Independent Movie Project

Here is a couple of clips from a typical lunch period at Blair High School. Lots of Fun!

Exit Through the Gift Shop

I recently saw the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop directed by Bansky. This film follows the life of amateur film maker Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash), as he discovers the world of illegal street art. The documentary begins with an overview of Guetta's life, he's an average french man living in L.A, he owns a high end thrift store and has the interesting quirk of filming every waking moment of his life. While on vacation with his family, Guetta has a chance encounter with his cousin, a street artist named Invader, this causes Guetta to become obsessed with street art, he follows many famous street artists around, including Shepards Feirey and Bansky himself, Guetta captures their works, then he soon tries his hand at his own art and become very successful.
There is definitely some literary aspects to this film, it has many characters that include all the street artists that Guetta encountered, it also has an overarching plot of Guetta's rise to fame. The only conflicts in this movie are some run ins with the police, and the overall resentment of some of the other street artists. The setting is all over, as Guetta travels around the world to film prominent artists in the graffiti world. The point of view is mostly from Guetta himself, but both Bansky and Shepards Fairey chime in as well.
There is less dramatic aspects and cinematic aspects in this film, most of the shots in this film were captured by Guetta himself, as he travels with these artists. Everything is in real time, there is no acting, or sets, or make up in this documentary, except for interviews with both Bansky and Shepards Fairey.
I would recommend this documentary to anyone who shares this interest in art, I do think it is necessary to warn people that Guetta will not be your favorite character, he comes off as crazy, to the point he looks almost mentally ill, and at times it is very hard to connect with his character. Root for Bansky and the rest of the artists.

Exit Through the Gift Shop
1hr 30 mins
Rated R

Journal Tutorial

 Alright so I have a serious addiction to DIY projects and such, so I decided to make my own tutorial on how to construct a journal.

To Begin You Will Need:

Cardboard ( I used a cereal box but if you have anything thicker use it!)

Scissors

Ruler

Pencil

Hot glue gun

Glue

Three small clips

Some paper (lined or not. doesn't really matter)

Construction paper (Not shown above because I forgot but oh well)

Duct Tape (electrical would probably be better but I only had Duct)

1) Alright so the first step is to fold one of your regular papers in half. You are going to use this to measure out how much cardboard you need. You want the cardboard to be about 1 1/2 cm bigger than your folded paper. So cut out two pieces of that size and also cut a slight strip of cardboard to be the spine of your journal. ( I cut out four piece and taped them together so it would be sturdier.)

2) So once you have that you want to take a long enough strip of tape and place the sliver of cardboard more or less in the middle of it. 

3) Now you want to place the other two pieces of cardboard on the tape leaving a tiny space in between each piece of cardboard. With the excess tape on either side simple fold it over the edges.

4) Next place another piece of tape to cover up the other side. Folding the excess over the edge again. Press down in between the spaces so the tape sticks together. It should look like this now.

 5) Now comes the tedious part. However many pages of paper you want, you are gonna have to fold them all in half. Try to make them as neat as possible because it makes it look nicer.

6) Next once you have them all folded. Clip them together on the folded part. One on each side, and one in the middle. 

 7) Then use the hot glue gun and cover the folded paper. Squeeze it together a little so the glue doesn't soak down too much. 

8) Wait for it to dry a little, then move the clips and go over those parts with glue as well. 

9) Let it dry and you should have a wad of paper that stays together. 

10) Now we're going to work on the cover. Take two pieces of construction paper (Mine is pretty!)  and measure out two pieces that are bigger than the folded paper (It honestly doesn't matter how much bigger, about 2 inches would be good, i only did like 2 cm and i didn't really have enough.) This is gonna be your cover paper.

11) Cut them out.

12) Line up the cover paper with the cardboard , you want there to be an even amount of excess on every side. 

13) Next take your hot glue gun and glue the cover paper over the edges of the cardboard. 

14) It should look like this now. Try to smooth the cover paper down as best you can.

15) Depending on how you want to make the cover you can either repeat steps 3 and 4 or you can wait and I'll explain another way later. 

16) Next you want to take another color of construction paper and cut out two pieces of paper that are about the same size as the folded paper.

17) Glue the construction paper to cover up the edges of the cover paper. Make sure you have enough that construction paper that you can glue it to the spine of your journal.

 18) Next glue the pages of your journal onto the spine

20) Wait for it to dry. And WHOOSH you're done!

For the another way to make the binding of the cover, cut a strip of the construction paper and paste it along the edge of the spine on both sides. (This is the other journal I made)

Six-Year Old Pianist

Okay I found this on youtube and i just had to post it somewhere. This kid is amazing!


(he doesn't start playing till about 3:00)

Tsung Tsung is from Hong Kong and was discovered after making some Youtube videos.In this video he's playing  Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composition, "Flight Of The Bumblebee". 

CAPture the fall

This is my capture the fall video, I took some shots around my house and neighborhood, and then some shots of these woods I walked through.

Dystopian Trailer

So for the past couple of weeks we've been working on this dystopian trailers. We started this project in our English class when we read 1984 by George Orwell, we then explored what characteristics defined a dystopia. We were then asked to present this characteristics in our own dystopian world through the making of a movie trailer. In our film class, we spent about a week to develop our ideas, I was in a group with Emily, Natalie, and Sophie. We then had to plan a time for all of us to get together for filming. We the spent about a week and half editing the our trailer, and then presented our trailer to the class.

Nanowrimo: the First Week

So National Novel Writing Month started on the 1st of November, I changed my idea for my novel, because I realized that fantasy isn't really my forte, when it comes to creative writing. I much prefer realistic fiction, therefore I'm writing about a girl who runs away to New York, and gets caught up in  her own little adventures. I'm a little behind with my word count i have about 3,500 words so far but i'm definitely gonna try to step up my game with the two days off i have.
Here's a little excerpt I have from my writing.

The next stop we came to was the train station. I gratefully got off the bus, with a last nod to the bus driver.

“You take care, you hear,” he said, closing the door after me.

The bus pulled away and suddenly I felt very alone. The train station was all but deserted with people scattering the great long hall. It was a very regal sort of place, with big white pillars reaching all the way up to the high rounded ceiling; the floors were made of marble that shined brilliantly in the dim lighting of the fancy wall fixtures. A couple shops lined the wall, but they we’re all closed. A lone coffee shop lay opened with a few sad looking costumers staring into the expanses of their cups. It was almost eerie how quiet the place was. I was suddenly aware of every breath I took, and the sound my shoes made every time I took a step.

I made my way down the hall towards the ticket booth, inside was a woman probably around my mom’s age. She had red frizzy hair pulled back in a messy bun, with bright pink lipstick, and bright blue eye shadow. She had vibrant green glasses that a young hipster would where to be ironic, but on her it only made her eyes bulge out making her face look disproportioned. She wore a red blazer as part of her uniform with a gold pin stating that her name was Helen. She was furiously looking through her computer, while sporadically typing in a short sequence.

“Sorry,” she said, not taking her eyes off the computer screen. “The last train just left ten minutes ago.”

I nodded assuming as much at this time a night. “When’s the next train to New York?” I asked, trying to sneak a peek at what she was typing.

“6:15 a.m.” She said, with a pointed glare, noticing my nosiness.

“How much?” I asked, reaching for my wad of cash, praying I would have enough.

“That will be eighty four dollars.” She said printing out the ticket.

I quickly counted out the money and handed it to her. She finally looked up at me, when hanging me my ticket. She gave me a once over, her eyes calculating and critical, I tried to shy away from her gaze shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, and quickly grabbed the ticket.

“Good luck,” Was all she said as I walked away from her booth. 

I'll probably be posting more excerpts on my blog as Nono continues. Feel free to leave any comments on my writing, but take into account that this is a very very rough draft.