Sunset Micro Wave: Vol. 3

SUNSET MiCRO WAVE VOLUME III

Table Of Contents Bella Paterson Justin Tran Sophia Johnson Lucia Hiebert Matthew Chen Karen Situ Pietro Juvara Alyssa Yin Kaia Brulane Austin Nie Joyce Chen Grey Smith Whitney Lu Jennie Lin Jarron Ikeda Charlie Persuk Sasha Nakamura

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Bella Paterson

THE MAGIC AND THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF COMING OF AGE

Justin Tran RED STRING OF FATE

Welcome to my first AMV! One of my biggest inspirations is the YouTuber, Kurosai. I was blown away by his professionalism and the amount of effects and transitions he incorporated into his videos.

Kurosai even spent 3 to 4 hours working on a 5 second portion of his film! This inspired me to get Adobe After Effects and get to work! I started the video by using the transitions I was familiar with and then progressed to other transitions and effects.

I had a lot of fun creating transitions between the clips and it took my editing skills to the next level.

Although sometimes tedious, I learned a ton from this process. In the end, I compiled around 150 clips together to create what you see. For the title, I chose Red String of Fate, a phrase used to emphasize how people are connected with an invisible red string and are destined to meet one another, which is a common theme used in both videos in this AMV: 5 Centimeters per Second and Kokoro Connect.

Sophia Johnson NIGHT AT THE BALBOA

Lucia Hiebert PROM DRESS 2021

In April of 2020, my Junior Prom was canceled and I was left with my ideas about the prom dress I was planning to sew. When prom was cancelled again this year, my mom and I decided to make a dress anyway. Originally, I had planned to create a completely original design until I came across an image of a hot pink Jean Paul Gaultier couture dress from the early 2000s. The strapless silk gown had wings down the sides that wrap around and down the hips, with a lighter pink chiffon exposing the legs.

This was my first time taking part in the entire process of making a garment from start to finish. My mom, a fashion designer and professor of costume construction at San Francisco State University, taught me how to drape, make a mock-up, create paper patterns and cut the fashion fabric while making only a few changes to the original design.

I will have this dress forever and cherish the memories of creating it with my mom, who helped make this dream a reality.

Matthew Chen EASIER

This song “Easier” is one of my favorite tracks from the upcoming album. Based on personal experiences, this song is about the many obstacles and challenges that come with close friendships. Writing this song was a fairly cathartic experience for me, since I am not one to share emotions often, especially about topics that hit so close to home.

A friendship that held so much value to me dissolved and the fallout was incredibly hard to process. A person who I used to look forward to seeing everyday at school became someone that I was anxious to see. As things unwound, I began to question myself, my life choices and my decisions. I often wondered if I said or did something wrong, or didn’t voice something I should have. Back then, I didn’t think to speak up and tackle this issue head on, because I was too afraid of coming off as too ‘attached’ or ‘clingy,’ which may have actually contributed to the downfall of the friendship.

A huge lesson from this experience is that nothing lasts forever, no matter how good things may have been, and sometimes people change or grow apart. This was one of the harder experiences I've gone through, but it has definitely shaped the person I am now. But hopefully what I’ve learned from failed friendships will help me move forward with new ones.

Click To Listen On Soundcloud

Karen Situ A GUIDE TO FAE

About The Fae Fae are a species of forest-dwelling humanoids that are closely in tune with nature. Often described as reclusive, Fae generally dislike making contact with other species, especially those who are known to harm nature. They are usually non-confrontational, but will take to arms if they or their homelands are threatened. A large part of their mana is derived from nature, so the farther they are from the forest, the weaker they are.

Subspecies Mana

Str.

Mana

Skin Colors

Mana

Str.

Str.

Nymphs

Druids

Elves

A nymph’s appearance comes from the seasons. Their colors depend on the season they are born. Their blood is known to be able to heal wounds and injuries. The most peaceful of the three, and the healers of the forest.

Druids are the most in tune with nature and can actively draw mana from the forest to use for their own magic. They act as the stabilizers of the forest, and out of the three Fae, have the most mana capacity.

Elves are either more specialized for the day, or the night. Those with white sclera are stronger in sunlight, and those with black sclera are stronger in moonlight. They protect the forest and keep any intruders out with weapons and magic.

Extras Nymphs Druids Elves

Elf eyes can have either black or white sclera.

Some druids have flowers growing behind their ears. This trait is recessive.

Fae can have 3 types of pupils -Dark, circular pupils -Most dominant -Slit pupils -Second most dominant

Vegetarian they can't digest meat

-White ring pupils -Most recessive

Pietro Juvara PAST-SELF PORTRAITS

During the pandemic, it’s been hard to see how our lives have changed - each day feels exactly the same.

One of the things I really want to show everyone is how much we’ve changed over the past couple years. When you feel like you’re struggling or close to giving up, just remember how much you’ve grown! This spread is all about confronting our past selves and focusing on how much we’ve developed into our identities as artists.

From the way we dress, pose, and take photographs, the transformation has been remarkable. I hope when you see these, you’re inspired to look at your own past-self portraits and marvel at how much you’ve grown.

Alyssa Yin SUMMER LAUNDRY

Kaia Brulane MS. TOENAIL

Ms. Toenail is part frog, part slug, part salamander and part ancient deity. She lives at the top of a redwood tree that tends to disappear and reappear in different forests.

Your best chance to meet her would probably be at a local restaurant, wearing bright red accessories (her favorite color) and regurgitating necessities from her stomach, such as her phone or wallet.

She is such an intriguing character that many have tried to locate her house and snoop around. Unfortunately for them, her roommate Wichgost The Ghost Witch, annually renews her magical wards to protect their home. A word of caution: Ms. Toenail may look innocent and friendly, but you don’t want to get too chummy because she has been convicted of three war crimes. Watch out!

Austin Nie MIDDLE WAVE

The sounds of “Middle Wave” captures the feelings of the climax in my coming-of-age story, where there is no stress and it feels like there is all the time in the world. I chose the title, “Middle Wave,” to describe the journey of finding the perfect wavelength - the perfect sounds that can help one communicate with themselves in the midst of the tropical storm called high school. My middle wave is creating music and sharing it with my friends and family.

Click To Listen On Soundcloud

Joyce Chen THE TRAVELER

Grey Smith GREY'S PANTHEON

Avikala: The sun god/goddess who created the entire universe to revolve around his/her majesty. Also, the creator of the other figures we have come to know as gods. Sometimes has to step in to resolve conflicts between the moon and weather gods.

Jericho: The moon god/goddess and capricious puppeteer of the seas.

With their many faces and moon children, the mood god’s moods dictate where the oceans go.

Tempest: The weather god/goddess travels the seas for unknown reasons, bringing storms and miserable weather with it.

Their tempest rainbow cloak covers the faces of those lost at sea.

Whitney Lu FRUIT OF KNOWLEDGE

Quarantine inspired me to create a clay character to represent my experience. The character is based on gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins. The character has a bunch of little arms carrying apples to represent the burden of all the knowledge I’ve been trying to accumulate without regard for my own limits. This mirrors my life during quarantine as I've developed a kind of gluttony for knowledge and improvement with no boundaries.

This has made it difficult for me to be in the present moment because I always feel like I should be doing more, learning more, improving myself in some way. In a way, I’ve detached myself from reality which has been causing me to feel depressed. From this experience I’ve learned not to put so much pressure on myself and enjoy moments of just being.

Jennie Lin

SURROUNDED BY SERENITY

Lunar New Year was approaching, which got me thinking about how I experience the traits of the Chinese zodiac signs in my daily life. I was inspired to focus on characteristics of the Ox and the Sheep, the zodiac signs of my sister and I. The Ox, with a smirk on its face, displays its confidence and power in a solid strong stance while holding its sword. By contrast, I expressed the Sheep’s sympathetic and non-confrontational personality with fluttering butterflies and a flowing robe to emphasize its delicate nature. The Ox and Sheep zodiacs constantly remind me of my heritage and the time I spent at home celebrating the Lunar New Year.

Jarron Ikeda

LILUMIVERT: TWITCH’S FINEST

I began streaming in quarantine after watching a couple of OfflineTV videos. After seeing DisguisedToast’s old TFT streams, I thought I could do it and decided to give it a shot! In the beginning, it was rough. It felt lonely streaming to no one and I began to wonder why I was even streaming in the first place. After a couple of months, I played different games and got 80 followers!

But then, summer ended and I dropped streaming to focus on school and new AP classes.

When I heard about the new cycle at SMW, I had around 80 followers, and now I have 101! In the future, I plan to make a 100x100 castle in Minecraft to celebrate the 100 follower goal!

Maybe I’ll make a 1000x1000 castle when I reach 1,000 followers? I also received my first donation from a random viewer! That was a fun moment and made me feel like I was doing something right. All these moments added up to plenty of laughs and cringeworthy moments.

14 MINUTES? Yeah, it’s 14 minutes. It was going to be longer, but nobody really has the attention span for that nowadays. I’m Lilumivert and I stream games on Twitch for fun, mostly League of Legends and Apex Legends, but I love trying out new games. This video showcases a League of Legends gameplay compilation of yours truly. Looking back, some of my favorite streams would have to be my Exhilarating stream which lasted for 7 hours. I never hit silver. Guess I will always be a Bronze 3 player! By the way, at 11:52 minutes, there is an 8 bar measure of a song that sounds straight out of a meme, but it was actually music that I made!

Playing games through quarantine became my social life as I couldn’t go outside as much as other people to keep my Grandma safe (who lives with me). If you want to see more, you can support Lilumivert and follow my Twitch here! I’ll see you in the next one!

Charlie Persuk BUGGIN OUT

Sasha Nakamura FROM AND TO

Sunset Micro Wave Volume III According to science, time flies when you're having fun and crawls when you're in a lockdown. The past year has felt like a dream from another life. A parallel universe. An alternate timeline in which half our country denied the pandemic, the election and the vaccine while the other half didn't. As upended as our life with coronavirus has been, the political climate has been almost as otherworldly. In the midst of it all, we have paced our collective Zoom boxes and sent countless messages across the oceans of WIFI, hoping for some semblance of connection and community. It hasn't been easy, but we've helped each other through the madness and held on to this place where creativity keeps our dreams alive. We are proud to report that Spring has brought warm weather, a vaccine and, by some miracle, Volume 3 of Sunset Micro Wave! As you scan the pages of this digital nirvana, the word on the street is that today is one of your final days in lockdown. Graduation is on track to happen IRL! Could it be true? Connecting in person will be new and profound like never before; enjoy the good times and reunions to come!

Editors Jon Bernson Rachelle Banares Caley Akridge Layout Design / Cover Art Jacob Thompson Special Thanks Matt Pemberton, Helen Lee, Sasha Nakamura, Michael Falsetto-Mapp, Campbell Gee, Leah O'Neil, Glenn Jackson, Mandy MacGowen, Ella Boyd-Wong, and everyone at SNBC, BACR & DCYF. IG: @SUNSETMEDIAWAVE

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ONLINE: SUNSETMEDIAWAVE.ORG