Week of June 12

The film festival was awesome! The films from other periods were very creative and funny. I was happy to see that 2 of my production company's film was in the 2nd period screening. It seemed like the audience enjoyed our films and it simply inspired our production company to move fast on our final film of a music video. I already sold 2 tickets to two teachers and I am very excited to be coming to the evening film festival on Thursday with my family and my boyfriend. I know that the event will be a hit because every year it is and I'm excited to see new films that make the cut.

Week of June 5th

This week our production group finally finished our horror comedic PSA. We have finally completed Ramon's blood splatter scene and fixed my bug crawling scene. We added a bit of music in the end of the credits to make the creepiness more effective. Carlos and I also added flames to John Paul's demonic scene, suggested by our wonderful film instructor, Lansdown! We tied all of our film together in the end and finished a good product of a film. Now I am excited to go see the film festival and hopefully be a part of.

Week of May 22nd

This week Carlos and I finished the after effects on my face with bugs and Ramon's splatter of blood.
We also added flames to John's scene. This thursday we went to the LAUSD Film Festival where our film actually got into the festival and we walked the red carpet and were treated all fancy. I met a few celebrities which was amazing and I was fan girling the entire time The food and the entire experience overall was breath taking and I was surprised on how amazing it all was.

Week of May 15

This week Carlos and I continued to learn and watch the special affects tutorials. Since our film, "The Future of Tomorrow was nominated for an award at the Student Film Festival. My entire family attended the festival and we all enjoyed ourselves so much especially because every film was a good film. The event was well planned and the prizes were outstanding. My film crew were there cheering our film on. I bought two shirts because I wanted to remember this event.

Week of May 8th

This week our production company had decided to produce special affects on our horror PSA. We want demons and bugs inside each other in the film. Carlos and I took the initiative to take the basic training and watch every video and practice on the MACs. I does look challenging but Carlos and I are able to create such a daring and difficult film. I have played around with the special affects program with a video of John and I know a lot of the basics but simply need to do the actual affects and get actual footage of that film.

Week of May 1st

This past week we were debating the complications that come with filming our next film. We have two great film idea but couldn't decide where the locations of film would occur. I offered my back house to shoot the entire film and that is where we have decided to shoot this weekend. I contributed to giving my detail description in drawing the story boards when deciding what shots to take when we do film.

Week of April 17

This week our Baesic Production managed to finish placing the final clips in order, I provided interesting ideas for our 3rd and final film for suggesting a horror theme. We discussed our resources, such as my back house in which we are planning on using to shoot the whole PSA. Our final film is definitely going to be something different and strange.

Week of April 24th

This week is when we made our final touches and cuts to our mockumentary. We finally turned in our film and started on our next one. Carlos and I have decided to do the basic training of the after effects for our 3rd film.  I have finished a fourth of the basic training and preparing for the effects on our PSA.

Week of April 10th

I know for a fact our film will be done completely done by Friday because we are only missing one quick scene that involves a hobo. This week I memorized more lines because I was part of one of the last scenes and required a lot of speaking. Since our production company is close to finishing, we began to brainstorm new ideas for films we want to produce. We decided on a music video that involves  a young boy attempting to be a hero but ends up making him look like a fool dancing around to the song of "Holding Out For a Hero." I had the idea of what the 'hero' would be attempting to do.  I contributed to the scenes for the music video and now I am helping with certain shots related to the screenplay.

Week of April 3

I feel like this week our production company did the most because everyone was part of a finishing a majority of our film. This week I learned my lines and acted for 2 of our scenes. I also helped capture some really good shots at the park this past Saturday. I think that presenting new ideas is essential when shooting which is why I always bring my ideas to the floor. I also helped clear locations in which we were going to film. Since parks are a place for children, lots of children, I was the one who asked for a clear setting for only a bit. I also provide my insight when it came to editing and suggesting what shot is better in placing it in the final cut.

Week of March 27

My group included Gisela, Leslie, John Paul, Carlos and Ramon and I. Our (Baesic) production company is making a mockumentary about young children advancing in the modern world. We will be having young 10 year olds studying for like the SAT's or their AP Classes and then in the end taking over the job industry. The one thing I contributed this week would be organizing our production binder as well as scheduling the dates  and times of when we will meet up and shoot some film. The other thing that I got done was my lines for the first scene we will shoot today (Friday 3/27/15). I have been practicing with Carlos and John Paul in trying to find the right vibe we want to portray to the audience when we shoot.  

What Music Means to Me

I love listening to music and I do that whenever I have the chance to. I either have to listen to music when I'm alone or when I'm in the mood to bump it loud for all to hear. I feel that music is an escaped as it is for a majority of people. I listen to music that gets me moving and makes me happy. For a few years I didn't have a single sad or depressing songs in my ipod. I love listening to songs that get me in the mood to dance or rock out like crazy! My favorite artist would have to be Empire of the Sun because they carry such a weird and unusual sound that simply gets me feeling good about myself. My favorite songs as of right now would have to Arrows by Fences Ft. Macklemore. This songs always wake me up in the morning and places me in a place of relaxation and comfort. My favorite song always changed but it is always for the same reason. I listen to a lot of genres because I like to have a variety of good music. I only listen to good music and good music to me is anything that gets me moving and happy. The lyrics that has really stuck onto me would have to be from the musical Moulin Rouge, "I hope you don't mind that I put down in words, How Wonderful Life Is Now You're In The World." I don't know exactly why but I absolutely love these lyrics but I guess they just make me feel warm inside since they are love lyrics. 

Problem and Struggles

I feel that students at Bell high school face the problems of peer pressure and strong influence from the media. Students decide who they hang around with but sometimes you may not have a choice and are led to do things you don't feel comfortable with. Even the school pressure students to do certain things such as, 'do this survey', 'pay this much for an event unless it's cancel.' Although it may seem harmless, school places more pressure on students in succeeding and prospering in life but of course that is a good thing, but many take it too much pressure and drive themselves crazy doing the best they can. Another struggle students here in Bell face is the impact of the media. The media is taken extremely serious in our school to the point where we are on it 24/7 (yes even in class, sorry). We are so dependable on our phones that many student lack focus and are more attentive of 'who wore what to where', 'where the next party is,' 'what she said about her on Twitter,' even 'what color the dress was.' Instead of being 100% concentrated in class we are probably down less than half of focus. As many rules and regulations this school places on cellphone use in class, student never listen and because of that they face the difficulty to pass their classes. We are now providing more intersession than last year and people are even failing their AP classes! I really do think that this is because of pure pressure in doing bad things and the dependency of our cellphones and what the media has to say at every minute.

The Most Interesting Person in the WORLD!

The one person in my life that I can listen to for hours and hours would be Samiyyah. She was my Residential Advisor for a summer program at SMASH for three summers straight and is probably the most amazing and fascinating person ever. There is many part to Samiyyah and you find out something new every single time you have a conversation with her because there is always a new level to her and it just never stops. She is so powerful and confident in her own skin and is so easy to talk to. She writes poetry and resembles a strong woman of color and is always so emotional and courageous. She is very athletic and always full of energy but occasionally gets run downed now and then. I think that the most interesting thing is how comfortable she makes us all feel and her ability of talk to someone so easily and reveals so much about each person's life. She has traveled varies parts of this world and influenced her greatly. She always has something to say that has a deep meaning behind it all and just makes the entire conversation come to life. She has always been seen as a mother figure while away from home, and because of that I've come to be amazed and so comfortable around her. Her poetry is what amazes me the most because she's been through so much from what she has shared and I simply admire her so much for overcoming all of it. I remember this past final summer making a song about her, "Samiyyah SAMIYYAH! She reminds me of an Oakland story!" (By the way she was born in Oakland, CA).

My Anti Drug

I have many things that keep me sane and happy. I love to scrapbook because it takes a lot of creativity in which I am pretty good at. I first started to scrapbook in 8th grade and now I have a scrapbook for each year of high school. I feel that when I am scrapbooking I am reminiscing the past and all there is are happy, fun, and crazy memories. Behind scrapbooking I love to remember the good times and that is what helps me stay happy and pulls me away from reality and keeps me in the past for just a few minutes. I see scrapbooking as something a child does and I like that feeling of being young and wild and having no responsibilities, simply to be free. Recently I haven't worked on my scrapbooks due to senior events and college obligations. I really need to start that up again because I'm starting to lose my mind again. Just an hour of scrapbooking will do so much to my mood.

An Inconvenient Truth

I've known of the issue of climate change for a few years now but didn't know enough to actually frighten me. Listening and seeing Al Gore do his presentation was moving and shocked me every single minute. The one thing that stood out to me the most was the melting of the glaciers and the sea level rising. Seeing the before and after photos of glacier lakes and glaciers in the Arctic from years ago and now scared me. The harm and danger we are doing to earth, our only earth, is unbelievable because why would we kill ourselves like that? The thing that worried me the most are the sea levels rising since the glaciers were melting off, was because of the graphic image of the future and what can potentially happen to cities and countries all over the world. It gets me mad that the government is not taking this issue more seriously as to terrorism is to the U.S. Climate change is an issue for everyone on this planet. I admit that I'm no hard core activist of climate change but I do what I can do. When I first found out about California being in a drought I was furious that my parents would water the grass every 2 days! I would be proud if our grass was yellow instead of green because that means I am helping in anyway I can.