Hii! So, during the Fall Break, I went to the movies, and saw this really awesome movie called Gravity! Immediately after I saw it, I knew I wanted to do a blog about it. So, just what was it so "awesome" about it? Well, basically everything! It had a great storyline, great actors, and AMAZING shots!! Watching the movie made me feel like I was Sandra Bullock, stuck out in Space...it was pretty intense, especially with the huge screen and 3D glasses! You can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiTiKOy59o4 to see what I mean!

In this blog though, I want to talk about how they filmed the movie. Obviously, they did not go out into outer space to film the movie. So how did they make all the shots so unbelievably realistic? Well, the director actually invented a new way to light, shoot and direct, which will likely impact the way cinema will be made from now on. One specific thing they used was called a "light box", which was outfitted with over 4,000 LED lightbulbs and allowed the effects team to "play any computer graphics image they wanted in order to get the light from the sun, the stars and other celestial adornments just right. Roughly 60 percent of the film was shot in the box." How cool is that?!

I strongly suggest you to watch "Gravity". You will be amazed by all the shots. It's incredible! And I guess it just inspired me, as a student in a Media Class. But anyways, bottom line: watch Gravity :)

Hey guys! So this week in Media, we did something a little differently in class. Can you guess what? Well, instead of working on our Second Quarter Projects, we took some time to reflect on our First Quarter Projects. I think we watched like four or five different news stories from the class, and for each one we would get to grade it, talk about things that we liked, and things that could be improved. I actually really like critiquing other people's projects and even more, getting feedback on my own project. Personally, I think feedback is very important. In this blog, I will be talking all about how feedback helps us get better and improve.

The first way that feedback helps people to improve is that it gives a response from the audience. If you want to get better and want more people to watch and enjoy your video, you need to know what people liked and disliked about it.Without feedback, you have no idea what people liked and what people disliked about your work. It is essential for people to get feedback in order to improve. I mean, think about this: if you didn't get feedback and you just kept doing what you were doing, thinking people liked your work, then you would never improve.

One thing that I like about feedback is it opens your one-perspective mind to a bunch of different perspectives. Each different person gives you a different point of view on your project, which is really neat. It's funny because most people don't view themselves and even their work the way that other people do. Feedback can give you an honest view on what people thought was good, and what people thought wasn't so good.

So, as I've made clear, feedback is basically a way to get better through compliments and constructive criticism. One thing I've noticed is that usually people get more comments on ways than they can improve than things that they did well. This is because feedback is used as a way to get better, so if there's a little bitty something that isn't bad, but can be improved upon, people are definitely going to point that out to make sure your work can be the absolutely best that it can be. It's very important that when you receive criticism, you don't view it in a negative way. People are not trying to insult you or your work when they point out the flaws they see in your work, they are only trying to help you get better.

In conclusion, feedback is a very important tool that helps people drastically improve their work. It gives an honest response from the audience on what they liked and didn't like. I can't wait to get feedback on my own first quarter media project!

What's up, people? It's been a long time since my last blog! I had a great Fall Break, and hope you did too! But, now that school is back, I will be doing blogs every week! For this weeks blog, I'm going to be talking about my future. Where I see myself going after high school, and what I see myself pursuing. Read on to find out!

I'm pretty sure that after high school, I will go to college. Im not sure what college yet, but it will probably be in California, where some of my uncles and aunts live. My plan is to do really well in school, and do lots of community service so that I can get a (hopefully big) scholarship. In college, I want to major in, um.. well actually, I'm not really sure yet. The safe side of me kind of wants to major in Communications or English, which both offer flexibility and LOTS of different career opportunities, but there's also a side of me that wants to get a degree in Music or Media, or something like that.

The careers I find interesting have dramatically changed throughout my life, and they will probably change once again as I continue to learn and discover more about myself and the world. When I was little, I really wanted to be a fairy. I even asked for a real magic wand when I was four or five from Santa. My dreams of becoming a fairy were crushed on Christmas Morning when I woke up only to find a plastic, ugly wand, that wasn't even magic! :) After that, I went from wanting to be a bank worker, to a cashier at Macy's, to a teacher, to a lawyer. But now that I am older, I have a somewhat clearer picture of what I want to do. I mean, I really like writing (even though it takes me a long time to write). I can see myself becoming an author, or writing movie scripts, or writing for magazines and newspapers, or even writing music!

However, as I get older, and eventually choose my career, there are some very important things that I have to keep in mind. For one, I want to have a career that makes a decent amount of money. I also want my job not to be too time consuming. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't mind working hard and putting in lots of effort, but I want a job that will allow me to have a family life as well. For me, family is first, followed by friends, and then work. If only I could find a job that meet all my standards, that would be.. a dream come true!

If you couldn't tell already from reading, I'm not exactly sure what my future holds. There are so many different paths, so many different opportunities, so many possible futures. But, even though I don't know everything, the one thing I do know is that  I have great potential in front of me. I'm really excited to learn and discover more about myself, and things that I enjoy, and CKTV is helping me do just that!

Hi guys! So now that First Quarter is over, I thought I'd write a reflection on my first quarter in Media, and how I felt about it. Where to begin?? Well, first of all, I have the best partner! She is so smart and awesome and it's been great working with her! Our project idea was on KIUC's goal of 50% renewable energy by the year 2023, and how they plan to achieve that goal by two large photovoltaic farms. Overall, I think for First Quarter, our project went okay. I mean, it wasn't horrible, but I don't really think it was that great, or even that good. First of all, there was the audio issue. Luckily, I was able to get the hiss out of some of the interviews, but in Ben Sullivan's interview, the audio is really bad. Second of all, our project turned out long to be a minute longer than the max time. However, this is pretty good considering I trimmed it down from 8:48 minutes. Lastly, I thought or project was kind of boring. We didn't really have that many things to get b-roll of, so a lot of the time we were just showing b-roll of solar plants or the power plant, which isn't bad, but when you're looking at it for four minutes, it can kind of get a little boring.

But, even though I didn't really think our News Story turned out the best, there were some other things that I think I did well. For example, I thought Kaycee and I did a really nice job on radios. Even Jason from FM97 thought so! I also thought my team and I did a good job on morning announcements, and I have kept up with all my blogs, and met all the deadlines in the class, so that's good :)

Overall, there are a lot of things that I did well this quarter, but there are also definitely things I can approve upon for next quarter. After all, it was only the start of this year! Next quarter, I'm going to take everything I learned so that I can make an even better project. Thanks for reading!

In life, there are many important traits to have. To me, kindness, patience, self control, responsibility, honesty, and respect are probably the biggest. Why are these traits just so important to have? Well, it's simple. They make life just so much better! You feel better about yourself when you use these traits instead of being mean and disrespectful. Others like you better because they see your great character. How you see life becomes better because you have a positive perspective. So in general, using important traits like kindness and respect makes life better. In this blog though, I'm going to talk about one very specific trait...punctuality. Punctuality kind of ties in with respect and responsibility, and it is important for many reasons. Read on to find out more!

One big reason why punctuality is important is because it shows respect to other people. I mean, imagine if I set up an interview with someone at 2:15, and I didn't get there until 2:30. That would definitely give off the impression to the interviewee that I didn't respect their time and was irresponsible!  If someone has already given up some of there precious time that they can never get back to you, the least you can do is show common courtesy and respect by being punctual.

Another reason why punctuality is important is because by being punctual, you prove you are trustworthy and responsible. One time, I told my parents that I would be home from an event at 8:00pm, but I ended up not getting home until 10:00pm! When I did get home, my parents were very mad at me because they had been expecting me to be home at 8:00, and I had violated their trust by not getting home until two hours later. I also had been irresponsible by losing track of time and not sticking to my commitment. It took a long time for me to regain their trust after that. I definitely learned from that experience!

Lastly, punctuality is important because it will help you relieve guilt and stress from life. When you are punctual, you feel better because you stayed true to your commitment and did the right thing. When you are late, it adds a lot of extra stress to your life (and other people's life!), and you have to face the consequences of being late. For example, in the Media Class, if you are late on radios, not only do you have to work extra hard and come in on the weekends, but so does Mr. M. That means you are not only wasting your own weekend, but also your teachers weekend on something that YOU were late on!

Overall, punctuality is important because it shows respect to other people, it proves you are trustworthy and responsible, and it helps to get rid of unnecessary stress and guilt from your life. Of course, no one's perfect and there will be times when you are late. That's just part of life. But for the most part, punctuality is a vital trait to have and use, and it makes life just so much better :)