Reflection

This week we accomplished much with our film. We finished our movie poster and our almost entirely done with editing. We found our music, we added transitions, we made the credits. Next week we have to check sound levels and make sure our film runs smoothly. After that, we can export and relax until CAP Hollywood.

CAP Hollywood Reflection

This past week has been really hectic in CAP. We have AP tests, English tests, journalism assignments and lots more. We also have to finish our films so that they are done by the time CAP Hollywood roles around. Tomorrow our rough cuts of our film are due. We have a fair amount of clips in our timeline and I think we can finish it by tomorrow. Also, I completed the Photoshop slide which has our credits on it.

After the rough cut we really need to start cracking down on editing our film. Our main editor, Ben, is very good at editing but gets off task quite a bit. This week, my job will be to finish our movie poster and find music for our film. If possible with my schedule, I will see if I can come in after school.

So far I think my group is making good time with this project. However, as the deadline approaches we have to make sure we get everything done and presentable. I think this will be a challenge, but I don't think it will be impossible and I am fairly confident that our movie will be played at CAP Hollywood.

CAP Hollywood Reflection

In our TV production class we are turning short stories into films for CAP Hollywood. The film I am working on is called Every Last Drop and was written by my friend Emily. The story surrounds a psychopathic women who has an abusive alcoholic husband. She gets pregnant and realizes her child cannot grow up in a house with this man so she poisons his soup.Then years later she sees her son growing up to have characteristics the father did, and she doesn't want that to happen. So, eventually she serves her son the same type of soup she used to kill her husband.

At this point in the production of our film, my group has gotten all the footage we need and has imported most of it into final cut pro. We also have a lot of voice overs in our film and we have done all of those. What we need to start doing is creating a rough cut of our footage and then edit it down. This coming we I will be creating our movie poster in Photoshop. If I finish that before the week is over, I will then look for music to be played throughout our film. What I'm most concerned with at the moment is sorting through our footage because we have quite a lot of it. I want to make sure we have enough to complete the film.

Bellydancing

This weekend, while avoiding doing homework, I decided that I want to take a class in bellydancing. To begin, I looked up belly-dancing tutorials on YouTube and found a great one that was a one hour long class.

 

 

Belly-dancing, a traditionally Middle Eastern dance is all about stomach muscles. It requires isolation of two parts of your stomach which is a lot harder than it seems. I am really excited to start taking a belly-dancing class at my local YMCA because living in a Middle Eastern country for awhile, made me want to know the culture, and now I have an opportunity to do so.

Grease

Last night I went to the closing show of the performance of the Broadway play Grease, at Einstein High School. Grease is one of my favorite movies, and plays of all time, so I was super excited to see it. The singing, acting, and dancing were all fantastic and they did an amazing job.

Olivia Newton John (Sandy) and John Travolta (Danny) from the movie of Grease

Rebecca Bradley played the top Pink Lady, Rizzo. Her rendition of "Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee", one of my favorite songs in the musical, was fantastic and funny. David Toro, a blind student, played Johnny Casino and did an amazing job singing "Born to Hand Jive". Not to mention, all the actors and actresses who participated in the dance, did a great job. Kristina Rexford played the part of Patty Simcox, the obnoxious cheerleader in love with Danny. She was funny and perfect for the part. Sandy, played by Abigail Kullberg, had an amazing voice, and the part was appropriately played. The other three Pink Ladies, Marty, Jan, and Frenchie, played by Anna Toretsky, Quiana Jewell, and Lydia Tefera respecitivly, were hilarious and brought out lots of laughs from the crowd.

The play involved 60 students for the entire production. They acted, they sang, they danced, they designed costumes, the did makeup, they did lighting, and they did sound. This group of very talented students should be extremely proud of themselves and Einsteins S.T.A.G.E did an terrific job. If it hadn't been the last show, I'd recommend everyone should go.

A scene from the performance at Einstein.

The Island of Hashima

Hashima is an island that many people may not have heard of. It is one of the Japanese Islands, and the Japanese government does not want to draw attention to it. Hashima used to be one of the most densely populated places in the world, with over 13,000 people living on one square kilometer. Today, however, Hashima looks like a giant, decrepit, battleship.

Hashima Island

The major industry on Hashima used to be coal mining with a facility from Mitsubishi Motors. However, the coal business went down and the factory closed permanently. Without work and with nothing keeping them there, everyone left back to the mainland.


Having been left to rot since 1974, Hashima is now beyond restoration and extremely unsafe. The government does not want to bring attention to this awful island so they made it illegal to visit. If you are caught visiting it, you will get 30 days in prison and immediate deportation.

Everything in Hashima has eroded away and some buildings fronts have fallen completely off. TVs stand broken and shattered, personal artifacts lay everywhere, and everything is damaged beyond repair.

The 2013 Oscars

Truth be told, I hadn't thought much about what I was going to write my blog post on today, I even forgot it was due until just now. I was trying to figure out what to write it on when it hit me. I am currently sitting on my couch watching the Oscars, one of my favorite things to watch, so why not write about them.

The Oscars shine a brilliant light on all the fantastic films of the past year and gives recognition to everyone who helped make them. Seth Macfarlene, creator of Family Guy and director of Ted, is hosting this year's Oscars. He started out with lots of jokes and some slightly offensive songs. After that star after star came out to introduce nominee's and winners.

So far, they have given out only a couple awards. Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor. Brave won best feature length animated movie. Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi, won best cinematography. Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina, won best costume designer. Amour won best foreign language film. Paperman, by John Kahrs, won best short animated film and Inocente won best short documentary. The winner of best full length documentary went Searching for Sugarman.

In between a couple of nominations, there have been short skits and performances. To show great music from the past decade, Jennifer Hudson performed a song from Dream Girls, the Les Mis cast came out and sang snippets from their film, and All That Jazz was performed.

With much more excitement to come, the Oscars are just heating up and everyone should tune in!