#uhwoacm

[kuleana--does-anyone-care]

Hello everyone!

I might come back here and post a social media page for the Kuleana project. But I haven't set one up yet. Oops~

Take care y'all. It's been good ^_^

[heslava-uhwoacm]

FINAL REFLECTION (Week 15)

We are almost reaching the end, giving you my final thoughts as we are sprinting forward!

Mahalo piha kākou for following + supporting me on my Senior Capstone Project journey <3

This is just the beginning.

[nakoainterns-blog]

WEEK 1-2 at PBS HAWAIʻI

As someone who grew up with PBS as their babysitter, it took me the first two days of my internship to get out of fan boy mode, realize that I’m getting school credit for this, and gear my mindset into contribution mode.

 [This station is beautiful and always smells brand new every time I go into work!]

 Hiki Nō is the nation’s first statewide, student-produced television show, which features stories in various communities where the school is based.  Hiki Nō is also the only show on PBS Hawaiʻi, which produces a new episode weekly.

 I’m currently shadowing the assistant producer/editor of the show, Nikki Miyamoto, who is a master in the craft of broadcast editing.  She not only edits the show, but the promos as well as all of the web content associated with Hiki Nō. I’m learning that editing shows for broadcast are an entirely different beast compared to editing for projects that I’ve bee involved with in the past. There are parameters present for broadcast edits such as having certain length of black screen at the beginning as well as a title screen, which also follows a particular format as well.

 I’ve also been assigned to work on a #specialproject for Hiki Nō dealing with pronunciation; correct pronunciation of the showʻs name, “Hiki Nō.”

Leslie Wilcox, the CEO of PBS Hawaiʻi, has made it a point to enforce a zero-tolerance policy on the mispronunciation of Hawaiian words.  The kids are pronouncing hiki nō as, “hickey-no” as opposed to the correct way which is, “hee-kee-no---.”  Although this is something that doesnʻt directly relate to my concentration, Iʻm finding this to be a fresh experienee for me to find ways for people to pronounce words correctly.  To be clear, I am working on a visual way to relate this information for future students and teachers of the Hiki Nō program.

[mandyquitog]

Senior capstones are done✔️. Now Graduation time on Saturday🎓🎓. @uhwoacm

[nakoafromkaneohe]

Paying It Forward Oath

Not only am I more optimistic about my abilities as a designer after taking this class but I also revere the design industry upon realizing the power design has.  I am pledging to design informatively and thoughtfully so that society doesn’t have to double-take and misinterpret public service announcements!

After taking this course, I think that I can describe myself as a designer with a little more weight to it as opposed to before I enrolled in Art 311.   As a creative media major, I think that the influence that a course can have, such as this one, grants us the opportunity to make an impact on society in a progressive and beneficial way.  Three motives challenged me as a designer to make the final outcome of the projects and assignments in this class more meaningful which were intention, research, and outcome.  I believe each one gave purpose to the assignment and aided the focus that I desperately need at times to finish things on a timely manner.  These are motives that I believe will aid me in future projects especially in the field of design and allow me to make positive change in society.

Knowing clearly what oneʻs intention is for whatever you are designing gives you a purpose for doing the project.  An example of this would be with the cause advertisement assignment. I had to be set on not only what I wanted the cause to stand for but why.  I had to find something that not many would be against.  Saving the ʻohiʻa seemed to make a lot of sense because it’s a locally based epidemic and it was around Merrie Monarch week.

Research has never seemed so important to me until I took this class.  That could be a lot to say having taken four writing intensive classes so far.  One could say all one does is research in those classes.  However, when designing something, especially for public spaces, research is the tool that makes the designing process smoother from beginning to end.  The Age-Friendly Cities Project is a good example where research held the entire project up.  After we figured out what we wanted our project to be about, we dove into possible solutions to our problem.  Research gave us examples of what others had done and implemented in public spaces and made our idea more tangible.  Also, when giving a presentation, the more research gathered and learned makes answering questions a little easier.

I believe the outcome of what I design culminates both intention and research.  I now stop and question myself during the designing process if what is being implemented is helping my vision as what I intended for it be and also if there is enough research done to have the outcome I would like to have.  How will my design influence the future even after it is implemented?  What is the lifespan of this particular design?  These are questions influenced by the importance of realizing the impact that a design can have on society.

[kuleana--does-anyone-care]

capstone update #5

Hello! We're in the final stretch now... A lot has happened since my last post. Sorry, but I'm really not the blogging type.

So! Over the past two or three weeks, I've cut together my "extended trailer" for my doc. My goal was to have something between 3-5 minutes, and ended up with something around 4 minutes 40 seconds. I figured this was the way to go since there is so much information to share on the topic of Red Hill. If I'm making a trailer for something this complicated, I need to make sure that viewers are getting all of the context they need to understand why the issue is important.

The biggest struggle was figuring out what would make it into the trailer. I spent a lot of hours going through my footage, and collecting public domain clips from DVIDS, the "Defense Visual Information Distribution Service". (Anyone can use content from DVIDS: dvidshub.net is the URL. All of its content is produced by the US Military.)

After much hemming and hawing, one night it just came to me. I put together the first draft of my trailer, and it restored hope and light to my world. 😂

I got feedback from 9 people about it. Only two people had doubts, but I've been working to address the things they mentioned. Everyone else really liked it, which was very helpful to know. When you're editing something, you start to question whether it makes sense after viewing it 20 or 50 times over.

I have a corkboard that I used earlier this semester to help me wrap my mind around all of the different parties and topics involved in this Red Hill story. After making the first rough cut of my trailer, I decided to use the corkboard to visualize and rearrange my trailer's narrative. This was absolutely necessary, because of the sheer amount of sequences and clips I had prepared. Last weekend, I spent a lot of time standing in front of the board, trying to figure out what I could move, and where I could place new clips. It was well worth it, and I can't imagine trying to do this kind of work a different way. (Thanks Professor Farinella and Gabby Navalta for recommending this method!)

All in all, I'm really pleased with how my trailer is coming out. It has changed a lot over the past week! The storyline is mostly the same, but I managed to add in a lot more information at just the right moments. The narrative feels cohesive to me, and the people who have seen the new version agree. I did not, in fact, mess up the magic I had going in the original cut. Relief!

Until next time, please enjoy these photos which document my trusty corkboard's metamorphosis over the past week. I will treasure them always.

[kuleana--does-anyone-care]

capstone update #1

TO REITERATE: I'm planning to produce a 30-min documentary film.

Hello, I'm finally here to update my blog! I meant to do this last week, but didn't... I was struggling to wrap my head around this project and what I'll be doing this semester.

I think I'm a little crazy for taking this on. Sometimes it feels like too much, but I certainly won't be quitting.

My first reality check was trying to populate the workback plan. It was a necessary step, but so difficult. I had to come back to it a few times to get it sorted out. I always feel like I'm overlooking something when I'm planning out a project, and I've never tried to produce something of this magnitude before. But I sat down with my workback plan again tonight and finally have it in good shape. Coming back to it has helped me process what I'll need to do, and I feel pretty certain now that I'm not forgetting anything. I also recreated my workback plan in Notion, because I don't think I'll be able to stay on track if I only look at it on Google Sheets. (The formatting... the lack of color-coding and other viewing modes... Nah, homie, I can't. TwT) I also gave myself dates to complete things by. I know I can work to a deadline, and now I have a ton of them. Isn't that fantastic!

Anyway, I'm really happy with my organization on this project now that I have all my tasks thought out, written down, and with dates. The tricky part now will be keeping the Google Sheet updated according to the Notion.

Right now I have a bunch of tasks marked as "in progress." There's so much I need to do in the next two weeks, mostly making lists of people and Instagram accounts to reach out to. I already follow a lot of accounts but I have not created a master list for myself to keep track of them all. Once I have my list, I can start drafting up messages to send to them, asking if they might want to participate in my doc, or could put me in connection with people who would. I'm kind of worried that I don't have much to show for myself, a presence, or a reason why they should trust me, that kind of thing. But I'll try it anyway.

I also need to draft emails/ send texts/ make phone calls to people I know, who said in one way or another that they might be able to lend a voice to my project. Cast out a bunch of lines and see if I get any bites. 🎣

Another thing is, I want to find videos on YouTube and Vimeo of the ʻOnipaʻa Peace March that happened a couple weeks ago. I wasn't able to go myself, but I'd really like to incorporate footage of it into my film. Maybe someone would be willing to let me use a few of their shots. If not a person, maybe one of the local news outlets. I also need to do some research. I have a playlist of some news clips about the Red Hill water crisis from when I made my 5-minute piece about it in Fall '22. But there have been updates since then, and I need to collect even more. I'm not 100% sure what or how much I'll do with it yet. But my creative process is 'collect all the stuff, look at and absorb it all, ???, get vision, create the vision'... so step one is gathering more things. :)

Also want to find more PDFs. Last semester, I found some studies and national news articles about Red Hill, pollution by the Navy/ issues similar to what's happening here, but my research topic was persuasion, so I spent the vast majority of my time on that. There's definitely more out there, and I want to find it because I'm thinking of using scans/ screenshots in my film.

Oh, and I'm planning to request titles from ʻUluʻulu by 2.16. Gonna try my absolute best to stay on top of the deadlines I've set for myself. LONG POST: FINITO!!!

[kuleana--does-anyone-care]

capstone update #3

Hello, tumblr! I am finally back with my third update. At first I was waiting for something noteworthy to happen, but then a lot of things started happening all at once. I could have written this update two weeks ago, but I've been caught up. I have great news! I was able to get in touch with two local leaders who will allow me to interview them. One is Ernie Lau, Chief Engineer at the Board of Water Supply. You may have seen him on the news a couple of years ago; in 2022 he led the Walk for Wai protest march to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. He has also addressed the public many times with updates about Red Hill. Speaking to Ernie has been a big part of my idea for this project, so I'm really excited for this opportunity. The other interview is with Wayne Tanaka, the Chapter Director of the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi. (If you are unaware, the Sierra Club is an organization focused on protecting and preserving the natural environment.) Prior to his position at the Sierra Club, he served in the Public Policy Program at OHA, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. I'm looking forward to hearing his thoughts on Red Hill and our environment. Also hoping he might have an opinion to share about the US Military's involvement here. Another thing I did was receive my first batch of ʻUluʻulu titles (archival videos) and watch them! The first set was about 3 or 3.5 hours worth of footage. Some of it was produced, but most were production materials -- unedited recordings. I took detailed notes of what I saw, with timestamps, in order to keep everything straight. Part of the process is submitting timestamps of clips I'm interested in using in my doc. Then I send those to the archivist (shoutout to Trisha!!! <3) who does some paperwork and sends in a request to the materials' owners. (She undoubtedly does a lot more that I am unaware of.) It's been tough to find a good workflow for this process, because:

1) in order to view full-length files, I must first request links where the titles can be streamed to me

2) since I don't have a downloaded copy of it, I am unable to drop it into Premiere and begin working with it/ placing markers on it

3) ^this is my usual workflow for working with footage and building it into something, so it's been a learning process

4) the ʻUluʻulu player does not support changing the speed of playback

5) it takes time to get approved to use clips, and longer if you want to request "screeners," full-length files that are downloadable

6) you never know if your request will be approved until it happens, so you could be putting a lot of time and energy into something that won't pan out. (It's a gamble, which can be disheartening)

...#6, I learned that the hard way recently. Since I waited so long between posts, let me save that for next time. Oh yeah, I will have to tell you about the FTAC meeting, too. For now, I'll keep working through the second batch of archival videos I requested. My doc's structure is still not settled yet, but it's slowly solidifying with each new ʻUluʻulu video I see.

[kuleana--does-anyone-care]

capstone update #2

Hello everybody! I see people making some really good progress with their capstones. Unfortunately, I am not yet one of them. I wish I had more to report, but I really don't.

I'm still behind schedule, and I haven't completed all the tasks that I laid out for myself last time. I still need to keep working on my interview questions, and send messages to people I want to include in my documentary. It's happening this week, PERIOD.

I still have things swimming around in my head that have not been written down. I'm not sure why, but I'm having the hardest time getting this thing off the ground. It's all still a little incomprehensible to me, how this will all get done. I have that "paralysis" feeling, and it's very bad. It's kind of unlike me, too. I thought I got better at this these past few years. :/

It's not that I haven't done anything lately, I've been busy working on other stuff, like regular homework, outside jobs, and a ton of things related to my school club, WOBA (we host open mics on campus! Look for us at Pueo Pilina!!)... I just feel stuck in a loop with my capstone project. I still have faith that it will come together one way or another (read: for better or worse), but the stress is definitely building.

It doesn't help that I'm setting all my own deadlines for this documentary project. When I think about tasks related to my other responsibilities, those deadlines are very "hard" and "real" in my mind, because they are controlled by someone else. Whereas, the deadlines I set for capstone-related tasks seem more flexible. Even though they really aren't.

My plan for this week: keep my head down and WORK

--I'll update again next week >:o

[heslava-uhwoacm]

Pre-Production (Weeks 6-7) Pt. 2

PART 2—

Struggles + Transparency—

It isn't new by now that slow respondents has affected the progress of my project. Though at this point, I think I have to come to terms with just settling on the interviewees I have already for the time being.

One of my interviewees though, has been kind of hard to communicate with them on when to meet up for our initial meeting. It is because she is an instructor as well as a specialist/coordinator in the Education department at UHWO, so I don't really expect her to respond to me so quickly. But because our initial meeting is on the same day she teaches an afternoon class, I had to find a time that would work for her so I wouldn't be more of an inconvenience to her schedule. 

Being halfway through the semester, I am in serious PANIC MODE. I mentioned this to Sharla, and even though I try to reassure myself I’ll be okay, I definitely cannot get past how far in we are. I’ve definitely been feeling anxious about everything especially when I hear that others are making more progress than I am. And this is the case too because of how slow my progress was in the first couple weeks.

Currently—

As of right now, I am changing up my approach in how I’ll work towards production. I’m gonna be tweaking my interview questions a bit based on suggestions I was given.

Speaking of production, I am trying to push forward into partial production of my introduction episode. In the intro episode, I will be introducing myself and my topic, why I chose it, the whole background to it as well as re-capping my Pre-Capstone experience. I have been going back and gathering videos of me working on my research paper and just doing research in general. I am also creating a tentative script that I’ll be reading off of generally on things to cover in the intro episode. Aside from that, I of course will be at least creating a shot list for the intro episode

Connecting + Reaching Out—

In Week 7, I was able to meet with one of the CM instructors Sam Farinella. We met in person on Thursday (2/23) afternoon, so that I could look to her for guidance with my DocuSeries. Our meeting was quite short as I came from work prior to our meeting, and had to return back to work by a certain time. Despite our short meeting, Sam was able to give me a lot of suggestions from the interview aspect to filming as well. One of the best suggestions she gave me was to ask the same questions to each interviewee regardless, because you never know if one person might have a great story about one thing over another person. Since the meeting was shorter than I wanted it to be, I will be meeting with her again consistently throughout. Might be meeting with her again this week.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 2/28) afternoon, I will finally be meeting with Stephanie Kamai. In our initial meeting, I intend to try and get to know more about her and her background in the HIDOE. I will also discuss my project in depth so that we can both see how she can contribute best towards my project. And I will also be able to get a better feel of what topics regarding the HIDOE she can discuss in my DocuSeries based on her personal experiences or even experiences of those around her during her time she had spent as a teacher and administrator.

What's to Come?—

As mentioned in the above section, I will be meeting with Stephanie Kamai tomorrow afternoon.

Aside from connecting, I will be pushing into production of my introduction episode. It will just be filming of myself and having to get b-roll shots. May or may not shoot on campus for b-till but will have to do release forms for it first.

[heslava-uhwoacm]

Pre-Production (Weeks 4-5)

Struggles + Transparency—

At this point of the capstone project, I wasn't that much productive in Weeks 4-5. Still having slow respondents has put me at a halt which has been quite discouraging and has personally shifted my mind to focus on my other classes, and away from capstone. This has especially been the case as I have had back to back deadlines for projects in other classes.

Aside from other academic responsibilities, my work flow was quite thrown off and disturbed as my workspace at home was taken over by family who came in to visit for over a week. I did my best to still input my time primarily into homework to stay on track, but unfortunately that effort did not do so much for me. Moving my entire workspace entirely temporarily, as well as sacrificing some time to spend with my family that came in pushed me off schedule not just for capstone, but for all my classes as well.

In the duration that I had family visiting, I also was dealing with a lot at home. Without going too in depth, I have been dealing with the mental illness of one of my parents for quite a while now. It definitely was difficult to be away from my workspace at home where it is peace and quiet, and move to a room where I had to be around that parent more. This constantly is a worry for me when thinking about passing my classes, as life happens.

Currently—

I continue to await responses from my contacts. Aside from waiting on responses, I am continuing to create questions and laying out my plans for my DocuSeries. I am trying to breakdown what I would like in each episode. Realistically looking at my timeline, I am now planning to pivot away from the initial 5-7 episodes I had proposed last semester. I am now planning to have just an introduction. episode and possibly 3-4 episodes following that. As I try to lay out plans for my DocuSeries, I am continuously researching about documentaries and watching a variety of them as well. Being in the CM 402 class right now is quite helpful, as I am always watching documentaries and archival footage, therefore giving me ideas for my own film.

Connecting + Reaching Out— 

A bit of good news is that one of the capstone students emailed me and offered a possible contact. In the email, I was informed that this classmates wife is an elementary teacher. Upon reading this email, I responded and thanked him for his email. Additionally, I provided information about my project including my thesis and plans for my deliverable (DocuSeries), as well as the slides of my proposal presentation.

Another bit of good news is that I had someone else offer me some support in finding a contact, I am hoping that gives me some progress.

I will also be sending out an email to an important contact. It is projected to be sent out by tomorrow. I had to show my email for revisions so that my email did not contain too much information regarding my project. I try to avoid overloading information in my emails when it is just an initial email.

Whats to Come?— 

In terms of contacts, as mentioned earlier, I will be sending out an email to an important contact by tomorrow, and at the latest by this week Wednesday (2/15).

In the planning for the production of my DocuSeries, I will be reaching out to one of my teachers Sam Farinella for guidance, suggestions, and support. I am currently taking her Web Doc Series course (CM 322). It is helping my process in researching documentaries as well as my filmmaking documentaries skills.

In general, in these upcoming weeks I will be doing my best to get back on track as I am definitely behind right now. Will probably be stepping back from secular work to have additional time to catch up.

Although I will be doing my best to catch up, I will also try to give myself some recovery time due to what was explained in the ʻstruggles+transparencyʻ paragraph. Definitely the point made in last class about being kind to myself is for sure taking effect in these upcoming weeks.

[heslava-uhwoacm]

Hi everyone!

Just posting a Youtube link to my proposal presentation presented last semester for the Senior Capstone project! A bit more in depth to what my project is about + my plans.

-

"Teachers in the Pandemic" Precapstone Proposal Presentation FA 2022

[nakoainterns-blog]

Paddling forward towards new experiences.

[mandyquitog]

Senior capstone presentations are finally finished! Thank you to my teacher/advisor Sharla for everything on advising me on my courses, giving me a different perspective on design, making us spend hours flushing ideas out, and most of all pushing everyone of us to be and do our best. @uhwoacm

[nakoafromkaneohe]

WEEK 8-9 TYPOGRAPHY

I believe that my attraction towards design stems from typography.  As I recall my first interactions with a computer were diving through the different fonts that were available on my older sisterʻs high-tech Macintosh LC 575 model home computer.  I remember feeling like spent the entire day in ClarisWorks browsing and typing with different fonts like Bazooka, Chicago, and the local favorite, Old English.  

There was always something that fascinated me about typography and how it is very much a pillar with design in public spaces.  After I read the article about the influence of typeface, I wondered how could an accredited expert decide to use Comic Sans as the typeface of which presented the groundbreaking findings.  I immediately thought of my classmate from my high school English classes who insisted on using the font Papyrus as the typeface for all of the essays and papers that we had to turn in and these were AP courses.  His mentality was that his papers were well-thought out and written (which they were) and he didn’t feel it should make a difference on his final grade.  My teacher decided to print special copies of assignments and readings for my classmate using the font Impact.  This is a very bold and tall font used mostly for headlines.  I tried to read it but I got a headache. Lol. My classmate then understood that it wasn’t he that was reading and grading his assignments and learned why using certain fonts are used for reading text.

I absolutely agree with the article about how typeface influences society.  I, like my high school English teacher, would automatically discount any accredited, extraordinary findings if it were presented to me in Comic Sans.  Time and place people, time and place!  Does this, however, open up an entirely new conversation about typeface discrimination???

[nakoafromkaneohe]

Blow your “phat cloudz” elsewhere please...

i have nothing against people who smoke cigarettes or vape e-cigs other than the second-hand smoke it produces, especially cigarettes.  That smoke is super nasty.  I remember when e-cigs first became popular and thatʻs what a good amount of incoming freshmen were getting into at Windward Community College.  Next thing you know, Iʻm walking down a hallway in a building smelling starburst candy in the air.  I walk into my classroom greeted by the smell of “white gummy bear.”  It was only when I seen a big cloud of smoke in the classroom did I realize that the smell was being generated from an electronic cigarette and it was essentially the breath of the vapee.  Gross.  People canʻt smoke cigarettes in buildings so why would it seem ok to vape?  

This sign was designed to target those who think vaping is acceptable on campus grounds.  I walked through the courtyard finding students “blowing phat cloudz” (as my younger cousins put it.) frequently along with the occasional brave cigarette smoker.  This sign features both vaping and smoking as equal (even though it is argued that vaping is considered the healthier alternative.) to demonstrate that neither are acceptable on campus grounds.