Explaining the Movie making Project in MYP Year 3

By Lissa C. on Tuesday, 3 April , 2007 - 7:04 pm

In the beginning of the academic session, students reflected on the past year’s activities and charted out their expectations for the coming year. Most of the [...]';

Here is a short movie done by the students of MYP Year 3 within this project…  There are lots more at our page on youtube.com.

In the beginning of the academic session, students reflected on the past year’s activities and charted out their expectations for the coming year. Most of the students had enjoyed working on the media project last year and wanted to continue their tryst with computers. It was jointly decided to work upon movie making this academic session. Making a movie at this age and within a set deadline was a very challenging and ambitious task hence this project was a challenge both for the students and the teacher.
Once the project was decided, we started mapping the steps of making a movie and began mapping how we, as a class, would go about making our movie. In the initial stage, students were exposed to different genres of movies, movie shots, camera angles and the related science concepts: light, electricity, sound, motion. This was done through group presentations and activities such as making a story board, story writing, making a flipbook to understand movement, interactive presentations followed by feed back, watching things around them through a cadre, enacting news through role play, practicing figurative, landscape and still life drawing to be able to prepare the final story board for the movie, understanding how different people represent life differently (artists belonging to different art movements, movie makers, scientists, psychologists) we did this as making a movie implies giving a fictional/realistic representation of thoughts and ideas through a specific medium- the video camera. Other activities included articulating and emoting in front of an audience and in front of the camera, viewing and analyzing visuals- photographs, music videos, TV, movies, short movies, documentaries, theatre plays, live performance, PowerPoint presentations…Students also studied bias in media, they took a general look at psychology and its effects in various areas of our lives. The students worked on the mental and biological side of psychology by studying the brain and analyzing dreams as a visual representation of the sub-conscience, and they touched upon social psychology and how it affects us all, notably in conflict (link to conflict resolution project).

Before the Diwali break, we initiated a mini Technology cycle, which was bi-disciplinary. Students worked on a rhyming poem in French and prepared a tune to accompany it using GarageBand. They also synchronized visuals to the poem using PowerPoint or iMovie. They maintained a process journal and prepared a design folder for the Technology cycle. Through this cycle of work, the process of movie making was demystified moreover, they realized what they needed to work on to be able to produce a complete design folder for the film making technology cycle. During the Diwali break, students compiled their research papers. Research time extended into the next month. Students were given checklists and complex instructions and it goes to their credit that most of them have lived up to the demands of the project. By December, the movie making groups decided the target audience, the aim of the movie, the subject links, the links to the Areas of Interaction… and started planning the pre-production and production stages of their movie which included conceptualization, scripting, preparing a story board, signing contracts, meeting people, finding the right cast, scouting for film locations, doing a reiki of the selected locations, composing music …The shooting dates were finalized in January and it was decided to give 3 shooting dates, chosen by the groups according to their convenience. The number of hours of shooting was not restricted but the number of days of shooting was. This was done to help the students put in a concentrated effort. After coming back from the Nature Education Camp, the post-production stage began. The students stayed back till late and edited their movies on the Mac computers in school using iMovie and GarageBand. They were free to use more software. The students did voiceovers, synchronized visuals and audio, learnt how to overcome technical problems. Every group faced problems but every group learnt to overcome them. On 12 February 2007, the students met the deadline imposed by the teacher and submitted their design folder as well as their movie. The students have made total eight movies. The credit of making of the movies goes entirely to the students. There were moments of joy and frustration. Some students lost data or faced difficulties transferring it but it should be noted that every group submitted a movie. Bravo!

List of Movies watched: A Force more Powerful, Kabul Express, Remember the Titans, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliette, Mahabharata by Peter Brook, Didier, La Boum, La gloire de mon père, BBC movie on moviemaking, movie on Picasso (ask Liv)
Music Videos: Hero by Enrique Iglesias, Beautiful by James Blunt, In the end by ?
Songs: Get up Stand up by Bob Marley, Black or White by Michael Jackson, ? by A.R. Rehman.
Short Movies: Matka Fridge by MGIS student, the eight movies of the students
Extracts of the movies watched to study camera angles, movement etc.: Lord of the Dance, Hamlet, Kurosawa movie.
Interaction with professionals: Mr.Ashok Mewada, TV Producer (EMRC), Mr. Kaushik Brahmbhatt, professional (EMRC), Benjamin Mailian, freelance web-designer and faculty in MGIS, Alisha Attarwala, upcoming moviemaker and student in MGIS, Revanta Sarabhai, upcoming international artist, Benjamin Zephaniah, acclaimed British poet, Dr. Homi Dhalla, an activist.
Students on TV: On an educational movie for EMRC while doing a role-play on Mahabharata, in Teen Masteen as participants of a TV show, as spectators of a theatrical play called UNSUNI, discussing social issues and proactive solutions,
Students in action: The students did a survey of the school community and distributed awards in different categories as part of the mid term celebrations in December. They organized the awards ceremony on their own, talking on microphones, playing background music, preparing certificates and medals. Students organized the stalls during the Australian visit. The students will be actively involved in the school exhibition, putting up stalls for the parents and preparing food for the school community. The students’ speech about Asian heroes and their Hindi oral assessment was filmed.

Category: MGIS Insight

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