Book Folding

In my seventh period class, with Mrs.Sanderl, we did a project with folding books to make a word or something amazing.We based this project off on Issac Salazar's famous book folding. This form of art would be classified as visual literacy. Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning
from information presented in the form of an image. This is an example of visual literacy because we make the books into actual words out of books, that are filled with words.

For my book I did the words "What" and "Dan". I chose these words because "what" signifies my questioning of basically everything. "Dan" represents my love for "danisnotonfire" who is a famous youtuber that I enjoy watching. For each book, I folded  between 200-500 pages. When I was folding my intentions were to make the person question what they were seeing... Now I know I haven't exactly finished "Dan" But thats okay.

I think that my project turned out quite well. I'm pretty proud of what I've done and I'll be sure to finish my last book. If I were to do something different I would have tried to make my folds more sharp and visible. If I were to do this project again, I would probably do something like Sam or Dean, relating to my love for Supernatural.

Proactive or Procrastination?

Be honest, are you proactive or a procrastinator? Why or why not?

I would say that I am definitely procrastinator. Usually, Im doing something then I remember I have homework or something and then panic but like keep doing what Im doing but with panic. Not a very good strategy, yes I know. But eventually, when it's almost too late, I get it done. I mean, at least I get it done. 

In class, I don't tend to procrastinate, but it depends on if I have a book handy or my sketch book. If I have something else to distract me, well I get distracted easily.

My level of productivity usually doesn't strongly relate to my free time. I guess if I work more then I have less free time, or if I get it done in school, then I have more free time. But really it depends on how much work I have; like if a teacher gives me like two questions or a whole paper due by tomorrow. 

If I was to change my work habits, Id probably do things when they're assigned, not the night before at 4 a.m. And, I mean I probably would if I wasnt so busy all the time. A lot of teachers blame kids for not doing their work because they are lazy, but why are kids expected to finish these huge projects for each class while they all have hours of homework, extra curricular activities, socializing, stress relief, keeping themselves healthy, and getting enough (the average teen is supposed to get 9+ hours) sleep?

Lessons Learned

While we continue on our news story in GT, our team comes across some interesting things. For me, I thought the most interesting thing was seeing how the plant worked and seeing the workers use tools and planks of wood to keep building upon the plant to make it better. I also saw, when we were driving into the biomass plant area, we saw the colorful albizia trees that they use to burn. The albizia trees have bark in different colors which make them extremely pretty, but due to being an invasive plant and damaging the native ecosystems, they use that tree to fuel the plant.

I think our biggest roadblock in our project was making sure we met all the deadlines for Mr. Sandrel. We had to transcribe three huge interviews in a short amount of time.


I think the most important and valuable part of filmmaking is working together, if you don't work with your team, you can't get anything done. Working with your team well can push you to the next level. For example: my team and I have to have a lot of communication so we can finish our project on time. We have to plan where to go and how we're getting there.

Back To School

Well I'm back to school in eighth grade. Heres a little about what I like so far, one of my favorite moments I've had is meeting all my new teachers and realizing "Wow, I have awesome teachers this year." I feel like with great teachers I'll be able to learn a lot more this year, I think I'll improve on my weaker subjects like math or english because I see these teachers teach in a way that is easier for me to understand.

I guess if you hear the great parts about school you'd like to hear about the challenges of eighth grade. Like I said earlier, one of my biggest weak points in school is math. Last year I didn't really understand and ended up getting a C in math. This year I can tell it will be difficult because of all the complicated problems we are already doing. Hopefully I'll be able to overcome my struggle with math and pass with an A.

This year I will be successful by paying attention in class, studying with my friends and having them explain what I don't understand. I'll keep trying my hardest in my most difficult classes. I will be successful because I have confidence that I can pass with understanding in all of my classes.

(Raf and I being FABULOUSSS)

Profile Project Progress

For my Gt class, we are interviewing Grandma Glenna, Chazz's grandmother. We are interviewing her on how she has fun, how she has fun in her shop, and what she does to keep upbeat. We have filmed at her shop, Earth and Sea gallery. We chose to interview her because she is always upbeat and fun when Chazz is around her, she's hardworking and knows how to balance it with fun.

B-Roll gives a video visual interest and helps to tell a story. When using B-Roll correctly on top of the interview, adding B-Roll for visual help can give the addition of great imagery and give the viewer a relatable feeling. When you use B-Roll, you layer your footage over your interview and you can still hear the interview going, but you also see different footage. Voice over do basically the same thing, but with only your voice, while the footage is rolling, you only hear the voice that is speaking.

My team works together well. Sophia Rodriguez, and Charles McConnell, are both my partners. So far we have not fallen behind, we have filmed everything correctly, and are moving on. To work better than we already are, we can try to work faster and efficiently. Thanks to us, our video is great and is being done correctly. We made sure that we had enough time to get everything done on time, and planned what to do. To get more B-Roll, we are filming as much as we can whenever we can.

We can improve upon our video by piecing the story together better. We can also add more B-Roll, and add more interesting angles. We can also make the voice over sound smoother, by practicing it and then re-filming it. We can also cover up some cuts in the interview. When we did our critique, we saw what we needed to improve and we are going to act upon what people said.

Practice Story Reflection

In my Gt class, we did a practice interview to prepare us for a new project later on. My groups video was about me, talking about how I love books. In my group I worked with Charles McConnell and Sophia Rodriguez. While we were doing this, we learned how to work together when we had a short period of time. Mr. Sandrel gave us a high stress environment so we had to work together to get it done on time. He was preparing us for a real life deadline that could happen later on.

Making this video, we first shot our interview. While we were shooting the interview, we had to quickly come up with the questions we would use that related to our topic. In addition to that we had to make sure that we had a good interview composition, not a shot that looked like a profile. A profile shot is when you see only the side of your face. Good interview composition is when your head is slightly turned, in the rule of thirds, and your looking off the camera frame. We also had to make sure that the background noise wasn't too loud that it would take away from the main audio.

We used a a small microphone that clipped to my shirt to get the highest quality of sound. After we finished shooting the interview, we shot the B roll. B roll is the footage that shows while the interview audio is playing. We shot our B roll in the library because what better place to show and read books, than a place literally full of books?

I think that our project definitely could of been better, but with the time we had, we did our best. We had to corporate as much as possible to get everything done. We made a transcript to follow along while editing. We did our editing in Final Cut Pro .

Then, after everyone was finished, we critiqued all of our videos. We graded them on audio, visuals, and story. 

All About Me

Hi, welcome to my blog! Here is a bit about me and my background.

I am in seventh grade, attending Kappa Middle School. Currently, my favorite classes are GT (gifted and talented), with Mr. Sanderl, and art class with Mrs. Sanderl.  Since second grade, I've always been in the Kappa schools, next Ill go to Kappa High. I am A student with an occasional B in my report card. I'm currently in honors English and plan to take it in eighth, and through out high school. For my career, I want to become a psychologist.

After school I go to the gym two times a week, go to the park I live near by, and go to the library. I love books, and I am at a high school reading level. I have lived in the state of Hawaii all of my life, when I was two years old I moved from the island Hawaii to Kauai. I have a brother and a half sister.

My favorite music genres are pop punk, scream, classic rock, and sometimes pop. My current favorite books are The Faults In Our Stars, by John Green, and Divergent, by Veronica Roth. I watch a ton of anime (Japanese animation). I want to attend Oregon state university when I'm older, but due to out of state tuition, it could be only a dream. I'm hoping to get scholarships for college so I can go to the one I want.