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?

My Visual Poem

ClarkM VisualPoem from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.


My visual poem is about me breaking free from all the things that hold me down. I can escape through many things. I can get away from things through art, music, shows, or anything that distracts me or changes my everyday life. It expresses how I am bored with reality and love to escape through my many passions. The visuals show how I see the world and how I really feel.

My effects, like the transitions and the color enhancing, affect my video by automatically making the video better by adding interest. I think using the transitions smooth out the video. I also think that the text layovers add a certain degree of clarification. You can also use affects to add depth and more meaning into your story.

Im pretty satisfied with my final result. I think I could've done better with my audio, it's a bit shaky and wind filled. I also could have gotten some more relevant B-Roll, but I did my best. I also feel like my background music was a little too upbeat for some parts, but for the rest I think it matches. Overall, I think my video is pretty well done and I'm happy with it.

My poem plan

Finished News Story

Me, Leila, Kiara, and Cherish, all worked on a news story on a way of alternative energy on the island, as you might have seen from previous blog posts. We went and interviewed multiple people that had to do with it, or was opinionated with the biomass plant in mind.  We interviewed people from the plant, citizens of Kauai, and people that are in direct knowledge of alternative energy.

I would have to say that my video turned out pretty well. I think we have good editing skills and that it all flowed nicely. We spent a lot of time perfecting this video and I think we did really well on this big project.

Looking at the critique results, I do not agree with them. As I was looking over the results I was confused and saddened. We did have a lot of threes, which I think could be appropriate in some ways, but there were a lot of twos which I think are wrong. I would of rather had a written response because I have no idea why we got these stats, I think we deserved better.

World News

According to a news article, Hector Beltran Leyva, a famous "drug lord" has been captured and arrested. He was in San Miguel de Allende, north-west of Mexico City, and had been living in the nearby city of Queretaro posing as a businessman dealing in art and real estate, according to the government. The Beltran Leyva gang has had a reputation as one of the most ruthless in the business.

Hector Beltran Leyva: gang known for its ruthlessness. Picture: AP Photo

My personal opinion on this issue is that I am happy that he was finally caught. Drug gangs are powerful, and being as ruthless as this one was, it could harm a lot of people. According to the article, they were planning a "bloody turf war" against against former ally Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman. These people have hurt multiples and would hurt more in the future, so I am happy that they caught him.

People should care about this because this gang and the leader could of hurt many people, and they could also bring other people down with them. People should care because these are real people that have done bad things and deserve to be thrown in jail, the people that caught him deserve recognition.

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.

HikiNo Behind the Scenes

For a project in my GT class, we got to chose between doing a profile story or a news story. My partners and I are doing a news story on a new biomass plant in Koloa. We are covering where it is, what its doing, and how everything works. The biomass plant uses alternative energy by using invasive trees that take over land and choke out native plats. Using these trees benefits the island in two ways: 

1. They take away invasive plants that can harm other native plants, also the unwanted trees can fall on to the highway and cause unnecessary destruction and inconvenience.
2. By taking away and using those invasive plants, they create energy for the island.

When the camera isn't rolling me and the rest of my team are working too find interviews, plan B-Roll, and tie up any loose ends that we encounter. Our minimum requirement for this project is three well done, transcribed, interviews. We also need great B-Roll to put in over the interviews to make them a bit more interesting. B-Roll that we use gives the story a more familiar feeling, as if the viewer has actually seen the biomass plant.

One thing I can do to help my team out is to plan interviews continually like I've been doing. Interviews in a news story is everything for us, they give us information, they make us more comfortable by being able to see a real person with their lives impacted by certain stories that interest the public. I email, plan, and set up interviews with important people that relate to our story. Then, we all go interview the subject and work together to make it perfect.