Proactive or Procrastination?

To me I believe that I am proactive. I think that I am proactive because when we are in teams for new projects in my yearbook class and there is a group that is falling behind, I take charge and help them go through their situations. I also am energetic, and driven into working hard and learning new things.

The level of my productivity relates to my amount of free time because on most of my free time I would be working and studying for quizes and also I would use it to practice on things in school and also for other activities that I am active in.

I think that if I could change my work habits it would be to work even harder on my free time and when others are not looking, because I know that even though I am productive, it still isn't enough. I would change it by taking my free time ability a little higher.

My Visual Poem

Above is my finished Visual Poem! Please watch and enjoy!

This past week, we had to turn in another video that we created in G.T. class, but this time, instead of having groups, we made this project individually The project video is supposed to be a visual poem. My poem video is about entertainment such as dancing, singing, acting, ad watching things. It is called " Show-Time. " The visual film of the poem impacts the the video because it gives the viewer more information, like if they don't understand the poem.

The special effects in my video helps the video go from good to great by giving more interest into the video and gives better transitions in between films to the next. Also it gives a cooler mood to the viewer, especially with the effects that relate to entertainment.

I am satisfied with my finish product. I love the way that I got to successfully put everything together without help and it worked out great. I think if I had a little more time getting more b-roll or films for my visual, then it would of been " off the hook! "

Following is my Visual Poem Plan. Where I planned out everything.

Finished News Story

This passed project in G.T. we had just finished and turned in was for either a porfile or a news story video. My teammates and I decided that we wanted to do a profile story about someone, and chose to do it on me and my family, The Drake Ohana. The people who have contributed in the project are of coarse, my group, Hailey Gokan, Leslie Acoba, and Sydney Nice, then of course my family who were in the video, Emmsley-James Drake, Michael-Alan Drake, and Mike Drake.

The final of the video turned out great! My team and I all agree that we really enjoyed the video and also filming everything. Although there were some little bites here and there that weren't as perfect, it was still really good.

When we had to show it to the whole class, the audience had to give some feedback and critique the video. The critiques were all true and were really halpful for our upcoming projects for the future. Some of them were: " there could be more sequencing... " and  " great job love the natural sounds and b-roll shots... " To the right is the results for teh best overall video in our class.


  To the left is a screenshot of the vote results! Our video is the T4: Drake Fire Knife Tradition.

Real World Report

Here are students from Kawaikini, 

a K-5 Hawaiian immersion school and took home

first place in the singing portion of the competition.

The story that I read about that is a world wide report is of Hawaii and how children are keeping our culture alive. Kids of Kauai, Hawaii were able to compete in the Mokihana children's/youth music competition. The K-5 children from the Kanuikapono school were honored by respecting and honoring the last Queen of Hawaii, Queen Liliokalani. Although they just won 2nd place, the practices and the love that the kids put into their music for the queen paid off. Kumu Pua Kamealoha Gomes was thankful for the kids for keeping and knowing their hawaiian culture. Many of the parents of the children were also thankful that their children are bringing back the hawaiian languages in the songs, learning them in school and enjoy seeing it continue. Many elders were also pleased to see them to because when they were younger they learned it to and are just so grateful to have the next generations to lead the way for the culture and traditons to stay alive.

The issue is that when Liliokalani was reined Queen she was forced to let go of our traditions and culture such as languages. Because of that a lot of natives were challenging the people from the America, the american people stepped down and let us keep it. But it never left, it stayed in their hearts. Becuase of that many elders taught their children and grandchildren the cultures, then that generation taught the next and so on and so forth. So now we come to the present day. We are now teaching the generations such as the Kanuikapono school to keep the culure ALIVE!

Many people should start to care becuase this is our culture and it talks about the past. when I was born I was raised to entertain by dancing my traditional dances like hula and tahitian. many people don't realize that its not just entertainment, its ways that we honor our hawaiian gods like Pele- goddess of wind, lightning and volcanoes, Kāmohoaliʻi- god of sharks, and Hi'iaka- goddess of the hula and the daughter of Haumea. So the more that I see the generations learning and honoring the gods the more I am grateful. Please understand that we, hawaiians want to keep our culure and traditions.

Click here for the website: LINK!

Lessons Learned

So far for our Hiki No project about the Drake Ohana, the most intresting part of the project to me was the work that we've got with the different angles and how we are able to work together as a team.

I think the biggest road block our team have had that we have handled so far was the schedules that we have after school. It took a long time to diside what day, time, and where we were going to do my brothers interview, because when I was available, then the other people in my group werent available that day, but then we just got it settled and everything worked out perfectly.

I think the most valuble part of filmaking is to be ready and prepared for anything such as camera not working right, mic. isnt working, mistakes of shooting and any mistakes of anything. The filmaking process would be at its best if we all look at the small things before shooting anything because the small things can make a BIG error for the video.

HikiNo Behind the Scenes

For my groups project idea, we are planning to do a profile story about the Drake Ohana, Mike Drake, Michael-Alan Drake, Emmsley-James Drake, and Kaylynn Drake( me and my family) about how and why we do fire knife dancing. The story is about us passing down the Samoan tradition and culture from generation to the other.

When the camera isn't rolling we will be discussing more things about how we should set the other shots for the other camera shots. There is no time for wasting time.

To help my team I can give options that I think would make the video even more better, I can help set up the cameras, and just see if they want me to do anything for them. The more we encourage and be there for each other, the more we will be come more of a team. Teamwork is everything!

The Expirement

Hey guys! In my G.T. class last week we had an assignment to explore one of apps that we have on the class computers. Its called Photoshop. We had to make up anything we wanted to do without any rules and information on how to use photoshop but it had to be appropriate.

Instead of just doing one project in Photoshop, I did three. Two of them were from what I new already and the other one was an animation that was tought to us by our teacher because he wanted to teach us a new way to explore Photoshop. On my first project I made a blend of four different photos into one photo. Then I grabbed another photo from the internet and then touched it up in photoshop. Finally I put the two photos together and filled in the rest of the page to make it better. This is my first finished project form Photoshop below to the right:

Back To School

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've got to post stuff. Well, as you know now, I just got back into school at Kapa'a Middle School again and I am in my last year there. So far, my favorite moment in the beginning week of school would be meeting my new classmates that transferred from their school before coming. I made a lot of cool new friends.

My biggest challenge so far has been getting used to the new class schedule. I think the the D.O.E. (Department Of Education) changed the bell/ class schedule because the teachers need more time to teach the students and give them the lessons they need to get a higher and better test scores.

This year, the way that I can be successful for this school year would to become a better community contributor and an complex thinker. I feel these options could help because then I could learn from not only my mistakes but my classmates mistakes by being an effective communicator and I can involve into solving problems.

Composition Techniques

In the beginning the school year in 2013, my G.T. class and I had a class project called composition techniques. Composition Techniques are used for photographers and people who wants to film or take pictures of something. These techniques helps them grab interests in the viewer and makes the footage look more interesting. We were in different groups and had to show what some composition techniques there are. There are a lot of techniques such as, leading lines, contrast in content, unusual angles, framing, and more, but the one technique that is mostly used for films and pictures is rule of thirds.

Here are some composition techniques:

This picture was take with leading lines. The person in the 
picture is Wailana Makepa.

This picture was taken with an unusual angle. That person
in the picture is me, Kaylynn Drake!

Five Tips For

During the beginning of the school year my G.T. class and I had to do this video project called " Five Tips For..." My group, Wailana Makepa, Iris Murakami, and I, chose to do "Five Tips For Dancing Better." This project was really fun, but I think if we had a little bit more time it would have been "off the hook." If we did have a little bit more time I think the video would have been 10 times better. Like what my teach, Mr. Chris Sanderl, always says, " make it go from good, to great!"

Tip #1 Always add a facial expression no matter what!

Tip #2 Always have a good posture!

Tip #3 Always make your moves big!

Tip#4 When changing your moves and position in your routine,
try to make it look natural!

Tip #5 And remember....... ALWAYS HAVE FUN!!!

Words of Wisdom

The latest project I have done in my G.T. class was the " Words of Wisdom" project. We had to be in a group of 3-4 people and I had 2 partners, Wailana Makepa and Sydney Nice. We all chose to interview my grandpa, Jim Drake, on why family bonding is so important. Our interview video is called " Mr. Jim Drake Encourages Family Bonding." My partners and I completed this video by reshooting, and getting together with him more than once. We had some stumbles and some up and downs because either we needed more B-Rolls and more footage of him and his family. We learned that when ever we do this again, we should do as many B-Rolls as we can and that " there is no such thing as to much B-Rolls. "Our words of wisdom is important because you might not be able to see your family all the time plus it won't be too much longer, they will be getting older, and won't be able to come see you as often as they do now. Just have to enjoy while you can."- said by Mr. Jim Drake.

Here is my groups " Words Of Wisdom " project. Please watch!

Final Photomantages

These are two examples of my photomontages. We made these photomontages because we learned about David Hockney's wonderful art works. We had to take multiple pictures of a location in a couple perspectives and put them together to create "Joiners". My first one, on the left was one of our practice ones which was taken at my school of a trash can with an beautiful hall way with amazing trees in the background. The other photomontage that I made was of my brothers truck with the beautiful sky and his really cool stickers that he created and put on his truck. After taking the pictures I put my raw, unedited, photos in Adobe Camera Raw and edited them. Finally I put them together and organized them in a way that made sense in Photoshop.

Practice Profile Story

In my G.T. class we had to make a practice of our profile stories. We practiced with our teammates and chose one of us to interview of what they like to do. My partners and I, Sydney Nice and Wailana Makepa, chose to interview me dancing because of how much I really enjoy dancing.

The purpose of this practice profile story is to learn and get used to the way we have to do our official profile story which is the profile story about " Elder Words of Wisdom."

The video below shows my team's practice profile story. Please watch!

Profile Project Progress

For the Profile Project that we are doing in G.T. class we had to choose one of our older relatives out of all three of our partners family. My partners and I chose my grandfather, Papa Jim Drake, for our project. We chose him because one of my partners grandparents aren't on this island and my other partners grandparents were to busy and weren't able to get with us.

We interviewed him at his house and shot many B-Rolls of him and his family members. We also went to the beach to show how he spends his little time with his family members when they can. Our project is about how Papa Jim encourages his family and shows how much he loves his family. The hard part about this was the shots and how we had to get up close and then medium shots and then the wide.

During this project we had the hardest time trying to get with each other because we all had something to do after school. I think one thing that my partners and I could've done better was work as a better team by helping each other more than usual. Lately we just did our rough cut critique on our videos and these were our critique scores from our class for audio, visuals, story, and the quality of the video.

To improve the video we will be reshooting a lot of the B-Rolls, fix and re-due the voice-overs, and make the video make more sense by making everything in the right order and make everything together with the story. Hopefully everything will be awesome and interesting to the viewers, but I know in my head and soul that WE CAN DO IT!

Final Panoramas

Here are some of my final panoramas that I have created in my G.T. class. In the picture above is the panorama that I made out of school. In the panorama we have the light house in Lihue by the harbor. We also see the beautiful ocean and the mountains in the background. Below is a panorama that I made in my G.T. class. I took this panorama at my school, Kapa'a Middle School. For both of the panoramas, we had to take a 360 degree circle taking 10-15 vertical pictures. Then we went in adobe bridge and camera raw to edit the pictures. After that, we went into photoshop and merged all of the photos together which became these awesome and amazing panoramas.

Three Shot Sequences

Three shot sequences are shots of images that are in an order of sequencing with a long or a wide shot, a medium shot, and a close up or extreme close up shot. Many people use this technique, or skill, to grab interest to the viewer. It helps the viewer to understand what is going on. In all of the shots, they all have different angles when taken. The wide shot is the one that shows the setting, place, and the subject. The medium shot has the subject closer and shows what the subject is doing in a feeling that the viewer is right there. Lastly the close up or extreme close up shot is the closest shot of the three, it gives the viewer an even more feeling that it is right there and is about to touch the subject. Here are some examples of a three shot sequence.

Wide Shot

Medium Shot

Close up shot

Polar Panoramas

These are some of my examples of polar panoramas that I have created in my G.T. class.


In my G.T. class we had a project that was to make our own little worlds. It was called Polar Panoramas. To make this we had to first, choose a great spot to take pictures that had an interesting horizon line. Then, we had to make the horizon line straight and move in a 360 degree circle taking vertical shots with all pictures overlapped. After that we uploaded, edited, and organized photos in Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw. Then we started resizing and rotating the photos in a perfect square. After that, we flipped the photos upside down by going up to the menu options, image> image rotation> rotate 180 degree. Then the last step was to go up to the option menu and go filter> distort> Polar Coordinates & Edit! My little world looks so cool!

Practice Story Reflection

In G.T. class we had to make a interview story for our next project. We just did a practice interview story for us to get to know how to interview people. Our new project is to interview someone of our elder relatives that has an interesting life for an story for the Hiki No. The project is called " Elder Words of Wisdom "

During our practice story, my team, Sydney Nice, Wailana Makepa, and I did a wonderful time working as a team. With teamwork we were able to reach the goal and finish on time. We all had our own jobs to work on. One of us was the editor, one was working on the transcription template, and the other one was also working on the transcript. We all helped each other when one needed help.

On The last day to work on it we all worked together and had all of our ideas put together. We all had positive ideas on our partners idea which made us work together as a team. We had all of us with headphones, listening to the video and all gave our ideas to each other and made the video great. All of the ideas worked well together.

We also recorded the narraters voice for the voiceovers and put the B-Roll into the video. Everything worked really well together. The B-Roll looked awesome, the way Sydney and Wailana were filming me dance and how their ideas for my dancing worked with my interview. After putting the B-Roll, the narrater's voice, and everything to make it awesome, we went through it over and over and over and over again making little touches to it. After that process we turned it in just on time. We watched it with the class and everyone thought it was really cool. We did great!

Spherical Panoramas

This is two examples of spherical panoramas that I created in my G.T. class. A spherical panorama is basically a distorted panorama that becomes a circular image with the earth outlining the edge of the circle. If you don't know, a panorama is a set of vertical images taken in a 360 degree rotation with the central horizon which is then merged.

To make these spherical panoramas we had to first choose a great spot to take pictures that has an interesting horizon line. Then, we had to make the horizon line straight and move in a 360 degree circle in a vertical shots with 10-15 pictures that all have an overlap on each other. Next, we uploaded, edited, and organize photos in Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw. Then we resized and rotated the photos in a perfect square. Then we flipped the photos upside down by going up to the menu options, image, image rotation, rotate, 180 degree. After that we had the last step to do, go up to the menu option and press Filter, distort, Polar Coordinates & Edit!

After doing the two worlds, we had a photo session and had to take portrait photos of us showing how we would feel if we were on those worlds. After editing the portrait photos, we used the Quick Selection Tool to cut out the background, refine the edges and resize the layer to fit their polar panorama perfectly. The last step was to make shadows. To make the shadows we, inverted and warped our portrait layer, decreased the exposure to pure black and adjusted the opacity to around 40%. That is how my G.T. class and I created our own little worlds.

All About Me

Aloha! Here is a quick description of me and what I do in my life.

My name is Kaylynn Drake and I live on the island Kauai, Hawaii. I am a student at kapa'a middle school and is in a program called Gifted and Talented or G.T. G.T. is a program for talented students who is really good with technology.

Although I like science, I think I'm starting to enjoy my english an language arts class. We do a lot of class reading, and ALOT of writing. This last class project that we just finished doing a story of something that we remember doing.

When I'm not at school and not on the computer at home, I am either hanging out with my friends or at dance practice. I love to dance hip-hop with my dance team called Excel Dance Studio. We have been in many dance competitions around the world. This year is my 4th year dancing and competing with Excel. My first year competing, we went to New york and competed in the Nextstar competition. Then in my second year, we went on a long journey to Bologna, Italy and did many tours around Italy. In 2013 we went to Anaheim California for a dance competition in the Disney Land resort. There were more than 1600 different dance groups that we had to go against but we made it to the top 30. So far Excel Dance studio made a lot of trophies. This year, 2014, we are heading on another long journey to Barcelona, Spain. Hope we succeed another year.

Magazine Cover

This is my finished magazine cover that I created in my 4th period G.T. class at Kapa'a Middle School in the year of 2013. When making this magazine cover, I used Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, and Photoshop.