they had kept the pace nice and smooth and helped the story go along. The second thing that I liked was the shots. In the beginning sequence of the guy in heaven, all the shots are all compressed in the background with some bokeh to push that heavenly feeling. All of the shots of the guy and his boring life were all shot on a tripod to emphasis the boringness. Thats about it so until next time, bye! 

     Hey guys! I just wanted to talk about Film Festivals and what they can do to independent filmmakers. The fact is that making a career out of filmmaking is a very hard thing to accomplish. Whenever you say that you wanna become a movie director or work in the film industry, the response that you get will usually be something along the lines of, "Wow you have really big dreams...what would be your backup plan incase that doesn't work". And that will sometimes lessen your hopes of making it. But most of us will rarely get the chance to work with a film company like Universal or Warner Brothers. And for those of us who are independent filmmakers, its hard to get your film noticed. However, that is what film festivals are there for. It gives a chance for independent filmmakers to get their films noticed. Some of those films that you watch in the movie theaters started off in the film festivals. Some of you may notice the logo with the tiny leaves around it. Whenever a film is debuted in a festival, they will put those in their films to let them know that is was in the so and so film festival. Some of the movies that you see on iTunes were in film festivals. The most popular being Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, South by SouthWest film festival. So consider entering into film festivals in he future to get you and your talents noticed. 

     Hey guys! With the year coming to an end, we will soon be welcoming the new CKTV Media Students of the 2015-2016 school year. And with that in mind, I would like to share some tips for all you new students. If you are a new student reading my blog, my name is Brandon Marcos and I am in the 8th grade. I have been part of the CKTV Media class for all 3 years of middle school. I am going to tell you right now that you will be put under a lot of stress and you will be asked to do A LOT. You will be spending a lot of time after school, during recess, and during your weekends to work on your video projects. But don't let that scare you. I'm here to help give you tips on how to survive the CKTV Media Productions Class. I'm going to talk about some tips on how to manage your self, tips on the technical aspects, and tips on the main goal of the class, which is how to become a better story teller. I really encourage you to continue reading. 

     Like I said, you will be put under a lot of stress. Once the school year begins, you will already be underway with your 1st quarter projects. But you wold have most likely attended the summer training camp and learned the basics of filmmaking. You will also have to be tackling Inside Scoop Radios and even blogs. Even though it seems like a lot of work...it is...you will be able to do finish it. First tip is to always start as soon as possible and not wait till the last minute. As cheesy as it sounds, it will help you out A LOT. You also might want to get to know some of the other students in the class. Make the class your 2nd family and it will make things a lot more fun. It will also give you the chance to collaborate with others and receive help from classmates. Don't be afraid to talk to the older kids in the class, they are there to help you out. You also want to trust your partners. You were most likely partnered up with a returning student for the 1st semester so take advantage of that and learn everything you can. Just ask every single question that comes up in your mind. Just irritate your partner with questions. I know everyone in the class and they will be glad to answer any questions you have. But at the same time, try and see if you can figure out the problem your self. LEARN BY DOING. Slideshows, tutorial videos, and all of those things are not as effective as learning by actually doing the things in the tutorial videos. Take the camera and just shoot stuff. Get familiar with the camera buttons and watch a whole bunch of videos. Eat, breathe, and sleep filmmaking. The more you do things, the easier it becomes. I have been in the class for 3 years and I can tell you that all of this will surely help you. 

     Now that you are ready to start learning, time to give you some technical tips. The biggest mistake when someone is filming with a DSLR would be the lighting. Lighting is always the number one problem that new filmmakers will come across. Wether its too bright or its too dark, some of us will usually have a wrong idea of what a good exposure is. Exposure is just a fancy word for how bright or dark a shot is. So before you press the record button, see if the shot is lit correctly and ask your partner for some help on how to make things darker or brighter. And if you want more of a dramatic feeling to your film, then consider filming during sunrise or sunset to give a warmer and softer texture to your lighting, opposed to filming mid day with the sun right above your head. The second thing that you should look out for would be your audio. ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK YOUR FOOTAGE AND MAKE SURE IT HAS SOUND.  As a 3 year student, I have come across many failures in the past. My biggest mistake would be filming a couple hours of footage and interviews and finding out the next day that none of that footage had audio. Turned out that the cable was plugged into the wrong slot. But since that day, I rarely had any problems with audio. So don't be afraid to make mistakes because you will learn from them. 

     The second thing that I would like to share with you would be ways to make your story better. In the class, story telling is one of the biggest things that you will learn. It will also be one of the most important factor in your video. Your shots may be solid with nice lighting and audio but then the story is just about a guy sitting on a couch eating ice cream. Because the story wasn't so strong, people wouldn't be so interested in your film. Whenever you are making a video, there will always be some type of conflict. Even with news stories, there was always conflict. Even if your story is about accomplishment and success, there was always struggles to get to that point. Without conflict your story will be boring. Your character needs progression and development throughout the story. If your story is a romance genre, then have your characters be complete strangers in the beginning and slowly build their relationship and make them a couple at the end. Or add even more conflict and have them be strangers, then they like each other, then they argue, and then they get back together again in the end. Get it? So watch a whole bunch of videos on story telling. 

     Well thats about it. I hope you learned some things in this blog and that it will help you out in the media class. I have some videos that I would love for you to check out. They have really helped me out so hopefully it helps you out.