Self - Portrait

In our Self-Portrait unit at Freestyle, we were tasked with really introducing ourselves to our viewers through the various forms of communications media work created in this unit. In English, we wrote a personal essay that was based off a location that we could really feel at ease, and content at. Our focus in writing this essay was to attempt to describe the place we have chosen with as much rich, detailed imagery as possible to help the reader feel as if they are there with us. We went over several examples of personal essays before we wrote our own which helped serve as a launching pad for us to write our own. In Design, we created our first Illustration and Diptych using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Both the Diptych and Illustration were supposed to metaphorically reveal something about ourselves as well. In Web Audio, we worked on an enhanced podcast of our essay using Apple Garage Band. After recording our essays using the high-quality microphones available, we imported the audio along with several related images into Garage Band and structured out our final rendering of our Podcast. This first unit was a great teaser of what was to come in the future projects we would work on in our Freestyle experience. Considering this site was my second website I have ever made, I was satisfied with my simple, yet effective work. In WebAudio and Design, we learned the basics of most Adobe CS6 programs. In our first unit in English, we learned how effective essays are developed and constructed. Overall, the Self-Portrait unit was a solid foundation for the rest of the skills we would learn in our time here at Freestyle.

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Narrative

In the Narrative unit at Freestyle, we were tasked with conveying an effective story. In English, we wrote our own narrative Graphic Novel after analyzing several examples of exemplary stories. In Design, we created a second Diptych and Illustration, both relating to our story in some metaphorical way. In Web Audio using Adobe Flash,9 we created an animatic and an animation that are both based on our Graphic Novel in English. This unit was continuing to solidify our understanding of effective communication and the various Adobe CS6 programs we started to learn in the Self-Portrait unit. For this website, I used many similar techniques with a couple more advanced items to more efficiently develop the site. However, this unit taught me much more than just more advanced communication and web-building techniques: I also learned about the tempting evils of procrastination in attempt to concentrate on my other "core" courses. In this unit, I feel like I could have made the website and my content much more clean and sophisticated, however instead of keeping up with the work when creating our animation, I chose to ignore the work that was expected to be done over a few months until a week before our deadline was set. Overall, the Narrative unit was an incredibly powerful learning experience, both with the new, advanced programs we were using, as well as reaffirming myself that procrastination leads to unimpressive work.

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Documentary

In the Documentary unit at Freestyle, we were tasked with picking a place and person who involved in a "hidden" unique community and document them. For this unit, I chose to document my close friend Diego De La Torre and his involvement with Hip Hop in the Mural, Music and Arts Project in East Palo Alto, California. With my documentary, I attempted to expose "real" Hip Hop, and how its culture can be harnessed to spread a positive message in the community. I wanted to change the general mindset of Hip Hop condoning Crime, Gangs, Violence, and Materialism. In my documentary website, you will find my research essay written in English, my book created using Adobe InDesign in our Design class, and my Audio Slideshow created in WebAudio using Pro Tools 10 and several instances of "Fancy Box" in Adobe Dreamweaver. For this unit, learning from my procrastination-fueled mishap of the Narrative unit, I focused on keeping on-time, and creating visually appealing work. I also continued to build on my knowledge of the many Adobe CS6 programs we have been using for our projects in Freestyle. Overall, the Documentary unit was one of my absolute favorite units of all time, and led to the creation of what I consider to be my best work: website, book, and paper, of my Junior year.

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Experimental

In the Experimental unit at Freestyle, we explored many new techniques in creating new forms of media. In each class, we attempted to explore new ways of creating unique artwork, moving out of our comfort zone. In English, we created several free-verse poems and a metaphorical, moving song with one verse and two chorus sections. We started by reviewing several famous poets' works and learning about the iconic Beat Movement before and during the Hippie era. In Design, we experimented with various unused methods of creating art. For my project, I used a mix of many bright water colors on a paper, and sprinkled salt on it, creating the very abstract background seen around this text. I used this as the background for my websites, as well as the background for my art creation. From there, I took a photo of previous Freestyle Alumni, Kaivon Sherkat, and layered his photo on the watercolor background using Adobe Photoshop. From there, I taped a strobe light to the wheel of my longboard, and took photos in the dark of the light spinning on the wheel, and superimposed this in between the layers of Kaivon and water colors. Finally, I created a cartoonish rendition of a midi drum pad using Illustrator, and put it on top of Kaivon's face in Photoshop. All this work led to the creation of my abstract experimental piece. In WebAudio, we crafted an animated version of one of our poems from English. Overall, the Experimental unit served as a fitting end to our Junior year at Freestyle. We used all of our skills we had been building with the previous units and ended up with work that we are all proud to claim as ours.

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Profile

In the Profile unit at Freestyle, we were challenged to choose an influential leader in our community to highlight their contributions and achievements. To distinguish this unit from our Documentary unit in our Junior year, we focused on our chosen figure, whereas in the Documentary unit last year, we focused more on a place. Working with our star interviewee, we designed and created several forms of media to help spotlight our star to the members of our community. In English class, we wrote a profile magazine article based on our star, two other supporting interviewees and their overall researchable issue they deal with. In our WebAudio class, we created a Profile website using advanced jQuery and HTML5 coding techniques. Finally, in our Design class, we created a magazine layout, featuring our profile article from English class, using a combination of Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Furthermore, we also learned new three-point lighting photography techniques to help take more professional portraits of our star. For this unit, I chose to base my project on Prakash Nanduri, a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur. Overall, we learned many new advanced techniques in all of our classes this unit. We were able to build on our Junior year's skill set, and helped propel our abilities to the next level of media arts communication.

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Music Video

In the Music Video unit at Freestyle, for the first time in our Freestyle careers, both Web and Film students were able to collaborate to create one final product. This unit was hands down the most enjoyable unit so far because we had the opportunity to work with new students who had different, unique visions, and were able to work together to produce a musical piece with video to accompany. Being able to work with two film students and one other web student had its share of complications, but at the same time really opened our minds to the different forms of inspiration each student brought to the table. This unit, I worked with Sanjana, the second web student, as well as Haley and Emma H., our two film students. I was definitely extremely proud of our work in this unit. The music and visual displays definitely merged well, creating a surprisingly different product than what we had all envisioned at first. As a web student, I worked with Sanjana to produce our final musical production. Drawing from Emma's talent at guitar, we also used external help from Gilles to create our music. Haley and Emma created the incredible visuals for our music video. In Design, we created a concert poster, a C.D. label and C.D. cover for a fictional band, not related to our actual music video, to further enhance our unerstanding of the importance of capturing an audience's attention with visual displays. Overall, this unit was conclusively one of my favorite units thus far, and was a blast to create our music video.

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Narrative 2

Under Construction. To Be Completed in mid-April 2014.

Background Image Courtesy of Apple Stock Images.

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Explorations

Under Construction. To Be Completed in Late-May 2014.

Background Image Courtesy of Apple Stock Images.

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Welcome.
I am Kiran Kothuri.

I am currently enrolled in Freestyle Academy. Before I was accepted into Freestyle, I had been a hobbyist producer for about two years. I started with a copy of Image-Line's FL Studio 9, moved to Reason, but now use Native Instruments' Maschine and Pro Tools 11 and have been striving to improve my producing skills ever since. In Freestyle, I have been learning to build HTML-5 Websites such as this one, as well as learn more in-depth javascript and jQuery coding. Furthermore, we will master our basic understanding of Adobe's Flash, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop in this class. I am an avid Hip-Hop fan, and have produced for various local artists. I hope to grow as an artist, producer, as well as a person in my time here at Freestyle.

Enjoy.