If anyone still reads this blog, although it's old news, I'd like to inform you that Arianna and I won the Great American NoBull Challenge back in the summer. We won the people's choice award/Move It award for our public service announcement on anxiety. Why don't cha' just watch it:
Although we did't have a very good experience with the organization itself, I feel very grateful for the people who shared our video and helped us make an impact! Also, thanks Mr. Sanderl for making us create the video to begin with, we couldn't have done it without your help. ALSO ARIANNA IF YOU'RE READING THIS you're the best team mate in the worldddddd I love you a lot let's start a youtube channel.
Showing posts with label G.T. Portfolio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G.T. Portfolio. Show all posts
Scratch Game Design
(^^this one doesn't work lol so don't even try. I had a class period to do everything and I'm not too good at coding. *sighs*)
(^^control this one with your mouse)
Oh GT class, how you love to mess with my brain. This time I'm here with another brand new project: Coding. Over the past couple weeks my classmates and I have been programming a simple chase game. User experience influenced how I coded because in my chase game I chose an octopus, and, well, *looks at blog URL* it was the closest I could get to a squid. Squids are cool. I tried to make the game simple and not too difficult since I'm so new to the coding thing.The first two games I coded are both very different. The first one is a chase game, in which the code and concept were fairly simple. The second one is a platformer game. This one was a lot more difficult. I never even quite got the code right. It's a much more complex code and I only had a class period to complete it so I never had the chance to fix it. The concept of the two of them is a little bit similar, I guess. I mean they're sort of the opposites though. In the first, you're being chased, in the second, you're basically chasing.
My best code was the gravity engine I made for the platformer. Unfortunately, after half the class period of it working fine, it stopped working. So the gravity engine was also my biggest bug and I still haven't had the chance to fix it. It's quite a difficult script to wrap your mind around so I had to just copy a little bit of the code and then tweak it.
Invention Commercial
This time in GT, our assignment was to create a commercial for something we invented that explains what the invention is, what it does. and is entertaining to the audience. Our invention was an app, so it was sort of a struggle to film since we aren't allowed to have phones in school and were't free to film outside of school, but in the end we were able to pull through and complete the assignment quite well in my opinion.
The best moment for our team during production was, as cliché as it sounds, was when it was all done. We were sort of scrambling to finish the project before the deadline, so finishing was a miraculous time for us. At least thats what it felt like to me haha. To finally have the assignment completed and turned in was a great moment.In this project, we all took turns editing. Arianna and I created the green screen background, and we all helped put everything together. It was difficult to make the green screen look okay since we filmed it with a glare, but we figured it out. I think we were judged fairly during the critique and although I wasn't present during the event (sick again..what a surprise), the results are on the right and I think we did well.
Composition Scavenger Hunt
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| Interesting Angles |
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| Contrast in Content |
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| Framing |
The composition technique that I view to be the most challenging is also interesting angles. I personally struggle to be different and original, and tend to take from other's work and build off that. I can strive to use this technique more by thinking outside the box and maybe doing the opposite of what I think of. Different difficult techniques for me is actually probably contrast in content and framing. I know it may seem easy, but to me it's actually very difficult to incorporate contrast in content and framing into my videos. I've actually never used them
before this project.
My teammates are Loren and Arianna. They're both super chill and a little crazy. There a couple of my best friends at school. In the composition techniques video, we all took turns doing different things. We all took turns acting, filming, and directing three of the ten parts. I edited the video on the first editing day and Loren & Arianna edited on the second editing day. They're super rad teammates and I look forward to working with them more this year.
Cracking the Code
It's the second quarter of school and I'm sailing in uncharted waters..our new project here in GT is all about...coding! I think that everyone should be learning the basics of coding. This is because there are so many job opportunities that aren't being taken advantage of in the coding community. Also, our society is becoming so advanced in technology so we should all have an idea of understanding how it all works.
My first experience with coding was actually in science class last school year, but we just went through the same program I went through last year again and it was good to refresh my memory. It's a pretty basic program and I got through it quite fast and easily. I enjoyed the program, it entertained me, and coding is now something I'm interested in. Also, up until last year I was in robotics club so I have a bit of programming experience there as well. For our project in robotics last year, we actually decided to create a video game using scratch and that experience has really helped in the duration of this project.
If I could create any program or game it'd probably be an app that has something that ha to do with bands or something. Ooh ooh, I just thought of something. A social media app thats divided into fandoms or fanbases. You could "join" fandom groups and there would be posts on that page that have to do with that fandom. Chords, fan art, concert videos, updates, etc etc. If you're in a mood for a certain fandom or need updates on a certain fandom, you could just go to that fandom page. I know that would certainly be useful in my case; I'm in sooo many fandoms and it's quite difficult to keep up with all of them.My Humorous Monologue
Currently in GT, we're wrapping up our comedy project. In the duration of the project I've learned how to be an independent and proactive worker. This was a solo project so we had to all work individually on our pieces. I prefer the group projects, but this gave me a chance to try being by myself. I had to work quickly and ethically because, if you've seen my previous posts, I'm absent quite often.
Pad is the (usually) five second interval between when you start recording and when the action starts, and the five seconds after the action is over to when you cut the film. It's important to have pad so you can transition between clips without overlapping your "action." Without pad, some of your "action" may be cut short due to the overlapping transition, or just wont look/sound right.
My weaknesses during this project were, again, being absent, which I've already sort of solved from working ethically, and also filming. Filming was difficult for me since we didn't have tripods and I was the subject in all my shots. It was difficult finding a natural tripod that fit my needs. Also, my film required props, and by the time I had acquired the props it was dark out so some of my shots came out very dark. My strength was iMovie editing. I'm really comfortable working in iMovie and I believe I do a good job editing in it.((yeah I don't know why I was voted for I'm not funny))
Comedy Writing
Sense of humor is an important character trait because your sense of humor can sort of..describe what type of person you are. You see, a person who thinks kicking puppies is funny is probably a lot different than a person who loves knock-knock jokes. I really love dark humor and wit, what does that tell you about me? You probably assume I'm some conceited smart chick who only wears the color black..which is actually absolutely correct.. I'm not saying all humor has a stereotype, it's just the truth that usually most people who like a certain type of humor are generally alike. Your sense of humor decides who you can get along with, laughter is an important part of all types of relationships.I'm not very funny, not funny at all, but if I were to give you five tips for writing a humorous narrative they'd be to one, know your audience. You should know your audience so you don't end up joking about women oppression to feminists or Satan to religious folks. They wont find it very funny. Second, be original. Why is the "6 afraid of 7" joke not funny anymore? Because 789 million people have used that joke. Create something new. Third, make sure your joke is funny before presenting it to an audience. If it isnt funny to you, most likely it won't be funny to other people. Test your joke out on at least yourself before you perform. Fourth, write about something you know, something relateable. For example, can I write about working at a grocery store, let alone a comedic monologue about working at a grocery store, if I dont know anything about it. Fifth and lastly, I'd say to wrap your narrative up with your biggest joke. Leave the audience laughing after you've finished speaking. In theatere, after a play, the goal is to still have the audience laughing after you've left the stage, I say in comedy it should be the same way.
The monologue I've written is about stereotypical teenage girls. It's not very funny aha.. I'm not very funny, as I said before. It's funny to me, but I tested it out on a couple of friends and nobody laughed. You see, I'm a sucker for irony. I love irony. My monologue lists a bunch of things stereotypical teenage girls do that are ironic. For example: being a hipster. The definition of a hipster nowadays is someone who isn't mainstream. However.. being a hipster is mainstream. I smirking and chuckling right now. God, I love irony.
Motivational Poster
Why hey there, my fabulous Pizza People ! Here we are with another awesome GT project, so lets get to it.
In this project we are creating a motivational poster complete with three symbolic images that represent us, a portrait photo of our face, and our very own personal manifesto and quotes. We are also expected to have all our text kerned, a triadic color scheme, blending options for our text layers (drop shadow, stroke, outer glow, and bevel and emboss), and adjustment layers for our photos (levels, curves, exposure, and color balance).
This project was pretty simple. First, we had to write our personal manifesto and quotes. Then we took our three symbolic photos and our portrait. After that, we arranged our images making it visually pleasing and neat. Next, we kerned our text, using different fonts, text sizes, etc. Then we added layer affects to our text. After, we added adjustment layers to the images, altering the color. The text colors and the image colors all had to fit a triadic color scheme.
I'm not very good at Photoshop, video editing is more of my forte. Photoshop is very confusing to me, which was probably my biggest challenge, along with that I was absent for a third of the time we had to work on this project. I was pretty far behind everyone else, having to come in during lunch and make my classmates explain things to me since I missed the class demonstrations. Nevertheless, I still think I did a pretty great job on the project considering I really had no idea what I was doing..Oops.. In the future I'll just work on learning Photoshop and not missing class.
Personal Manifesto
AAAAAAND IM BACK, MY FAB PIZZA PEOPLE. Its time for another wonderful year of GT with yours truly. Get ready for some more fab adventures, rants, and projects. Its gonna be a great school year!
To start off on the first blog post of the school year, here are some interesting facts about my current self. First, Im actually 985698757% done with school already. Like seriously, science is already murdering me and Im more stressed out ten days into the school year than I was all of last year. Eighth grade sucks. Im trying to have a more positive outlook on things. Second, Lately I've been really altering my appearance. I dye my hair almost every other couple weeks. I wear a lot more makeup. Im trying to find my style. You may say, "You're going to school, not a fashion show," but the thing is...I want to be a cosmetologist when I grow up..so practicing these things are important. Next, recently, Ive been very outgoing. Im attempting to be more confident, and I've gained some new friends and popularity by doing so. I mean yeah, people talk bad about me sometimes, but I just don't let it get to me anymore. Geeze, this paragraph is wayyyyy more than five sentences, the requirement here in GT. Hm. I wonder if the teacher would notice if I just left it at three facts instead of five. Ill just add in another one. My hair is blue, purple, and green right now. Blue on the top, purple on the bottom, with green highlights. Its gotten a little washed out though now and its sorta pastel.Do not let others drown your enthusiasm.
Treat yourself well;
Eat that second piece of cake.
Respect yourself.
Treat others how you wish to be treated and treat yourself the same way.
Have faith in life.
Live in the moment, everything else is uncertain.
If you want to do something: do it.
If you want to be something: be it.Stay positive.
Be happy.
Love what you do.
Life is meant to be lived; so live it to its fullest potential.
This is my 2015-2016 manifesto and it applies to you guys, my readers, because like myself, I want all of you guys to treat yourself right and do what you want. I've been having some issues with being nice to myself and being controlled lately. It's important that you're living life how you want to and you're living life happily, you deserve it. Everyone deserves happiness. Everyone also deserves to be blessed with Louis Tomlinson's voice #BuyNoControlOnItunes. Naw naw. But seriously guys, be happy, do what you love, and spend your time doing what you want to do.
Music Videos Rock!
For our music video project we were working on (more info found here), my teammates were my friends Dylan and Loren. We all contributed important parts to our film. Dylan was the main actor in the music video. Loren was the main camera person and came up with the interesting shots and sequencing. I was pretty much the main director of the video. I am very bossy, haha. We all took turns directing scenes, acting, editing, and all that jazz.
I think our audience will enjoy all the fun put into our video and the quick sequencing. We really had a great time filming our video and I think you can see that in our final product. We have very fast shot sequences to keep the audience entertained. In my opinion, our video is very good quality and we edited it very well. I think our audience will appreciate all the hard work we put into our video.
Our music video shows a lot of what we learned this year in GT. Some of these things include: composition techniques (rule of thirds, leading lines, etc.), shot sequencing (wide medium, and close shots), and even some Photoshop skills with our music video poster we show in the beginning of our film. I've learned so much in this class, its hard to remember and list all of the knowledge I've obtained. I'm quite sure there are more things I've learned put into the video, but they're subconscious actions now.Making this music video was a blast. This GT class was a blast. This school year was a blast. Now I'm going to get all teary-eyed because this is our last assigned blog post for the school year. I don't know if I'll be continuing this blog after school is over, but I hope to be doing so. I better go before I start crying. Farewell, my Fab af Pizza People.
Lyrical Livelihood
For our new assignment in GT, we are creating our very own music videos. The team Im on (Dylan, Loren, and I) chose to do the song Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance because it's a mixture of all our music tastes. Dylan loves classical music and piano which is in the intro of the song, and Loren and I love rock music and electric guitar and head banging, which is the second half of the song. Welcome to the Black Parade is one of my personal favorites (among the thousands of others favorites) and I'm super glad we came to a mutual agreement to do it.
The visual story that our music video will tell is that after Loren and I leave Dylan to build a better future for ourselves, Dylan is left to deal with the memory of us and the task of carrying our memories on. In the end, when the pain of us leaving Dylan is just so unbearable, we come back to help Dylan in his time of need. I'm super excited to see how our music video turns out !!
Our Story Animation
For the project we are currently working on in GT, which you can read more about here, the title of our team's piece is Celeste Seeks Friendship. We chose this as our focus statement because it basically sums up our story in three words. Our whole story is about Celeste's (my) journey to find comfort and friendship in her time of need.
In our piece, we are hoping to teach people about how internet friends can be real true friends and that communication is
important. We are hoping to teach the first lesson because growing up, we are taught that everyone on the internet is a creep. You're on the internet, are you a creep? Most people on the internet are just like us, humans trying to find friendship and entertainment. We are aiming to teach the second lesson to show that communication is key in any type of relationship; platonic, romantic, etc. I myself have a habit of assuming the worst and not giving people a chance to explain themselves, so I'm really hoping this helps with that.
I think that Lester, Loren, Raghav, and I make a great team. There is an even amount of fun and work getting done. Our best moments are when we've all finished an animation scene and are excited to show our other teammates our finished work. Or when we put all the scenes together in a video and are able to watch it together. Some of the moments I think we're a bit less proud of is when we have a little too much fun, are unproductive, and spend our work period joking around. Overall, though, I love my team and am happy to be working with them.
Animation Outtakes
This quarter in GT, we're on to a new asignment, which means of course: new teams. The team I'm on is made up of Lester, Raghav, Loren, and me. Lester is a funny and cool guy. He can be a bit shy at times and can sometimes get a little off task but at the end of the end of the day, hes an awesome person. Raghav is virtually the same person as Lester and they're basically connected at the hip. Loren is a really nice person as well. Her hair is dyed with rainbow streaks, which I find very cool. I hang out with Loren more than Lester and Raghav, but they're all awesome teammates.
Stop-motion animation is a technique used to make it seem as if an inanimate object is moving on itself. You do this by taking several photos of your subject completing a movement, such as a ball bouncing in my first example. There are many types of stop-motion animation such as clay-mation or object animation. In stop-motion, almost anything can be used as the subjects. Household appliances, humans, dolls, clay; they're all doable. A .GIF is pretty much stop-motion (or any type of animation really) put into a very small picture file that is very portable and easy to download or place somewhere really fast. .GIF files are usually very very tiny and can load almost instantly on the internet. I have created and placed two .GIFs on this post as examples.
Some of our classmates were a bit concerned about how our story takes place on the internet and we are taught that people on the internet are all creeps, but the truth is, only a small percentage of people on the internet are "creepy." Most people are like you and me; nice and friendly people. You can relate to this story because at some point in your life you have felt rejected or unwanted by someone who's opinion you cared about. At some point you've just wanted to be accepted. At some point you've wanted a friend or someone to be there for you.
((The black and white gif is was made by my best friend, Dylan, and is currently my most favorite this in the whole world))
Typography Images
Typography is the art of words. Literally, its making different styles or a different appearances of text. Did that make sense? Hopefully... Typography can be used with images to make a lasting impact by making the images more interesting. You'll want to look at the image longer to decipher the text. You can read over the text first, and once you're done with that, look back on the image as a whole. Typography is a great technique to make your image memorable.
The biggest challenge I faced while creating typography portraits was having patience. I made plenty of mistakes, since it was my first time experimenting with this project, so I obviously messed up a bunch. It was difficult to follow the steps to tutorial one, two, and three, which we were supposed to learn the project from. Partially because I didn't understand a lot of the language. I'm not really much of a computer person, so I don't understand a lot of computer terms. Patience is important so that you don't get frustrated and give up. I was able to stick it out until I was finished with my project, but just barely. I was close to giving up.My first example of a Typography portrait is of Marie Curie, an amazing female innovator. This was the portrait done with the first tutorial, which was also the "easiest" method. In this portrait, the text is very neat and organized, and is placed throughout the photograph. It is also only limited to black and white in color. My second example was done with the second tutorial. This is a portrait of one of the fabulous teachers that work at my school. It was super fun to create. This was a little bit more advanced. We had to make our own custom brushes of descriptive text to stamp on
the photo. We added gradients for a bit of color on this piece. My last example was our portrait of ourselves. This was the most advanced typography portrait method that we learned. We learned this version from the third tutorial. The idea was that we were to stamp different descriptive text about ourselves in different color on each different light tone. That probably doesnt make any sense sense... We stamped different words that describe us on the different lighter and darker shadows. It wasn't a requirement to add text in the background, but I did it anyways because I liked it better that way. The three major words I chose for myself were Strange, Stubborn, and Artist. The main color I chose was purple because its a mix of the coolest and warmest colors- blue and red. I really enjoyed creating this piece as well, and it was actually probably my favorite to make. I loved how we had more freedom with this piece with our text and color choices. The assignment was to create a typography portrait that describes us. Based off of the colors I chose, the messiness/neatness/spacing of the text, and the text itself, I'm very proud of my work, and really think I've completed the assignment well.
Double Exposed Portraits
Portrait photography is photography of a person (or people). It has expression and a mood it sets. Portrait photography can relate to profiles because a profile is a photograph of someone at a side angle. Portraits and profiles are both of people, but the angle that differentiates them is very crucial. Silhouetting also relates to portrait photography because a silhouette can be of people too. A silhouette is an outline.
Double exposures are very entertaining to make. It's an interesting form of photography, in my opinion, and I think double exposures are very beautiful and 'cool.' How to create a double exposure portrait in Photoshop goes as following:
Example 1 was a practice double exposure, so I didn't think much when choosing my textures, in all honesty. I just had in mind the message I wanted to put out. The textures I chose were the grass and my ripped jeans. I chose to place the ripped black fabric photo on my head to represent how my mind is sort of dark and tarnished. I placed the grass over my whole body to symbolize how on the outside I seem very ordinary. So my overall message for Example 1 is how I'm interesting on the inside, but seem bland on the outside. I could've improved this piece by making the colors a bit more abstract. Example 2 was my final project. The textures I chose were piano keys and a chain link fence. I placed the piano keys over my whole body to describe how music is my life. My life revolves around music. I place the chain link fence over my face/head to represent how my thoughts are sort of..caged in. It symbolizes about how I don't like to talk about my real feelings or thoughts, how I feel like no one wants to listen. I could've improved this piece by once again, making it more abstract. Although I really like the realism in my work, everyone else that was assigned to this project had abstract work, so I feel a bit singled out.
Double exposures are very entertaining to make. It's an interesting form of photography, in my opinion, and I think double exposures are very beautiful and 'cool.' How to create a double exposure portrait in Photoshop goes as following:
- Load your photos into a stack in Photoshop: File> Scripts> Load files into stack, then browse your photos and select the ones you like best. I had three photos in my double exposure; a profile, and two textures.
- Crop your photo. Use the crop tool and make sure the crop restrictions are set to 8.5 x 11" 300 px/in. Its important that you make sure all of the space between your profile subject's and the edge of the frame are equal.
- Use the dodge tool (opacity 100%) to make all of the photo that isn't your subject white. (Make sure your profile is the top layer and that its selected while dodging) you can also do this with the paintbrush tool, if you prefer.
- Once the area around your subject is light enough to your liking, you must blend your photos together. Double click one of the textures and the click on Blend Mode> Screen. Repeat with your other texture.
- Change your color tone. Layer> New Adjustment Layer. Now you can explore the different coloration settings and adjust them to your liking!
- Dont forget to save your work! File> Save As> Name your document + save as JPEG> Save
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| Example 1 |
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| Example 2 |
HDR Photography
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. HDR photography is used to equalize the lighting in a photograph. It makes the shadows brighter and the highlights darker. I like how much detail HDR adds to photographs, but I also dislike how fake it can make the photo look. It almost makes it look too perfect. Thats just probably because I prefer really dark and unbalanced photos though. I like it better when you can just see the silhouette of something rather than the the image in full detail. I guess I sort of like HRD landscape photography but not if it has any people or artificial materials in the shot. Well, buildings are okay I guess as well (that sounded redundant, my apologies) but I don't know, I'm just not a huge fan of HDR.The steps to taking an HDR photo (with the process that I know using photoshop) are the following:
- Get your equipment; you'll need a tripod and a camera with exposure compensation.
- Scout for an awesome location to shoot your photo. If you are going to be taking a Portrait of someone, find the person as well.
- Set up your camera and tripod.
- Take seven photos, adjusting your exposure compensation with each shot; -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3
- Once you're done shooting your photos, import them into your computer, then into Photoshop; file>automate>Merge to HDR Pro
- From here, Photoshop will align and your photos, creating an HDR image. You can then adjust the contrast, saturation, etc, to your likeness, and hit the SAVE botton.
- Stare at your finished product for hours because you finally did it! You've created your first HDR photograph!
Movie Trailer Critique
At first glance I thought the project would be quite easy, but it wasn't. The project had so many requirements such we had to put one of the team's posters in the trailer, we needed to use text layovers, our own foley, have our own written voiceovers, all that fun stuff. Also, the trailer needed to be appropriate for first graders. I think thats the toughest challenge we faced, making the trailer rated G. I don't even think we really succeeded in making it appropriate, considering we ended up doing a horror film. We actually filmed a lot of foley but didn't end up using it. Our trailer ended up being almost thirty seconds under the time minimum. So, we didn't meet all the requirements and I'm surprised we received a 4/4.
I was very confused when I saw the class critique (second photo). An abundance of students gave us "above and beyonds" and "satisfactories" on 2/3 of the subjects I believe we did extremely poorly on: Audience and Requirements. I can agree that we did pretty well on Creativity considering we did think of the plotline ourselves and all. Im thrilled with the feedback we got from students, I just don't agree with it. I've learned that it's important to be proactive and get things done or else the product isnt going to be as satisfactory as it could have been.
Movie Poster Promo
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| Final |
The title of the movie my team is working on is The Watchers. We made up the plot ourselves; it's not a remake of a trailer or a movie that already exists. We chose this title because the movie is about how people are always "watching" Bella (it may seem sorta lame but it's actually really cool and thought-out). The other text I have is a subheading/slogan thing, movie reviews, and the actor names. Kerning is the changing of the proportion and spacing of text to make it look "desirable."Its important to make your text proportionate.
I used layer effects and filters to draw attention to the main focus of the poster- the main characters and text. I used the blur filter to do this. I also used a color layover to make the blurred-background darker. I used drop shadows and an outer glow on the review text and the main characters. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the finished product, although I was scrambling to finish it and its now eight minutes from the deadline.
My Visual Poem
During the first few weeks of quarter two, my G.T. class worked on a Visual Poem project. My visual poem was about emotion and was titled "Bittersweet Irony." It basically describes emotions using metaphors. The visuals describe all the metaphoric emotions I use.
The effects I used were mostly soft and unnoticeable. For one part of my poem there's two lines that say "Light does not always equate good," and "Darkness does not always equate evil," so I made the clips dark or light corresponding to what that line said to get a better understanding of the statement. I used all cross-dissolve transitions so they would go pretty much unnoticed and so the mood would be set neutral.
I am semi-satisfied with result of my visual poem. I didn't realize that we had to have special effects, text, and music throughout the whole video until the due date and I already had some editing to do. I would improve it by adding less upbeat music because the poem is supposed to have a neutral feeling. I would also add more effects that apply to the poem. I couldn't find a way to add effects and discoloration, etc, to make it seem relevant.
Finished News Story
At the beginning of quarter one of the school year, our G.T. class had to choose whether we wanted to do a news story or a profile on someone. My team chose a profile because it would be shorter and seemed easier. My team was made up of my buddies Kyler, Kaz, Dylan, and me. We did our profile on Dylan himself and his amazing piano playing. Besides the interview we did on Dylan, we also interviewed his father, Derrick Niide, and his grandmother, Karen Bender because the minimum was three interviews. A big thanks to all of our parents as well for scheduling our team meetings and driving us, etcetera.
The final cut turned out really great in my opinion. The only problem we had was at a certain part, the sound completely cut off. We also had a problem with not having enough B-Roll to cover our cuts. I'm really proud of our story.
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