Wānanga: Reflection Section

 Hi there!

In this blog post I will be writing a Critical Literacy text for Wānanga about the film, Guardians of the Galaxy made by Marvel. 

Title: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1

Type: Film Trailer

Director: James Gunn

Purpose: To entertain viewers

Date: 7/08/2014 (N.Z.)

Critical Literacy Question: What do the images suggest?

The images in this trailer suggest that the setting of this film is on a foreign planet and will be following a group of 5 prison escapists on their journeys. For example, we see this group of 5 fighting together in a prison riot to escape and find a ship to another planet. I believe the reasoning for this is to show that even the oddest of groups can come together and achieve what they put their mind to one way or another. 

Thanks for reading!

English: 321 RIQ

 17/02/2021

Hi there!

Today I will be doing another 31 RQ for English class. 

Recalls - 

• I remember learning about different camera shots in film and what they capture in the frame. 
• I remember learning that people are normally used to show the example of what camera shot is being used as people are all generally the same size and have the same proportions. 
• I learnt about different angles too, I learnt that  they can portray characters in a different way. For example, a low angle can be used to show a character is strong and important and better than everyone else. A high angle is used to show a person is weak and not important in the film. 
• I learnt about static images and how they can send messages. For example, we looked at 12 different signs from a typical Spanish train station, static images used for 'entry' and 'exit' were arrows pointing into and away from the box. Whereas in New Zealand, we have a green sign with big block letters saying 'entry'. For an exit sign, we have a green sign with big block letters saying 'exit' or, a green sign with a person running away. 

1 Question - 

• My question for today is, are there specific machines film makers use to create different shots in film?

Thanks for reading!

Home Economics Year 10 2021

 Hi there!

This will be my blog post for all the food I make in Home Economics. 

On the slideshow below, I will show my work.

English: 321 RIQ

 Hi there!

Today I will be writing about a new blogging strategy/system I will be using in English class this year called '321 RIQ'. Here is a quick summary of how it works: 

3 Recalls - (3 things I remember about the lesson)

2 Insights - (2 new things I learnt in the lesson

1 Question - (1 Question about something I didn't understand/would like to know more about)

Here is a 321 RIQ about my most recent English lessons:

3 Recalls - 

• I remember making sentences with the word 'disappearance' in class yesterday.
• I remember writing a story which had to include the following words:
• Fallacy
• Enigma
• Disappearance
• Suspicion 
• I also remember learning about different types of nouns.

2 Insights - 

• Something that I learnt last lesson was the definition of 'fallacy'.
• I also learnt the definition of 'enigma' last lesson too.

1 Question - 

• Something I still want to know more about is the different types of nouns as I found it interesting to learn.

Thanks for reading!

Wānanga: A School Holiday Summary

Hi there!

Are you bored out of your mind? Are you looking for something to read? Well, you've come to the right place! 

In this blog post I will be giving you a summary of my school holidays. 

At the beginning of the holidays I hung out with one of my friends from my previous school and went to a pool with them too. At this point, I was planning on having a very social school holiday by hanging out with my friends, but my holidays were probably the complete opposite; apart from a couple other occasions. 

However, I wasn't able to achieve this because I had a freak accident when doing athletics and led me to tearing two ligaments in my knee. I am not allowed to return to sports for 9-12 months AFTER surgery; something I am still waiting for. But there wasn't time for feeling sorry for myself, I had to prevail and beat my sadness by putting in hard work so I am in the best shape before my surgery. "Hard work" meaning, working out. Every. Single. Day. My physio routine consists of going on a stationary bike for 30 minutes 3 times a week, and then full body strengthening 4 times a week. 

Putting aside the damper put on my holidays, I went to a beach "close" (20 minutes) to my house about 6-7 times, and walked along the beach every single time which was a lot of fun. It was interesting going to the beach at different times, seeing the tide at different levels along the beachside. 

I also visited Nelson for a couple days towards the end of January as a holiday within my holidays. It was crazy to see how the climate was so different in Nelson compared to Christchurch, the temperature low while I was there was around 18°C; a definite high in Christchurch. This dramatic climate difference was also seen in the ocean water too. The sea was so much warmer in Nelson than in Christchurch, it shocked me when I first stepped in the water and felt the water wrap around my feet.

During the holidays I also rediscovered my love for PlayStation 2 games, most especially Tekken Tag Tournament. Tekken Tag Tournament is a fighting game, I discovered a different mode on this game which lets me unlock new characters for other modes. I unlocked 6 out 14 locked characters during the holidays. It would have been 7 out 14 characters, but unfortunately I forgot to save the game and lost the last character I unlocked because I expected it to auto-save. It did not. 

All in all, my holidays were good, I do wish I had done more but that is for the next summer holidays. 

Thanks for reading!

Art: An End-of-Term Reflection

 Hi there! 

Today I will be writing about what I have been doing in Art class the past couple of weeks.

In Art, we have been recreating and studying photographs by Slinkachu, we have also been learning about another artist, John Baldesarri. 

Slinkachu is a street artist who is from England who leaves miniature figurines out and about in bustling city scenes since 2006. He waits for real life scenarios to affect the mini figures. For example, he might leave mini figures by a melting ice block in the sun and come back later and see the results.  He has three best-selling books with his various art pieces.

John Baldesarri was a conceptual artist who influenced and transformed Los Angeles into a contemporary art place. He was an American artist who started out as a painter and then later moved on to photography and also combined them together to create his artworks.  He would paint with bright colours over black and white images. 

Earlier in the year, we learnt about focal points, leading lines and rules of thirds too. Here is an image with focal points, leading lines and rules of thirds:

Here are some of the images I made which were inspired by both Slinkachu and John Baldesarri:

This is one of my Slinkachu inspired photographs which I took. This was one of my first attempts at creating a "Slinkachu Style" photograph. I'm not really happy with the photo but it helped me take better photos later on.  

This is also a Slinkachu inspired piece of work.

You've seen the originals; here are my Slinkachu-Baldesarri images:

This was my first attempt at creating my own "John Baldesarri-Slinkachu" piece of art. 

As you can see, I have "painted" on colour in various places in the image; this is what John Baldesarri did to his photographs and I feel like I have channeled this well. 

I think I have done really well making my pieces of artwork. I am proud of the work I created over the past term, and also enjoyed creating them. I have enjoyed learning about Slinkachu, David Lethinhal & John Baldesarri. I had a lot of fun creating artwork which is inspired by them too. However, I think that if I were to do this again, I would try to incorporate more of Slinkachu's style and technique into my photos because I feel like I didn't channel it enough as I could've. In this class, I have learned:

   - How to work and gain skills on Adobe Photoshop

   - How to mix different styles of art together

   - To take good photographs on various devices (iPad, smartphones etc..)

   - About different artists and how they make their artwork. 

   - How to use Adobe Photoshop on different operating systems such as iOS and

Windows

Here's a question I'll leave you with; if you could change something I have done in the art above, what would you change? Comment that down below, just remember to be nice :)!

Thanks for reading!

Science: The Digestive System

Hi there!

In science, we have been learning about the human digestive system. In pairs, we made a presentation about the parts of the digestive system. Here is my presentation:

Thanks for reading!