Scratch Game Design

My class has recently been working in a program called Scratch. Scratch lets you create and design games. It is very similar to Code.org, except it's more difficult, and not as straightforward. When I was much younger, I often played games similar to the one I made,and remembering that helped me a little to create it. From playing them, I was able to think about how most of the code would be made, and make it. Over the summer before 6th grade, I took a coding course at a nearby college, and that helped a little bit, even though we did not use Scratch in that course. I also knew that I prefer using W, A, S, and D to move instead of the arrow keys, even though I don't play many video games anymore. Some of my code is on the left.



My game is a very simple, easy one. It does have a few bugs that I attempted to fix, but was (sadly) not able to. In the game, you are a ghost and you must chase a bowl of cheesy puffs. As long as you are touching the cheesy puffs, you are getting points. Therefore, you must get a lot (235) points to win. All of which you must do on the moon, adding to the weirdness of the game. I rarely make anything this strange, but I felt like it this time.

I enjoyed making both of the featured games, but I struggled with both of them. I struggled the most with the first game, because I was new to Scratch. My introduction to Scratch basically felt like this: " Here's this coding program called Scratch, so make an account, it's similar to Code.org, now make a game". I was given help by adults, however. ( Almost all of my help came from my parents and the internet). The most difficult bug for me to fix was one in which when my square in my second game landed, it would wait a fraction of a second, then sink a little bit into the ground. I forget how I fixed it or what I changed, but it took me a long time to figure it out. The one thing in my game that I am proud of, though, is a gravity engine. A gravity engine, as the name suggests, simulates real gravity, because a box jumping from platform to platform is very realistic. I'm actually not sure if it works, but I copied my teachers, gravity engine, so it should work.

Invention Commercial

Our last GT project was making commercial for a product we made up. I worked with the same people I worked with on the composition technique project, Kacie and Adelina. Our main goal was just to make an informative (but fake) commercial for our product. The finished commercial is up above. Our product is a battery powered butter dish called the Butterquick. Personally, I am not happy with how the commercial came out, but I was absent for a day, so I could not influence it at all that day. Below is the plan for the commercial which we  didn't exactly follow. Below THAT, is the results from a poll the class took.

This section of my blog will be about our best "team moment". To be honest, I don't know exactly what "team moment" means. I guess I'll just talk about our most productive moment, since in school projects that is how I would determine if one time working with my team is better than another. I think that the most productive time in our project was when I went to Kacie's house to film. Although Adelina wasn't there, we got a lot of video. In Adelina's place, we used Kacie's brother, Austin. (Not the best actor).

In our teams post-production (editing) time, we had a few difficulties, but overcame them. One problem was the audio. In a few shots, whoever was filming was fairly far away, and we couldn't hear anything. That was a very easy fix, though. All we had to do was adjust the audio to a whatever level we wanted it at. We did the same thing if the audio was too quiet. I was absent for a day, though, so I don't know what happened on that day, other than the project was finished. It probably would have been easier if we had assigned each one of a specific task, but being the geniuses that we are, we obviously didn't, so most of it was mayhem.

Composition Scavenger Hunt

In GT class, we recently did something called a "composition scavenger hunt". The first thing we all did  was form groups of three, each with there own number. Then each group got a laminated paper with examples and descriptions of a bunch of different composition techniques. If a group had the numbers 1 through 10, they had film using certain techniques. If they were 11 through 20, they had to film other techniques. The most important technique, in my opinion, is "high angle". If you couldn't figure out what that is from the name, it an angle in which the camera is higher than the subject and gives the viewer a sense of superiority. I think that it is the most important because it is the main shot used for sports and other large events,to give the audience a good view of what is happening. It can also be used for close-up things like interviews by putting the camera close the speaker but just a little bit above them to give it the high angle perspective.

Now  I will tell you about which technique I think is the most difficult to use, and how I can use more of it. I think that POV, or "point of view", is the most difficult. POV is where you see through the eyes of the subject, or to put it simpler, you see what the subject is seeing. I think that it is the most difficult because of multiple different reasons. First of all, it is an awkward and difficult position to hold a camera in. It is also difficult to make a POV shot look good. POV is also a limited technique, as far as what you can film. For example, if you were to film skateboarding from POV, because the camera can not be placed directly in the skater's eye, (yet), the camera would be a bit in front of the skater's eye, you would not be able to see the board in most instances. The same goes for most sports, excluding, maybe, tennis. I do have an idea about how I can use it more, though. I would like to use it in more basic things, like comedy skits. That way you would be able to see everything you needed to see, and would have an uncommon sense of what the character is feeling, that you normally don't get in videos.

As I mentioned earlier, we all worked in teams of three. I was with two girls named Kacie and Adelina. We didn't really assign one specific job to each person, instead we rotated and switched jobs for each clip. For example, I would film Kacie  or Adelina doing something for one of the techniques, then one of them would film me doing something for another technique. We wanted to make sure our audio was clear, so

what we did is one of us would film very close to someone's mouth while they were describing one of the composition techniques. Then we used iMovie to put the audio over a video showing the technique matching the one in the audio. We used iMovie for all of the editing, and we did so on Kacie's computer.

Cracking The Code

In GT class, we have recently done something new, and quite exiting. We did...(drumroll please)... CODING! We didn't do the hardcore, from scratch, write the script coding, but we worked with a program for beginners. Coding is actually much more common than a lot of people realize. It's in our banking, indirectly in most industries, and many other important things. The thing is, though, that not very many people actually know how to code! Personally, I think that coding is something everybody should know how to do. Maybe not as advanced as people who's job it is to code, but should at least know how to do things like create a very basic website. I feel like that because it's in so many different and very important things. If something suddenly goes wrong with one of those things, we should all know how to fix it! And I'm sure some people would try to abuse knowing how to code, but if everyone knew how, we could all stop them.

Now, I shall tell you about my first experience with coding. It was actually NOT in GT class! The first time I ever did any real coding was in a summer course, between 5th and 6th grade. It was on a college campus, but I was learning beginner things. I was in a class with about twenty other kids, and we all had a lot of fun. Not all of the kids actually paid attention and learned, though. One kid just sat with his feet up on a chair and listened to music off of Youtube for most of the two week class. We made multiple games, all of which were fairly basic. I made a top-down shooter with different types of enemies and mazes as well as power ups, a top-down car chase games, another top-down  game in which you must fend off attacking airplanes by shooting at them, and a games in which you must guide a parachuting cow through mazes it falls through while collecting coins, and, in the end, reaching the ground. I made them by doing things like setting variables on the characters action and on what button was pressed. That means if one thing happened, it would cause something else to happen. For example, in my top down-shooter, if you were touched by a zombie or a guard, you lost a certain amount of health, which you could gain back by walking into an image of a heart you find every once and a while in a maze. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the program I used, but I had a lot of fun.

It seems my committed readers have reached the last paragraph. EVER. Just kidding! It's just the last paragraph in this post. The subject for this  paragraph is "If I could design any program or game"... I would design a social media app and website. But it wouldn't be like any social media website. It would be strictly for people who all share a surprisingly  common hobby of mine. I'm not going to tell you what the hobby is, but I will say it is legal, common, and many people make jobs and livings off of it. I would be the moderator, which means I would go through all the content and make sure it is all related to the hobby, and not offensive in any sexual or racial way. After a certain number of unrelated posts, say... 4 or five, depending on how unrelated they are, whoever posted them all would be kicked out for a certain amount of time, and if they got temporarily kicked out twice, then they would be banned permanently. Unlike Vine, your videos could be as long as you wanted, and the app would would have a built in video and photo editor, as well as multiple chat rooms.

My Humorous Monologue

MeredithC_Comedy from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

From my comedy project, I have learned many things. First of all, I learned how to use a certain kind
of camera. I used it to help film my classmate doing his comedic monologue. Mainly, I learned about writing and presenting comedy. It was honestly a bit harder than I thought, but it was quite fun. The hardest part was finding a good subject to write about. What I learned from the writing, though, is to go over my monologue multiple times, joke by joke, and try to make each one  as funny as possible. I also learned about timing while I was filming my comedic monologue. I learned not to fly through each joke really fast, and to have a rhythm to your delivery. I am also currently learning more and more about using iMovie, which I think is pretty fun. One of the most important things I learned about in filming comedy is called pad. I'll tell you about that next. OR WILL I? ( Cue dramatic sound effects). YES. I WILL.

Pad is a very important part of filming anything. It is used as a precaution for clips that are either too short in the end, or cut off, (basically meaning to short), in the begging. Adding pad to your clips is actually very easy and simple. To add pad to your clips, you start a few seconds before the thing you want to film happens, and wait a few seconds after it's happened. In my GT class, we have been adding pad by starting filming, saying "rolling", then saying "three, two, one, action." At the the end, we just wait a few seconds before we stop filming. After we import the clips, we can trim out the pad, or leave some in if it the clips are too long or short. Basically, by doing absolutely nothing for a few seconds before and after you start filming, you are adding pad.

Here is my joke plan for the making of my video.

Now don't you go off thinking "oh, I'm going to make myself a video just like that kid Callum, and it'll just take me one day!" No. That's not how it works. It had many challenges, and I'll describe some of those now, along with some other things. I think the biggest challenge was editing it in Imovie. That's because I didn't have much time to do it because of a misunderstanding, but once I was able to edit, I had to hurry, and it was difficult. I had never used Imovie before, so it  was difficult, but I learned a lot. The easiest part, though, was writing the actual script. That part was very fun, and it was something I had hoped we got to do in school for years. The only hard part of that was picking a subject to write about, then I just went to work and had fun. I do think that there could be improvements, however. I think that I could have had more stable videos, (although some shots were deliberately shaky), and clearer audio. The audio is a bit unclear because I filmed outside, but I think it is okay. In class, we watched each others finished videos, and graded them based on a curriculum that we had. Below are my grade results from the other kids. The chart is a little uneven, though, so you need to look at the numbers and grades to your left of the green bars. As you can see, I did pretty well, and I'm very glad I got the results I did. CHIAO!

Comedy Writing

Having a good sense of humor is a very important character trait in comedy. If you don't have a good and certain sense of humor, you just won't really be funny. What I mean by certain is you should have a certain theme to each skit you make. For example, you wouldn't want to have a dry, dull sense of humor then start jumping around, yelling, and acting very expressive at the end of your act. Your sense of humor is part of your act, so if people see you going from dry to expressive humor it won't be as fun to watch. I actually prefer dry humor than any other kind. Although if you are going to present with that type of humor, the jokes need to be really good, so if you are a new comedian, it would be good to be at least a bit expressive. In my GT class at school, I have been working on a comedy routine, and I have been sticking with the dry humor theme, and it's been lots of fun. I do dry humor partially because I prefer watching comedians do it to expressive and crazy humor, but also because when I am doing expressive humor, it is no fun for me. Believe me, I tried. But the jokes just aren't funny for me when I'm doing expressive humor. I'm not sure why, but it just feels unnatural and not funny. Anyway, I'll stop ranting about not being able to do expressive humor, and I'll give you some tips on writing a funny narrative!

One very important thing in comedy writing is picking your audience. For example, you would not want to tell jokes saying bikers are annoying at a biker group. You also would not want to tell sexist jokes against women at an all women group. Another tip is that you should review your work and modify the scripts for each performance. That means you should go over your script sentence by sentence multiple times. Explore every aspect of each joke, and think about what would make it funnier. An extremely important part of comedy is presentation. You should practice your routine multiple times before actually performing. That way you have something called delivery. Delivery is the way you present your jokes, like what words you put the emphases on, and your body language. However insignificant it may seem, delivery is a very important part of comedy. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of jokes, and the build up. Smaller, less funny jokes should have less build up than the bigger, harder hitting jokes. The harder hitting jokes should be fewer than the little ones and well spaced. The biggest laugh, though, should be at the end. That helps end the whole performance with a bang. The last tip I'm going to give you is to return often to one subject throughout the whole routine, especially in the last, biggest joke. It is good to pick a common subject that everyone will know about, such as Pop Tarts, bowling, or going to the dentist. If you pick an uncommon subject, it is more likely that people won't get the jokes. I hope those tips help you with creating a comedy skit! If you want to, that is. Maybe you don't like comedy. That would be lame. But it's possible. You probably wouldn't have read this far if you didn't, but it's still possible.

I believe my comedic monologue is funny for multiple reasons. For starters, a school cafeteria is a very common thing, and it is easy to work with, so I did not have a very hard time making my monologue. A stereotypical school cafeteria has very bad food, so I made that part of my monologue. Overall, I think it is funny mostly because it is relatable, especially for kids. Also, it talks about stuff that isn't made up, which I think makes it better. Although some parts are not necessarily true, it is still about realistic things. Those are the main reasons I think it is funny. It is simple, dry, realistic, and relatable. Thanks for reading, and goodbye! ( Until my next blog).

Motivational Poster

In my GT (gifted and talented) class at school, we have made a motivational poster.For my motivational poster, I had to do many things. First I had to put my

personal quotes in a Photoshop document. They also needed to be in two different text layers. Behind them, I needed my three personal representation images from Google+, as well as a portrait of my face. The text needed to be kerned to be more visually pleasing and fit the entire page. It also needed to stand out against the pictures, so I added effects such as drop shadow, bevel and emboss, and outer glow. The whole thing needed to have a triadic color scheme, so I got help, and learned how to make one and put it on my images. They still needed to have visual balance, though, so I adjusted things like curves.

When I was actually doing it, there were many steps. First, I opened Photoshop and made a document. Then, I copy-pasted my personal quotes and manifesto into it, and kerned the text with a certain tool so it was more visually pleasing and fit the whole page. Next, I put my images behind the text as a background by saving them into my file, and dragging them into Photoshop. Keep in mind that throughout this whole process I got help from the person next to me, who was super helpful. Anyway, after that I added affects to the text so that I could see it better against the background images, and to make it more interesting. Finally, I created a triadic color scheme for the whole thing, with the help of the person sitting next to me. I had to tweak that a lot so that I could still see the pictures clear enough, but also make have a visible effect on it. For that, I mostly used my "curves" layer.

I think the biggest challenge overall was making my triadic color scheme work. That was where I got the most help from the person next to me. At first, I didn't even know how to make a triadic color scheme in Photoshop, but they had done it last year, so they knew how. It was tough for me to get the right colors, the right intensity, and other factors correct, so that it looked good. I think that I could have improved the poster, though. The way our grading worked was that my teacher looked at my poster for various things, and I was missing one. As I told you earlier, I needed two different text layers for my manifesto and my personal quotes. I only had one text layer, though, so I got 7 out of 8 possible points. That means I got an "A", which is good, but I would rather have figured out how to make it two layers and get 8 than 7 points. Even the very helpful person next to me didn't know how to do it, because of the way that my text was shaped. Part of my quotes shared a line with the start of my manifesto, so we didn't know how to make them two different layers. I think that was the only way I could've improved, and I am proud of myself and very happy with the way it turned out. Here are pictures of my text layer and image layers with no effects on them, and the final product! I hope reading it inspires you as much as making it inspired me!( Which is a lot, by the way). Thanks for reading!

Personal Manifesto

Hi! My name is Callum, and this is my blog! Here are five interesting things about me! One, I have a Youtube channel, a Vine, a Google plus, and now this Blog. Two, I have unusually long hair for a boy. Three, I like skating, soccer, and basketball, but I like skating the best, I also have a strong fandom for Harry Potter. Four, three of my top artists to listen to are The Beastie Boys, Eminem, and Nirvana. And five, I enjoy gaming, making and developing games, typing, and basically anything that has to do with computers and technology.

Here are a list of personal quotes, made by me, that drive me everyday, and I hope they will inspire you to do great things! By giving up on a goal, you are giving up more on yourself than anything else. If you are not stressed about anything, you should start paying attention to the world. If you are acing everything you do, you are doing the wrong things. You should be preparing for the future, not getting comfortable now, because in the future you will think back and wish you could be happy then, not now.

Personal Manifesto: Work hard now, tomorrow, and every day. Do whatever good you can. Your future depends on today everyday. Play hard and learn everyday. Do anything you can to achieve your dreams. Find what you like, and devote your life to it. Don't act like just one type of person, do whatever you like. A day without fun is a day wasted. By following in another's tracks, you leave no footprints. Be the black sheep in the herd. Challenge yourself. If you do something, give 100%.

I believe that my manifesto applies to you because those are the thoughts, ideas, and precedents that drive me forward in life, and I think that they are things that should inspire everyone and drive them on in life. I am inspired by them, and I hope they inspire you too. They inspire me too do things that I want to do and make something good out of every situation. One particular part inspires me to create and do something that is different and new. I want to inspire you, too, to chase your dreams and set big goals for yourself. I want it to make you an ambitious, hard working, good person by giving you that manifesto.

Here are three images that symbolize me:

I chose this because I am a bibliophile with an eclectic personality, and books tell many stories, like my personality. I specifically chose Harry Potter books because magic is real and there is nothing you can do about that. One of my four cats represents me because like him, I am small, fast, funny, and quite smart.( Not to brag. I don't like people who brag a lot).



I chose this because I prefer being on cement better than anything else, I am creative( referencing the entire skating culture, not the individual boards), and I do not break easily.


I hope you liked this blog, it was just an introduction and there is more to come!