Career Exploration Visit: Beyond Pix

This year, for my Career Exploration Visit, I was able to go to Beyond Pix, in San Francisco. This experience, was very interesting, i have learned a lot about production, and the hectic and fast-paced it can be. Every component of the product for the client, is important, the client, in which the work for to make a product, needs to me happy with the finished work. All the components need to be taken with consideration; with timing, lighting and the little things with the talent, and set. And everybody is working to make the finished product satisfactory for the client, whoever it may be, whatever they want, they get it for their clients or business, whatever they need to make their business successful, is what Beyond Pix does.

Our host, Laura Hart, was very informative, with her colleagues which also made the visit even better to experience. The one factor that interested me the most was the lighting, and how important it is to take advantage of the sun light, when you have it. Otherwise, if it is gone, you would have to use so many other things to imitate the sunlight to place on the talent. If that does not work, you would have to use editing programs, i.e. Final Cut, however getting the lighting perfect the first time, during production, is more natural and better to work with, because it is easier and less expensive to finish. However the lighting, is not the only thing that makes the product better, it is the staff behind it, and what they do to make it perfect. But, to get to the position, Laura, and her colleagues, are at, they probably started as a Producer’s Assistant, but they needed to know about almost everything about production, because they never knew what they needed to do.

The job, sounds very difficult, but it seems like the environment, seems very relaxed, because I have had little experience with my internship at Contra Costa TV. Were we had different clients, and they wanted to broadcast that they wanted, but it was more government business, then entertainment issues. Overall the trip are interesting, and interactive, and I will remember this for long time.

 

Music Video: In The Summertime

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/16437574]

 

 

Silent Movie: anne’s STALKER.

A silent movie which my group, Anne, Jesus, and Danny, and I created.

we had to create a a two minute silent film, in which we practiced different ways to film, from angles and panning. the production was the most difficult because of the different task we had to re-do and do over and over again. and post production was one of the easiest because we knew exactly what we wanted and how to create the effects we wanted. but scoring individually was difficult because i wish we had done it together and make one movie. but overall it was a fun process.

 

Who We Are…

Who We Are

 

Imperialism

The Legacy of Imperialism Presentation was so much fun, each group did well, we went through a huge stage of stress and breakdowns and it was all worth it after we presented. Our skills were put to the test when we stood in front of those judges and showed what we’ve been anticipating. Unfortunately Benin did not get funded, however we did it. We presented our best, and the outcome cannot be changed. I just want to say congratulations to the funded teams, and to Angola for placing first. During the time of the presentations we had laughs because it was over, we can finally relax and soak up the time we have left of this year. And we cant wait until next year.

 

KQED, Career Exploration Essay.

When visiting KQED, the whole worksite was very quiet and tranquil, and nothing what I had expected. However the places we were able to see, barely anyone was working. I still expected a hectic and stressful and loud environment where the employees enjoyed working. I can honestly say that the worksite was very interesting, but on that day it was very peaceful. I hoped to see a broadcast being in progress, to be aired in television. However I guess they were not doing any at the time. But I liked how we were in the middle of a live radio broadcast.

My honest opinion, I can work at a place like KQED, when it is a busy day, because I like the noisy, stressful environment. I like to be in a challenge, because that enables me to show off my skills in a professional matter. In the career visit, especially at KQED, I have learned about Suspension of Disbelief, and that people donate huge amounts of money to keep KQED running. And to work at KQED, staying in school is very important, along with knowing math will get you for in the industry.

What had surprised me when going to KQED, is suspension of disbelief, because I never knew how people watching television, get really into the show. And if one mistake happens and it is visible, they are out of the show, and back into reality. Some interesting subjects that I learned with my experience are the lighting, echoless radio rooms, and double-layered rooms. Everything I saw and absorbed is still interesting to me. I never knew that echoless rooms, existed, and if I did, I would have probably not noticed. Or how lighting effects can make you look good or bad. And lastly double-layered walls keep outside noise from coming in.

To help me prepare for this career, I should really focus on math, as they hold told us. However I think English is very important, because scripts should always be corrected. I kind of hoped to be able go on air, on a radio broadcast, because it would have been a experience never to forget. However that was not an opinion, because it would be difficult to schedule a last minute broadcast. However I was fun visiting a real television production, and public radio studio.

 

UC Berkeley Essay

Prior to our UC Berkeley field trip I had expected, us to tour the campus ourselves, and we would have the chance to see entire campus. Overall the trip was great I learned more, than I had before we went. However, there were some perks I did not favor. One was all the walking; call me lazy, but I did not like it. Second was that we did not get a lot of free time to roam around UCB campus, and Telegraph Avenue. Even though my expectations were high, they were not met, as we went to out trip. Even if it was a tour of the school, I honestly thought we were just going to roam the school, with Randy and Ms. Stirton as our guides, because they were alumni’s of UCB. However we just had two current students, and we were split into two different groups, my group had a student named Edgar, as a tour guide. Honestly the tour was not all exciting, because we only saw approximately half the campus, and we just walked in a circle. And the free roam, was not as expected, I can say openly, one hour was not enough time, with the short tour, and limited time of the trip overall. Nevertheless, with the not so exciting tour, I did however learned a lot.

Our tour guide, Edgar, was very resourceful. He immediately knew answers to our questions, and it seemed like he had done it in advance to our trip. However, what caught my eye the most was the under ground library, with around 3.5 million books, inside, and that we were standing above it. I had also learned more information, so it would make registering easier, when I apply to Berkeley. For example, the admissions, the requirements are for me to take the SAT’s, ACT’s, and etc, along with two personal response essays, that are all together 1,000 words. The students of the school are very diverse. All the students are so busy, and they have their own things going on, that they seem so committed and hardworking, which makes it more enjoyable to attend. The classes, especially freshmen year, can be filled up to 800 students. Your number of classes, depend on your credits. For example, twelve credits equal up to three to four classes. And when it comes to meeting with your professors, it is very easy, because, their offices are housed in one particular building. And teachers, are a very diverse group, because your professor, can be a graduate student, and another student, however that depends on your class.

Now the housing and campus life are great, because you have a choice to live on or off campus, or you can commute to school. However, freshmen are requested to stay on campus, at least until their second year, just to get the real college experience. And weekends are the best according to current students, because there is an event happening every weekend, which are held by other students. The cost and financial aid, for UC Berkeley is pretty pricey, but there are different ways to pay the fees. For one, you can apply for grants, where a company pay for your tuition and etc, and you do not have to pay them back, on the other hand student loans, you do, and when you graduate you will possibly still be paying for college, because you owe money. Honestly after, hearing all this information, I am looking forward to apply to UC Berkeley; however, I am going to leave my options open. And not just for the student life, but the opportunities I can have within UC Berkeley.

 

My First Semester in the DSA

My experiences with being in the DSA, for the first semester, was like a roller-coaster ride, will ups and downs, and CUUUHHHRAZZYYYY upside-downs. Along with the stressful time, especially with my other classes, DSA was fun, and it helped me to be more responsible and more organized. I have also learned new skills with, Photoshop, Graphic Design, Photography, Final Cut(HOOF Project), and were just starting with Bryce 6.1, which is a 3D design program, and were learning more skills with that. Firstly Photoshop, learning Photoshop was easy, to me it was hard not to concentrate with our tutorial pictures, my favorite out of all the pictures was the Model in Amsterdam, where we had to take two pictures and make it to ONE. Next is the Graphic Design where we had to make our own picture based on what Randy told to make, my favorite and best picture was the CD Cover where we took ten tracks and make an Album of our life. However one of my least favorite, activity, was the Photography, because of the fact that I didn’t have the chance to take as much pictures I could have, but it was okay, instead I used some of my pictures I took from my Photography Class to post up on my blog and FLKCR. Next was the most stressful time of DSA, was the HOOF project it was hard for me because my sister who is an alumni of Mt. Diablo and DSA, who had done the same thing I decided to do. However i decided to do whole completely different movie than everyone else, I did my project one my Dad and what he had been through with my mom leaving, and instead of a lot of pictures, I used a lot of recordings of my dad and sisters. Lastly, the most activity I really do not enjoy, is Bryce which is a 3D animation software, the reason I don’t enjoy it is because it is really not at all interesting to me, I mean it is fun to play around with. but overall I don’t think it is something I want to have a career with.

Examples of First Semester’s Work enjoy

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/8766498]

*The picture of Bryce 6.1 does not belong to me, I am using it for display purposes only.

Overall being in DSA, I had fun and everything was worth the stress. And through out the process I have met new friends I can count on and today was out last day of FINALS and now there over!!!!! And I cannot wait for our Imperialism project that it coming up second semester.

 

Photo Portfolio

Originally I was going to upload pictures I had took with my DSA class, however I realized that everyone was going to have all the same pictures, I had barely any pictures that I had taken, but did have a lot from my Photo class, which are the ones from above. This Portfolio assignment was easy because we went on our own when it came to the photoshop editing. I knew somethings I wanted to do that I had learn prior joining DSA, because of my sister. But there picture were noticed as the best, according to some classmates, out of all mine, so I decided to uploads them to my blog. And to view the other pictures just click on the pictures and the link will take you to my Flickr account. Enjoy the pictures

 

November 22, 2009

Sunday November 22, 2009, as my sister, Thy, is home from Sonoma State University, we were very bored today and had no plans whatsoever. So we then decided to have a Movie Day, we decided to wear our pajamas, and watch movies all day. we started at Eleven O’clock and still going on as I am writing this. We have watched five movies, and right now we are watching Ratatouille, and we went through two bags of popcorn and some extra junk food. But the reason for this post today, is that nothing is better than spending time with family, and it is especially better when were on Thanksgiving break. Family is very huge in my book, today I had a choice, either to go to my friend’s house, or stay home and hang out with my family for a Movie day, and obviously I chose my family. Family is everything, even though I have said I was thankful for family previously in another post, this post shows I am thankful for family, and I will always be thankful for my family. However today I am thankful for movies and pajamas, and popcorn.