Before I flew back out to San Francisco, I had the pleasure of shooting Mariel Martin and Keone Madrid’s engagement photos. These two were the funnest, weirdest, most perfect madly-in-love couple I have ever shot. It was definitely at the top of my favorite photo shoots…
Back at it, hip-hop and modern tomorrow! Goals for this semester in dance:
*Achieve 5 consecutive pirouettes
*Greater Flexibility
*Choreograph and direct Springs Production
*Teach at least 5 workshops
*Film Concept videos with dance group
*Improve overall dancing
HOW TO CHEAT ON A SCANTRON- Because i hate you all and exams are coming up , Here is a little trick to help you cheat on these scantrons for your exams. I used to do this all the time back in high school . Before i tell you how to cheat let me explain a little about scantrons. When they get ran through the machine when an answer is wrong it marks it on the side. When it is done scanning all the answers at the end it will tally how many is marked then count the score. Now how to cheat is simple. Take a chapstick because it is wax. Run it one time through the part circled in the picture. If you didnt know you cant write on wax. So when you get a wrong answer and the machine tries to mark the scantron it wont print the tally and it wont count your answer as wrong ! Simple as that. Very simple very easy. Happy cheating everyone .
OMG!! im going to do this for my next exam hahaahhhahh !!! TEACHERS WHOS SMARTED NOW ?
damn too bad we don’t have these typa scantrons -__-
o
m
f
g
does that work
wow did that person say “TEACHERS WHOS SMARTED NOW ?” LOL
anyways. most of the time when I had to do scantrons, my teachers would grade them manually which kinda defeated the purpose of having a scan tron paper
lol good thing i always carry a chapstick
I’m gonna try this and hope that I won’t get in trouble c:
oh my god
…Would it be bad to try this…even once? » *Thinks for a while* Nah, it’s okay.
Maybe in highschool, kinda scared to attempt this in college..
(Source: illestkidddd)
Throughout the year in a half that I’ve been dancing, I’ve learned so much thing’s and have taken in so much, in so little time. Dancing is just so intriguing to me, I remember thing’s more easily when it’s dance-related, not only dance itself but names of people, history, styles etc, compared to other subjects. It’s like my capacity of learning suddenly boosts up when I’m learning anything dance. I have so much passion for it. I guess that’s the reason why I learn stuff with more ease when it comes to this subject. In the state of mind that I’ve gotten now, I really am proud of myself to have gotten this far in learning all these other factors of dance, I’ve gathered so much information and to this day I would have never though that I would have enough drive in me to get this far. I’m currently learning new thing’s as well, I’m learning more and more about choreography, which I initially started with, foundations and styles, basic grooves & fundamentals, significant names in the dance community, inspirational choreographers, history of modern and jazz. Starting with the funk styles I’m learning popping, locking and boogaloo. I’m so happy to have come across these styles, it helped me better express myself through free-styling and definitely helped me with choreography. I’ve also been learning more of housing and wacking. These styles made a big impact to how I see choreography now, It’s way better compared to how it was before. I feel more freedom when I make choreography because of these styles, free-style is the essence of choreography. Other thing’s that I’ve been learning are modern and jazz at my college, and are contributing as well. In modern I’ve learned to be more flexible, have more balance and also be more agile with my movements. My jazz class has taught me the basic fundamentals of hip-hop and jazz moves which I haven’t encountered before, what I like about this beg. hip-hop jazz class is that it’s giving me a strong base by learning most, if not all of the basic moves of hip-hop. The biggest influence of new-style choreography.
Another subject that I’d like to go through in terms of dance is the discipline that I received through dance, it made me more focus not only in dance but in the other thing’s I do. Man It gave me such a positive attitude and outlook on thing’s. The hard-work, always pushing myself that there’s always always ALWAYS! something to improve on, and this statement will always be correct, I’ve said it multiple times in this blog. We can never be at the point where we have learned everything in dance, there’s so much thing’s out there and it’s consistently evolving. people create-people innovate-people learn it’s perpetual growth to making ourselves the best of ourselves. We continually grow and well continue to improve. Man we are more capable in doing thing’s that we think ourselves, we have so much potential. We shouldn’t let that go to waste, hard work’s pays off. But hard work is key, because more than the time you put in dance is nothing compared to putting effort and determination in that amount of time.
In my efforts to learning dance it was definitely a bumpy road, I had my ups and my down. There was a few times that I was ready to give up on it. Somehow every time I gave up something always pulled me back to dance again. At first it was my hobby, something I enjoyed doing I started it off learning by myself and having nothing but watching videos from the dance community to guide me. Little did I know I was innovating their moves, cause at the time since I was a beginner my knowledge on moves was very little, but watching videos helped me create moves influenced by the videos I watched. As I continued, it became more fun and it became something I really liked and enjoyed doing. I then started a dance group that year and formed another group the following year and became a leader/student. I enjoyed being a student more since instead of stressing myself creating thing’s with the little experience I have, I was learning so much thing’s that helped expand the vocabulary of my dance moves. It didn’t stop from there I tried out free-styling for the first time in a rave at a Fanime convention. That gave me a big boost of confidence. The thrill of dancing in front of a crowd, not focused on remembering moves and just freely vibing to the music is so much fun. And made me love dance even more to just learn about these different branches of dance, and there it became my passion. Dance is something I can fully express myself in, it’s where I met a group of people, different set of individuals who carry the same passion. Knowing the thing’s i know now took time and effort, especially the technique styles. These were thing’s that took time to be able to do, being a very impatient person, there were so much instances that I wanted to give up. But then each time I just suddenly get the urge to try even better. I continued learning it and despite what time it was was, hunger & thirst, how much I was sweating, I still eagerly tried learning these styles. Came weeks of trying I was getting results, until finally it started to look right. At that moment doing it became more fun and just consistently doing it helped made it better. Thing’s didn’t come easy, I worked hard for it. One of the styles consisted a move that got me really frustrated. It was the which-a-way, a locking move. There were times that I cried because I was so mad I couldn’t get it down. I was watching myself in the mirror for about 2-3 hours attempting to do the move while playing some locking music. I was always discourage every time people respond when they see me doing it. But what I realized is that I’m just learning the move, What do you expect? most of us look horrible when we try out new things especially when it consist technique. But that shouldn’t be the reason to stop, just cause someone discourages you, cause really when you put your heart into and continue doing it, you can prove them the fuck otherwise of where you’ll be after countless of effortful tries. Never give up, Forget even that the word exist.
This is the only subject that allows me to write so much in such a short amount of time. My brain just continually sends experiences and thing’s I’ve learned in dance. Anyway focusing more on the how I got connected with dance by getting to know the community. It all started when I learned that my cousin dances in studio429. Former dancer of Formality and now currently dances with Choreo Cookies. So the dancers in that studio were the very first source of how I got into dancing. Then thing’s just started to branch off from there, I’ve learned about the connections of other known choreographers, until after watching so much dance videos I just learned that there was this big community that connects all these dancers. It was crazy, something I thought that I would get into, It just looked really fun to me. Then my other cousins invited me to take some classes in that studio, but I really wasn’t into dancing at the time. I HECKA BLEW IT! Now I’m hella crazy about actually being able to take class from the studio. But one strong event that helped me make a big step to dance was watching the Family & Friends 2009 Expo. As I continued watching videos from these significant choreographers, they became a big impact to my life in dance. I learned so many different values in beliefs but in a way they all connect, and over time I have eventually developed my own set of values and beliefs. Btw if your just starting dance, getting to know the community is a really really REALLY big help! To name some of them starting from the one’s I initially started watching: Philip Geniza, Sy Bartolome, Paul Ross, Darryl Belarmino, Arnel Vasquez, April Rodriguez, Ellen Kim, Erik Saradpon, Kyle Hanagami, Elm Pizzaro Gigi Torres, Emmet Agapay, Keone madrid, Brian Puspos, Jun Quemado, Mariel Martin, Sh*t Kingz, Shaun Evaristo, Ian Eastwood, Galen Hooks, Jillian Meyers, Bam Martin, Lyle Beniga, Jeka Jane, Patrick Cruz, Chris Martin, Vihn Nguyen, Kristine Aguinaldo, Dom Byrd, and so much more. In the future I plan to take classes from these amazing choreographers. So far I have taken a class from Shaun Evaristo and Ian Eastwood, there was a Q&A portion and one of the question for Shaun was “were you naturally born a talented dancer”, and his answer hit me. He said that for him, he worked hard to get where he is now, it didn’t come naturally for him. Nowadays people fail to realize that most of the known dancers now, had their time as beginners. Most didn’t just start out to be naturally good dancers, they put time and effort in it. In my opinion, I think that’s why most people give up because they fail to realize so. They just want to get to the top in the shortest amount of time possible. Which bring the question that Shaun mentioned, “You’re either passionate about being known or are known for how passionate you are” because I know from experience that if you have the passion for it, you’ll take your time in learning, no matter what the case may be. It’s good to take your time because you developed a strong base and foundation which will better support you in the long run. Learning foundations is basically the healthy way of growing as a dancer. You take the baby steps as you did before you walked, you didn’t just started walking right away, you crawled first. It’s just a way of doing things so you won’t get hurt, well in some cases like Modern, Break Dancing, Ballet etc. Dance to me is a physical discipline, and a way of understanding my body, It is a way to see how much potential my body has and a way to express my self through body language. Dance is my PASSION and forever will be. It has become my best friend and something I can turn to whenever I need it. Dance has become a pretty big part of my life and I consider myself very lucky to see and appreciate how beautiful it is.
I know this is super long and hardly anybody would read this but this is self beneficial, I love expressing how far I’ve gotten in terms of dance and just dance itself. I have so much to say about this subject and will continue to have do so because I love it so much. YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW!
I would have never imagine gaining this much confidence to actually teach to a class my choreography. Consisting of 30-40 people in an actual studio. The fact that before I was so shy to even go in front of the class to do a presentation. Contemplating about it is just so crazy.
I’m super stoked more than ever this springs semester, these kids are as hungry as I am to dance. Forming the new group started on a good note, still recruiting. So far consist of 7 people mostly guys, I shouldn’t be so picky though, there’s a lot who are willing to join. But the dance class that I’m taking this semester has a bunch of new faces, a few of them kept staring at me. Hahah And Some even showed off some moves. Interesting semester this is gonna turn out, I feel it.
for more updates.Keone Madrid’s short-film supplement (read after watching)
Since the dawn of the Canon 5D mark II, Digital film DSLR’s were becoming popular. For a reasonable price you can record video in 1080p. Anyone can now shoot high-def, while also having the quality of the “film-look” to your video. YouTube/Vimeo scene exploded. Everyone was shooting DSLR these days. I see music videos after music videos. I see concept after concept. I see everything shot with DSLRs, and its starting to all look the same to me, for example: really cool lights, muti screen looks, and simple cut and paste etc. Even I am guilty of doing all those while editing, I easily got bored of doing it over again. So personally, I had to make an effort to set myself apart. I want my video’s to stand out. I want everything that I envision to come to life in my videos. I guess it all started with watching the Freddie Wong channel (youtube.com/freddiew). He made simple concepts with visual effects. That’s when it hit me; I need to stimulate my audience visually. The programs he uses allows him to create on film exactly what he envisions in his head. I don’t want my videos to be limited to just cut and paste, I want my creations to be limitless. That’s when I started learning visual effects. It allowed me to be more abstract. It challenges the way I view cinematography, and it got my brain to be more active, because I’m dreaming up shots left to right. I still have lots to learn. I’m no film magician like Freddie W, but I want to instill wonder when people see my videos too.
For choreographers, they love to put their choreography in film too. That’s when I knew I have to capitalize on this market, because I know choreographers imaginations are so inventive that simple “cut and paste edits” aren’t going to cut it. My goal is to make everything that a choreographer dreams up come to life. If they want something to look like “this” I better be able to make it happen. If they want something to look like “that” I better be able to make it happen. AND KEONE MADRID was one of the choreographers who challenged me to make his vision come to life.
Keone pitched the story of a guy having the ability to freeze time with an imaginary remote control. I asked myself “How in the world am I going to make a guy freeze time believable and not cheesy.” I didn’t. I somewhat lied to Keone and told him I knew how to pull this effect off, and once he gave me the green light, I would eventually learn how to composite time freezing. It was a big gamble but I was confident I would pull this off.
I feel what makes this film what it is, was the collaboration between director and choreographer. It was a back and forth type of relationship. He threw an idea, then I threw back an idea as well. The brainstorming of this project came together so well, that everything flowed so smoothly. It wasn’t a simple shoot at all; we strategically had to come up with a thorough game plan. We wanted to give the audience the impression of a short film. Not a concept. We were inspired by classic musicals (from the likes of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire) and we researched how they shot their dance numbers. We wanted the dancing to feel like a dance number and not a “music video.” Just like how there are random dance numbers in “Austin Powers”, or like the prom scene in “She’s all that,” we wanted the effect of a big production dance number in our film (the basketball court). Even though there is no singing in our short, we shot the dancing like a musical, hence the genre a dance-musical short.
Everything was planned out shot for shot, from the iPhone battery dying to the baby in the end freezing. All of this was done before shooting. So planning was a major factor when it came to the final product. All the time freezing was of course strategically planned. I had to imagine where everything was going to be while shooting (the basketballs, as well as, the b-ball players in the air). Editing it was a pain, but so much fun. The toughest shot was when Keone froze the two guys right after the choreography outside, and you see Keone cross over. That shot literally took 10hrs to complete, while the final duration of the shot was about 5seconds. Let me be clear, editing this film was labor intensive. Maybe 2-3 months to get the first rough draft done. I don’t have a crew to do this for me, cause I am the only person in my circle of friends who can do this. I need to teach people so I can have people help me. ANY TAKERS? Haha.
One more thing, moments before we shot, Keone and I prayed. I think he felt led cause this project was so much greater than him that he wanted everything go according to plan, and God had the power to make everything happen. The more I look back on his prayer, the more I felt God use me to make all this happen. I mean look, I never dabbled with special effects until now; I didn’t know half the things I was doing; and I only had about 4 days to prepare before we shot. Seeing how things were coming together in the editing room, everything just felt so miraculous to be honest. I mean, remember I didn’t believe I was capable of doing this film to begin with. All glory to God. Now that the film is finally on youtube, I look back and it was so much fun to be apart of something that was very challenging. I’m thankful that I had an opportunity to do it. It gave me an opportunity to learn more about the art of filmmaking. The challenges I came across were learning experiences that I would use for the next video and more to come. In summary, I told myself I wanted my work to stand out from the others. I am not there yet, but Keone’s project helped me become one step closer to it.
(Inside the Epilogue)
After the credits, there is a epilogue, but it wasn’t to bring closure, it was to show what it is to come. If you haven’t figured it out. This is only part 1 of a trilogy from Keone and Mari. Don’t keep your hopes up for more time freezes in the trilogy, cause there won’t be. However, I do feel the playfulness/the cartoony-ness of Keone in the first film will play a key part to the trilogy in my opinion. So a girl is introduced in the epilogue, and it’s played by Mari. DUN DUN DUN!!! That’s it; all you can do is wait until the next vid. I don’t want to give anything else away, but I am also excited to show the next video from this series. GOOD NEWS is the wait wont be long. It will be premiered no longer than two weeks.
Keone Madrid’s short film “PLAY” directed by X, and its nothing less than short of extraordinary. This is part 1 of a trilogy. Be sure to subscribe to www.youtube.com/keoneandmari
And read X’s supplement to the video at his blog.
www.XAVIERuniverseCITY.tumblr.com
