Hooray! I made the deadline for my PSA! In fact, I turned it in earlier than the deadline. I would say that my PSA turned out okay. The shots were nice and steady but the only thing I'm worried about is if people will understand it. It makes sense to me only because I've been thinking about it for the past quarter. So, we'll have to see if people will understand the story to it. My PSA is basically about a person who uses Instagram. You see them post a picture saying throwback Thursday of them with an award. But then they're introduced to meth and start posting pictures of them using it. In the end you see her take a selfie and she's all ugly due to the affects of meth. Hopefully the judges in Olelo will like it. We'll just have to wait and see!

   For the very first time we had a Sweet 16 Practice at school before our trip. I think we all did well by meeting the deadline and making quality videos. I am in the broadcast team and we have to create a 10 minute show. My small team needs to avoid spot features and go for New Stories because we need lots of Broll. Everyone in the whole broadcast team needs to work on getting their videos done faster.

   In Broadcast, we need to create a ten minute show with different segments. There are about 12 of us so we were split into 4 groups of 3 to go out and get stories. The topic we were given was success. Nicole and Kaden are both on my team and we went to Kalapaki Beach to find a story. We interviewed a lady who was a Speech Language Pathologist who cared a lot about her kids' success. Unfortunately she was on vacation so there wasn't shots that we could get of her working or anything. So next time at the convention we will aim more for a News Story instead of a Spot Feature to get Broll that matches. 

   I am the main editor for the whole broadcast which kind of puts me in charge. There's a lot of pressure put on me so I want to make sure that everyone finishes their videos on time. I told the 3 groups to finish their videos at 7:00 pm which gave them 7 hours to edit. But, when it came around to 7:00 nobody was done. 2 hours later, I finally got every teams video and put it all together. That pushed the limit because I need to look over their videos and tell them what they need to correct or change. Since they gave it to me an hour before I had to export, there wasn't a lot of time for that. So all teams need to work faster. 7 hours to edit is plenty of time (Spot Feature Only has 3 hours to edit!). 

   STN is changing up the rules this year. In past years, 8th graders have gone to a briefing before the competition and were given 16 topics to choose from in 16 minutes. This year, we are going to be given one topic. So we are stuck with whatever we get. Sweet 16 also meant that we had to create a 16 minute video but this year is only 10 minutes which takes a lot off in a good way.

   The whole broadcast team did well at STN practice. I feel a lot more confident after this practice knowing how things are going to work out. My team needs to avoid spot features and go for News Stories and everyone needs to work on editing quicker and getting things done fast. 
   

We are very close to our PSA deadlines! It's less than a week away! Mr. M wants us to turn in our PSAs early so that he can give us feedback and also have time to submit it to Olelo if it's good enough. I'm basically done editing my video, all I have to do is add music. The only problem I have is that I can't find any music that matches. So I'll have to keep searching until I find the perfect song that matches. Since our video is due on Thursday, I am aiming to turn my video in on Tuesday! I am going to work very hard to meet this deadline!

   Our fourth STN practice was at the Marriott Hotel in the ballroom. We had it at the Marriott to stimulate what it's going to be like at the actual convention. When we go to Orlando, we won't have the luxury of being able to go back and get an extra battery or another tripod. So, it was good to have our practice there. Overall, all the teams did well and there were improvements that everyone made. I think my team is ready for STN although we need to work on going deeper into a story. Other than that, we're all set.

   Spot Feature is a very hard competition because you have to go out and find a story. You have no clue of who you're going to meet and what they're going to say. I think Brandon, Kaden, and I need to work on going deeper. Sure, everyone has some kind of story but, we want to leave a trail of golden nuggets when people watch our video. To do this, we need to ask questions with more depth. We should also ask more questions and talk story with the person before we film them. If they're story isn't what we're looking for we can always move on to another person who may even have a better story. 

   Practice makes perfect but, I don't think our team needs it. We have done a consistent job of meeting our deadlines and doing well at our past practices. We all work well together and contribute our different strengths to make good videos. We are a strong team and I am confident that we will do well when we go to STN. We don't seem to have a problem with time. Although it would be nice if we had 3 hours of production time, but we just have to deal with what we're given with. 

   At our fourth practice we improved going up to people. At our third practice we were very hesitant to go and talk to people. But this time we just went for it, we saw a group of people and we just started talking to them. The thing hat I like about Spot Feature is that you get to meet a random stranger and totally get to know them and a story that they have. That's an amazing feeling to get to meet new people that you wouldn't normally meet or people that you had no clue about their background and a story about themselves.

   In conclusion, our fourth STN practice went very well. We have improved from our last practice by not hesitating to talk to people. All we really need to work on is going deeper into  the story. I don't think our team needs an extra practice because we work very well together. 

   We had our 3rd STN practice and some groups improved while others got worse. I would say that our team stayed about the same. We met our deadline which is awesome. For our fourth practice coming up our team needs to work on not hesitating to speak to people and voice overs. 

   Last practice was our first time going out and finding a complete stranger so, I guess we did pretty well. At first we were pretty hesitant to speak to this couple that we saw but, we went and talked to them anyways. The worst they can say is no, which they didn't in this case. But, after an hour of interviewing them, we asked if they would mind us getting Broll of them but they were ready to leave and eat lunch. So we had to scramble and find another couple. We learned two lessons from that, don't hesitate and make sure to completely explain what we need from those people.

   I am the reporter in our group which means that I do the voice overs and stand ups. I am the one who has been coming up with the voice overs in the practices but there is always one VoiceOver hat doesn't seem to click in with the story. So I need Brandon and Kaden to step up and help me with the voice overs. Whenever I ask me for advice or what they think, they are just kind of silent or shake their heads and say I don't know. If they contribute, I think the voice overs will improve. 

   Overall, our Brandon, Kaden, and I work well together. We all have different strengths in specific things which makes our team awesome. Considering that Spot Feature is a very hard competition we strive through all the stress and make it work. Sometimes, things get a little overwhelming trying to find a story in such a short amount of time. Other than that, I think that we will do well at STN.

   In conclusion, our Spot Feature team needs to work on not hesitating to speak to people, and voice overs. In our fourth practice we will work to improve these things and create an awesome video. STN, here we come!

   Ahhhh! STN is coming up very quickly! Every year we are pen pals with another middle School in Castaic, CMSTV. We email each other for a while and then meet up at STN, it's always fun being able to meet new friends from a different place. Anyways, the other day we watched Castaic's video to us saying how they're so excited to see us. It was pretty cool, someone even sang a song! We also made a video for them, some of us recorded videos on the desktops and some people used their iPads and put it in front of their faces. I'm so excited for STN and counting down the days. It's going to be a blast meeting our pen pals. 23 more days!

   I have been thinking and thinking this whole week of what my hardest decision was. This is a really hard Blog Topic and I warn you that this will not be very deep. My hardest decision would probably be deciding between a Samsung Galaxy or an iPhone.

   Choosing between an iPhone or a Samsung is a decision that a lot of people struggle with. I am a person who is very indecisive, it is always hard to make decisions for myself. There are lots of different features that Apple products have that Samsung products don't have and visa versa. For example, Samsung has a cool feature that pauses a video when you look away. That's pretty cool but it could get irritating after a while.

   What better way to make a decision than a pros and cons list? The pros about an iPhone is that I am already familiar with Apple and it's products. So I wouldn't have any problems with how to use an iPhone because I have an iPad and other people in my family has iPhones. iPhones also have lots of apps compared to Samsung who is limited to apps in the AppStore. iPhones even have a wider variety of phone cases to make it stylish and fit your own personality.

   Samsung has lots of cool features like pausing the video when you look away. And scrolling up and down without even touching the screen. Samsung is most famous for the way that people are able to share things with others. You can touch both phones back to back and transfer pictures or videos.

   Well, I made the decision and got an iPhone. It was a hard decision to make because of how different and similar they are. Now that I have an iPhone, I love it and I made the right decision. It's not a very deep and meaningful decision but believe me, it was difficult to  decide on.

And that's a wrap! Today I filmed PSA, and it was awesome! My PSA is about an Instagram meth user. So, I had to use an actual pipe, Mr.M was able to get us one from the Police Station. Haven was an actor in my PSA and she did great. Although, we did have some difficulties lighting the matches. But, in the end we got them lit up. My PSA is very realistic because of the pipe. I also used makeup and it was really scary, Haven was so "ugly" which is good because that's what I was going for! We'll see how it looks on the computer screen. Now I have to edit my video! I'm ready for our deadline!

A lot of people think that the most important things to making a video is your camera, script, editing skills, etc. But a lot of people forget about the importance of makeup. If you're doing a video that involves someone doing drugs or something bad or anything, you want to make it look believable. So that's why makeup is so important. Without it, you're actors just look normal. Big movies and TV Shows make sure that they get their makeup perfect by hiring people to just do makeup. My PSA needs to have makeup in order for people watching to see a difference in the person's face after using drugs. If I don't use makeup, my video would effect the viewers thoughts. 

  We just had our second STN Practice and it went great! I am in the Spot Feature team with Brandon and Kaden. We met our deadline which is the most important thing! I think we did a better job than last practice. We got some really good shots, met our deadline, but we need to switch around our jobs.

  Our topic was "Press Rewind", if you had a button to go into the past and change anything , would you? Mr.M was able to let us film at Deja Vu and interview one of the store employees. After we talked to a few of them, we ended up interviewing Riz the Store Manager. Kaden was in charge of filming and he did a great job. Brandon also assisted him and all the shots turned out great.

  We met our deadline which is very important when we go to the convention. We met at Deja Vu at 9:15 and started filming, and then went to the School before 11:00 to record our Voiceovers, and started editing at 11:15. At first, we couldn't find a sound bite we thought we had so, we had to go with plan b and work around that. But, after an hour we found it and stuck to our first plan. We finished about 10 minutes early, which is awesome, we used our time very wisely. At the competition, if we don't turn our video in on time, we don't have any chances of placing.

  After our first practice, we had to switch out our Editors. So this second practice, Brandon edited with me. Although we still have rearrange our jobs that we currently have. Mr.m gave us feedback and said that Kaden did a great job filming, and since he's the sixth grader with no experience at STN, he should stick to that one job of filming. So, I will be the reporter instead of Kaden since it's my last year in this class. Other than that, we work great together and do well working our different jobs.

  In conclusion, our team did better than our first practice. And with the feedback that we got, we'll take that in and do even better next practice! Brandon and Kaden did very well filming, we met our deadline, and we need to make a few adjustments to our different jobs.