So, if you've been reading my last few blogs, you've seen how awesome the STN Trip was. It meant so much, and it was the highlight of my school year. However, this trip didn't just happen on its own! Many people played a role in making this trip happen, and they all sacrificed time to do so. I mean, there's no way we could of possibly gone on the trip without all the work Mr. M did! And we also couldn't of done it without the help of our parents, who went to many meetings, fundraisers, and dropped us off at STN Practices. Some even were chaperones on the trip, and gave up a week of their lives to make the trip possible. Also, the people who supported us at fundraisers had a big part in making this trip possible. I mean, if nobody showed up to the breakfast fundraiser, or Golf Tournament, there's no way we could've gotten the funds for this trip! Overall, you can see how many people were responsible for making this trip happen. I'm so grateful for them, and I just want to say  to them "Thank you so much!"

Our STN Trip was so fun! It was filled with memorable experiences, and just great times. However, even though everything we did was great, I do have some favorite memories. Read on to read more about them!

So, one of my favorite memories and experiences on the trip was going to Magic Mountain. This was one of my favorite experiences because I love  roller coaters, and Magic Mountain has a bunch of roller coasters! It's basically roller coaster heaven!! I also loved it because I got to hang out with friends, like Brooke, Marlena, Lilly, and Mia (who was Brooke and Marlena's pen pal) and just have a great time!

Another one of my favorite memories and experiences was the day we went to Castaic Middle School and to the set of "Shake it Up!". The whole day was just... awesome! When we went to Castaic, they really went out of there way to make it special, with a band performance, lots of Icebreakers, food, and a tour of their school! "Shake it Up!" was equally great, as we got to see the actual sets and actors performing! It's gonna be so cool when that episode comes out, and then we can say we saw that episode in the making. And at the end, when we were just about to leave, we actually got to meet two of the actors of the show AND take pictures with them! It was amazing!

Finally, my last favorite memory and experience of the trip was STN itself. It was really fun to take part in the Sweet 16, go to all those great break-out sessions, take part in the movie trailer competition, go to the STN Carnival, and go to the awards ceremony. Now I understand why everyone that was in Media in past years really wanted to go to STN. I can't wait to go back next year and hopefully win first place!

In conclusion, you can see that the STN Trip wasa blast, filled with lots of gret times and memorable experiences. My three favorite things we did on the trip were going to Magic Mountain, the day we went to Castaic Middle School and the set of "Shake it Up!", and STN itself. I can't wait to go next year!!!

Guess what? CKTV's 2013 STN Trip has just come to an end, and right now I just got back from an exhausting day! Although today was the day we came back, we still had a really important morning. Can you guess what we did this morning? We went to the STN Closing Ceremony! And for those of you who aren't exactly sure what that is, it's when every school that competed gathers together, and the winners for all the competitions are announced!!! It's really fun and suspenseful, and well, without further adu, let me tell you about it!

So, the Closing Ceremony was really fun. I was really proud of our school, everyone did such a great job! We won one first place award from the Spot Feature Group, one second place award from the Movie Trailer Team (yay!!), one third place award from the PSA Group, and an honorable mention from the Anchoring Competition, which Sydney did an awesome job in. It was great to win awards, and have your school name announced for the competition you were in as a winner, but honestly, the best part was getting to cheer on others or have other schools cheer on your school. Castaic, Waianae, Placerita, all these schools have just such great students! It was just a really great ending to our trip! Well, I better get some sleep right now... I unfortunately have school tomorrow :( Thanks for reading!

Hey people! I don't know about you, but I am super duper tired right now! Today was a really big day.... It was the day I competed (along with the other people in the movie trailer group) in the STN Competition. Before and after that I went to lots breakout sessions, and then our whole class went to a special speech from Michael Singer, and then, to finish off the day, we went to the first ever STN Talent Show, and watched the 10 best music videos submitted by high school teams! It was quite a day!
So, of course the main highlight of the day was the movie trailer competition. I think it went pretty well and I'm really anxious to see it! The title of our movie was "Breakpoint", and we chose to do a trailer about a girl who was getting to bullied to her breaking point. I think we had a really good story, and I really hope the editors made it flow together in a way that made sense and was very compelling. Ahhhh! I just can't wait to see it!
I thought the breakout sessions were all very cool, although my favorite session was the one by Les Rose. The session that he taught was all abut how to find a good story in everyday people, events, and things. I also really liked the special speech from Michael Singer. He is the publicist for Jerry Bruckheimer, and has been a part in the making of several movies, including all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies except for the first one, as well as working with several actors, like Johnny Depp. He talked about how it was to work for Jerry Bruckheimer, and then we got to ask him questions. He was really nice, and even bought us key-chain like things for your phone from Japan. It was really neat!
The last part of the day was the STN Talent Show and the top ten high school music videos. It was really fun! We cheered on a girl that was from Hawaii when she went up to sing, and also Kiana (I'm not sure if that's how you spell her name) from Castaic Middle School. As for the music videos, all ten were decent, but some really stood out from the others. The music video I liked the most was the one where a guy was hanging out with a girl all happy together, and then the girl's boyfriend comes and so the boy is all sad, but then at the end the boy and the girl end up kissing. Everyone in the audience was like "Awww!" when they saw that :)
So, that was my day. I can't believe it was the last day of the trip! Time really seemed to fly by! Tomorrow when we go to the closing ceremony, I'm really hoping to finish off the trip by winning an award, but even if we don't win it will still be fun. Wish us luck!

Oh my gosh! I am so tired right now! It's been another long day, but really fun too. Here's what happened!

So, after eating breakfast at 8:30, we headed over to the STN Opening Ceremony. It was very exciting, and lots of people talked about STN, whether it was board members, past STN Students, or the president of STN himself. After that we ate lunch, and then went to the "Super Session with Frank Marshall". It was such a neat experience! I mean, he's a real producer of movies -and a really food one at that- so it was so cool to be able to hear what he had to say about producing movies and getting to him questions. Right when that ended, I headed straight over to the next breakout session which was called "There's No Way I'll Ever Get a Job Doing This", and it was basically about how to plan ahead to get your dream job in the Media Field. I thought this session gave really good advice about how to pick the right college for the career your interested in, but also how it's good to be open to trying something new. The last breakout session I went to was called "Make 'Em Laugh, Make 'Em Care", and well, the title basically explains what the session was about. We watched lots of videos that used humor to get across a message, and then talked about how we can apply them to our videos.  I think one of the most interesting things I learned in the session was that out of all the people who watch videos online, one out of every five will click off the video on the first ten seconds of it. This is important because it really shows you how you need to have a compelling story that's interesting even in the first few seconds.... And you can use methods like humor to help to make it interesting. Overall, I am really glad for the opportunities of getting to listen to breakout sessions! I took a LOT of notes, and learned a lot too!

Anyways, after all the breakout sessions we had a quick dinner and then it was time for the STN Carnival. Yay! It was really fun! There was music, and a dance floor (except I'm a HORRIBLE dancer so I wasn't really on the dance floor the whole time), a photo booth, a fortune teller, a face painter, and even more! It was a time to hang out with friends (and pen pals too!) and just have fun! My favorite part was probably either dancing (really horribly) with my friends, going in the photo booth, or just... the whole thing! I mean, what can I say other than it was awesome!

Well, that basically sums up my day. I'm excited and nervous for tomorrow because that's the day we are competing! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I really am hoping that we do a good, no, a great job! Wish us luck, and I'll keep you posted about how we did!

Hi guys! I have a little bit of time to spare right now, as we are waiting for the Sweet 16 contest to be over. Anyways, I feel really bad because yesterday when we went to Hollywood I was supposed to take a picture of of a star (on the Walk of Fame) that had a person I didn't know, and then research about that person to find out why they were awarded a star. I know this is a bad excuse, but what happened was I didn't have my iPad with me so I had to take the picture of the mystery star on Marlena's iPod, and then when we went to a place that had wifi she was gonna text it to me, but we both forgot. I also forgot the mystery star's name so I couldn't research it. But anyways, tonight I was able to get the picture of the star AND research it, so I thought I'd share. Better late than never, right?


So, the person that I decided to do some research about was Monty Hall. I guess I chose him because he had an interesting name, and well, I guess that's the only reason. You can see his star and a picture of him below this paragraph. Anyways, after doing my research, I found out that Hall's real name is Monte Halperin. Born on August 25, 1921, Monty Hall was the brother of Robert Hall. In his early career, Monty hosted games shows like "Bingo at Home" and "Strike it Rich", before hosting his own show called "Keep Talking". Today, Hall is best known as an MC, producer, singer, actor, and sportscaster, and more importantly as the host of the show "Let's Make a Deal". He is married to Marilyn Plottel and has three children. Awarded to him on August 24, 1973 was his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Well, hope you enjoyed reading this blog! Bye!

What's up, blog readers?! I just had another tiring, but yet special day. Wanna hear about it?? Great! Let me begin!

So, today we had an early start, as we woke up at 6:00am and had to meet the rest of the class at 7:00am in the lobby. Today was the first day of STN, and we were assigned to do the Sweet 16, which is when each whole class that is competing in the STN is assigned to make a 16 minute video that is composed of some PSA's, Movie Trailers, News Stories, and if possible a commercial or two. All of these videos must be focused on one topic, and this year it was the word "sacrifice". Since I am in the movie trailer group, of course I spent the sixteen hours we had making movie trailers along with the rest of the movie trailer group. The first movie trailer we made went okay. I mean, I didn't think it was the best idea, but from what I've heard, it actually turned out pretty good. I'm really anxious to see it! The second movie trailer we made didn't go so well, and actually, it didn't end up in the Sweet 16 at all. It was just too confusing :(. But at least it wasn't the real competition and we can learn from the mistakes we made. There's always room to improve, right?

Anyways, that's basically my day. Tomorrow I'm going to go to a bunch of breakout sessions, so that's going to be really fun! I'll definitely have lots to write about! Thanks for reading my blog! :) Hope you enjoyed it!

Today was another great day! We started the day off by packing up all our stuff, and then getting on the bus. Our first stop was to a place called Bob's Big Boy, and that is where we atr breakfast. It was probably the best breakfast of the trip in my opinion, so that was good. After breakfast, we went to see the stars in Hollywood, and it definitely wasn't what I expected. I mean, I already knew that it wouldn't be al, glamourous and fancy and stuff, but I didn't think it would be as dirty as it was. There were a bunch of weirdos and homeless people all around, and it just made the whole place seem unclean. So if you can't tell, Hollywood definitely wasn't my favorite place. However, it was still really fun and cool to look at all the stars, especially with friends.

After Hollywood, we headed off to Warner Bros. We got to take a VIP Tour of it, just like Universal Studios, and it was very exciting. There were many things that were the same about Universal and Warner Bros, although there were some differences too. A few of the things I thought were similar in both was how the sets were constructed, the Sound Stages, and the use of the green screens. In fact, I thought they were pretty similar in all ways, except for slightly different outdoor sets (although they had the same idea), and the cool things we got to do at Universal Studios. It's kind of funny because I liked the Universal Studios tour better than the Warner Bros tour, but I would rather work at Warner Bris because it has better shows. But anyways, it was a really fun tour to do, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it.

The last part of the  evening was getting to see Mulan in a Disney Movie Theatre. The movie itself was really cute, but seeing it in a Disney theater made it even better! We then ate dinner and came to our hotel. And that was basically my day! Thanks for reading!

Hi guys!! I'm here to write another blog about my awesome day in California! Let me begin!

So, today was all about Universal Studios. After eating breakfast at the hotel, we walked to Universal Studios and then split up into two groups. I was in Group A, and a few of the people who were in the group with me were Lilly, Lindsey, Mari, Brooke, Mandy, Sharae, and Micah. While Group B went off on the tour, my group started off in the Universal Amusement Park. We went on three main rides, a Transformers Ride, a Mummies Revenge Ride, and a Jurasic Park ride. The Transformers Ride was really fun, and it was kind of like a stimulator with really good effects (I'm not exactly sure how to describe it). Everyone in the group loved it, especially me! The best part of the ride was when a bullet looked like it was coming straight for me (because of the 3D glasses) and it looked like it was getting closer and closer and then right before it hit me, I ducked and it was like it flew straight over me (I could feel it!) and then a fire that was actually real appeared! It was so awesome! The next ride we went on (that happened to be my favorite) was the Mummies Revenge, and it basically was a roller coaster that had a bunch of twists and turns and little dips, and then it went backwards. I also liked it because it went so fast! I felt like I was flying! And what made it even better was that I was in the front row, and after we rode it the first time the workers let us go again without having to wait in line! The last ride I'm gonna talk about in detail that we went on was called Jurassic Park. In short, it was a water ride that went pretty slow (because we were looking at dinosaurs and other things from the park) until the very end, when we went STRAIGHT down! It was a really fun ride, although I did get wet because I was in the first row. We ate lunch and went on some more rides and activities at the park, and then it was time for the tour!

The tour was a really neat experience to have! The tour guide was really nice and explained things really well, in a way that was easy for me to understand. One thing that I thought was really cool was when we got to see the set of the show "Parenthood". I had always thought that when movies filmed scenes in houses, they had to film at actual houses, but when we saw the set of the show "Parenthood", I saw that they build sets to look like the inside of the house instead of actually having to film at a house. I really want to watch the show now just so that I can watch the set that I got to see on TV! There were a lot of other parts of the tour that were very cool, but if I were to go to into detail, it would probably be like three pages long (no joke!)!

The final part of the evening was really special for me because I got to meet up with some of my family that lives in CA and eat dinner with them. My aunts Violet and Shanna came, as well as my uncles Elijah and Troy, and of course, my Grandma. It was a really neat experience to get to see them, and it really made my day. I wish they could have stayed longer, but the short time I had with them was very fun. They are such amazing people!

Well anyways, that was my day! Hope you enjoyed reading this blog, and please come back to read more about my trip!

Wow! Today was really fun! I have to say, I think it was the best day of the trip so far! Let me tell you about it!
We had an earlier start this morning, as we woke up at about 6:45 and ate breakfast at 7:30. We then packed up all our stuff and checked out of the hotel, and got on the bus to Castaic Middle School. When we arrived to CMS, there was a huge poster that said something like "Welcome Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School!" and the media students were outside the class waving to us. Sadly, my pen pal wasn't there, but it was because she was trying out for X-Factor, which I think is pretty cool. We then went inside one of the buildings, where the band class performed two songs for us (they were super talented and sounded professional!) and then the leadership class arranged some games for us. They also performed a cup dance (I think that's what it's called) , and then taught us how to do it. Let's just say, I wasn't exactly, er, amazing at it... Okay fine, I was horrible at it! But at least I tried, right? Anyways, we also got to tour their beautiful campus, eat lunch with them, and then exchange gifts. I was all really fun, but what really made it special was how generous and welcoming they all were. They really went all out for us, and it was really to get to hang out with them and see their school!

After going to CMS, we went to guess where.... the "Shake it Up!" filming set! It was awesome! The set was so cool, and it was amazing to see the real set and how things work. I was surprised at how many people were on the set, though! There must have been at least forty people! Anyways, we got to see scenes being filmed, as well as the actors and actresses, and at the end we even got to meet two of the actors and take pictures with them! How cool is that!
Finally, after "Shake it Up!", we went checked in to the new hotel, and then went to City Walk, which was also very fun. Everything was all lit up and glamourous, and it was great to look to eat dinner there and look in the stores. At the the end of the night, there was this man who was dancing and we went and watched him, and that was definitely cool! Overall though, I had a great day, and I'm looking forward to another great day tomorrow!