Week of June 8th

On Wednesday we went to the film festival and I really enjoyed it. I went for every single possible period and I noticed that only a few films were repeated. I thought it was interesting to see how film students from other periods think in terms of film making because ideas seem to vary from period to period. I noticed that many of the film makers did not make good use of the third lines, but the films were enjoyable and visually interesting nonetheless.

Week of June 1st

My group and I finished our second film this week and we were planning on getting all of our shooting done for our last film, but we have all been occupied, so we will do so this weekend. We are hoping that we can finish editing our last film before Wednesday.

Week of 5/26

This week my group and I were unable to film due to the shortened week and the field trip to the LAUSD film festival. I really enjoyed the film festival because it was interesting to see the different ways people film from other schools. I noticed that people from other schools use some rather bizarre shots and also some flexible shots in terms of the rule of thirds. I am hoping that all of our filming this weekend will place us close to finishing our film.

Week of May 18th

During this week, my group and I finished the storyboards and screenplay for our next film, but we were unable to check out a camera. Had we been able to do so, we could have gotten all of our shooting done over the weekend.

Week of May 15th

My group and I finished our film this week and we are jumping right into our next film.

May 11

Last week we should have finished our film on Friday, but the power was out in school. So, we will be finishing our film today or at least before the end of the week.

Week of 4/20-4/24

This week my group and I got some more interviews done and continued to edit.

Week of 4/27

This week my group and I pretty much finished our film and we just need to figure out how to incorporate our field footage without stopping the audio of our interviewees speaking. Once we do this, we just need to extract the audio so it lines up with our footage and we will be finished.

Week of 4/20

This week, my group and I finished nearly all of our editing and we were hoping to be finished with our film today, but while we were editing, we noticed that our field footage didn't go well with our interview footage. As a result, we planned to interview one of our teachers' classrooms during third period today, but they are taking a test today. So, we will finish filming completely on Monday and we will most likely finish our film on Tuesday.

Week of 4/13-4/17

This week, my group and I filmed as many interviews as last week (three) because we preferred having a larger amount of film to work with. We found that some students had way better answers than others to certain questions in terms of shaping our documentary, so when we started editing, we cut out certain scenes and kept others. As of right now, we are still editing and coming up with new ideas for  next film.

Week of April 6th

This week my group and I have gotten more filming done and we have already chosen the music we are going to use for out documentary. We only need a little more filming and all of our editing to go before we finish our film. At our current pace, our group should be finished filming by Wednesday of next week. I myself have already started thinking of ideas for possibly a music video or a narrative film. During this week, a partner of mine and I have been creating a song on Garageband and we are considering using the final product for a music video, but we are still unsure of that idea.

Week of April 3rd

As of today, my group and I have completely filmed half of the interviews we set out to do. We also got some shots of our film classroom and we should be getting the next two interviews done by Tuesday of next week. As such, we will start getting more shots of the classroom, finding light music to fit our documentary, and editing soon. With this, our documentary is nearly finished.

What I Did This Week (3/23-3/27)

My film group consists of Kenia Varela, Jesus Lizarraga, and Joe Cisneros. At the start of this week we decided that we would make a short documentary on seniors in the Magnet program. In my group, Joe and I are the editors, Jesus is the man behind the camera, and Kenia is the one asking questions. Throughout this week, we got all of our planning down. We decided that we would interview our fellow classmates Redani Diaz and Alexis Cuellar, Joe's cousin, and Kenia's friend Leslie Sandoval. We also decided that we would like to go with a serious tone with our documentary that makes the Magnet program a good image. We didn't have to worry about writing a screenplay or a storyboard, so we focused on which kinds of things we would use. In the end, we felt like it would be most effective if we shot field footage of Magnet classrooms and played it after cutting from an interview without having  the person being interviewed stop talking. In short, we will have talking plus light music playing over silent field footage. Since two out of four people being interviewed are in our class, we came to the conclusion that we could shoot a good chunk of our film in this period. We are now ready to shoot our film.

What Music Means to Me

Music means a lot to me. To me, it is a form of self-expression, a means of escape, and a good time. When I feel down, I find that I can feel at least slightly better by putting on my earphones and listening to some tunes. There are certain albums I like in particular that I can always listen to. These albums are Sublime's 40 oz. to Freedom, Beastie Boys' Check Your Head, and The Strokes' First Impressions of Earth. When I'm hanging out with friends, we're always bumping music as a ritual of sorts. Music allows people to be themselves and be open. When their are problems I am faced with in life, I listen to music about people who have it much worse than I do and that usually makes me feel better. As a means of entertainment and a way of passing time, I listen to music most chances I get. If I'm not listening to music, then I usually have a song or two stuck in my head. Although music does not have a huge impact on me, I believe that it is something powerful that can change people's lives.

Problems and Struggles

There are many students here at Bell HS that face serious struggles on an everyday basis. Some of these struggles are poverty, having no one to talk to or rely on, and feeling overwhelmed with school or work. These become serious issues because most people fail to recognize the problems that students are faced with. As a result, students grow to become incapable of building lasting connections, bonding with others, progressing through life, and being mentally/emotionally stable. The major problem that is never addressed at school is being open and welcoming of others. We come to school every day with our minds set to learning, getting homework done, and chatting with people we know and we  are extremely hesitant to have anything to do with people we don't know. This leaves many students leaves with no one but themselves. I think many of the issues here at Bell and other high schools could easily be avoided if students were more open and welcoming of others.

The Most Interesting Person in the World

In my opinion, the most interesting person in the world was Adolf Hitler. The reason I feel this way is that Hitler can easily be considered the worst person who has ever lived. This leads a person to wonder how someone can commit such heinous crimes against humanity. Hitler lived a life where he was constantly prevented from pursuing his dream. Because of this, he grew to become a very hateful person. His hate manifested into the form of a superiority complex that caused him to seek the complete annihilation of the Jewish people. I find this characteristic to be extremely interesting because it makes me question both myself and those around me. I sometimes wonder how those who are angry, vengeful, and hateful will live their lives. Will they use their negative traits to reflect on themselves and grow as a person or will they succumb to their hate and become another Hitler?

What I Learned From An Inconvenient Truth

Watching An Inconvenient Truth was an interesting learning experience. Before watching this documentary, I believed that global warming was just a theory and I accepted that. Al Gore, the speaker of the documentary, stated certain things that I was already aware of. Although I was aware of them, I had not realized how significant of an impact they held and I was astonished upon finding out what could very easily happen to the planet Earth. I became slightly frightened and worried when I had heard Al Gore discuss topics such as the rising sea levels caused by the melting ice caps. The rising sea levels could easily cause cities to become flooded or eventually underwater. This led me to wonder what's in store for my generation who so senselessly cause global warming to progress. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if our planet fails to exist for more than another decade. That possibility alone stresses how important it is for everyone to reconsider how we are using energy and what kind of energy is being used. This documentary has taught me that global warming is a real issue that can and will cause the end of living things if actions aren't taken against it.