Year 8 Rotation 4 Week 1

This week....

This week, we had Monday's period where we edited our video, adding final touches. Then on the Wednesday's lesson, we chose our groups on drama, music or art. We had an introductory lesson, regarding what we will do and what we cannot do.

Monday, 29th May 2017

On Monday's lesson, we did not have the period in our usual classes due to the primary students having their 'Transition Day' in high school. However, having our substitute teacher, we went outside where it is quiet, in order to record our narration since they were not clear with the one we already had. Having some problems also were very severe to our group since when even the tiniest noise gets into the recording, we had to start the narration all over again. We got to a point where we are satisfied with our quality. This is towards the end of the class. Even after this lesson, Mayukh, Raushan and I took time on adding the name, and the title page, with scary pictures to frighten the audience. We have submitted this on Tuesday. However, reflecting our action, we should have managed our time properly, thinking about the system problems we may encounter in editing. I personally thought I have to be better at asking people to cooperate me or my group to complete something on time since I did not do very well in this particular area especially.

Wednesday, 31st May 2017

In this lesson, we were told that we can choose the rotation (from art, music, and drama) for the remaining term. Since it is Ramadan timing, we were told that we cannot do anything with loud noises. Then each teacher of the rotation explained us briefly what we are going to do in each field: Art will focus on the still life, music will focus on the history of music, and drama will focus on costume and stage setting. At first, I lined up in the art queue, since that was my first choice. I do enjoy doing art, and I take Enrichment art, doing the same topic, so I wanted more time to make my piece be more detailed. Even so, there were too many people who wanted to go in art. That's why Ms. Harrington (art teacher) picked students out of random to go onto the other sections. That is how I was put into my drama class. At first, I was sad that I was not able to go to my desired class, but hearing what we will be doing, I felt interested. We can choose either costume or set design to sketch. Although I still haven't exactly decided what I will draw, I am very excited at the moment to develop new skills.

Next Week....

Next week, I will have to decide on what I will do for my sketch, annotate them and color them in to make it look more realistic.

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 11

This week....

This week, we had a day off for Monday, and we had performed on Tuesday. In Wednesday's lesson, we had performed some of the videos from our class and we discussed according to every criterion. We also edited our music piece, on Wednesday, got it together and started the editing bit, adding the pieces together with the movie, deciding to add gunshot at the end.

Monday, 22nd May 2017

We did not have lesson since it was a day off for teachers.

Wednesday, 24th May 2017

In this lesson, the arts and the music students got together and discussed the presentation of the final video of each group. We could not present ours since it was not fully complete yet. In the lesson, we discussed the videos from Yahya's group,  Rebecca's group, Dana's group and Samia's group. Rebecca's group did not also have the video fully completed like us, both are complete, but they were not put together to be played. In the break after this lesson, we have stayed inside, in order to complete putting them together. It was a difficult task since we had to shorten the pieces then add them together. We had to get all the pieces add up to 1 minute 8 seconds, which was how long the video was. This took a long time, but currently, all we have to do is to put them together, so that we can send it to the teachers as soon as possible to get it marked.

Next week....

Next week, we are probably performing our video to the class and discuss what we have done, and how it appeals to our audiences. I am a little scared but is also excited to know everyone's comments towards our video. Once this is finished, we will finish this concept in the music rotation. I am wondering what we will be doing after we finish.

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 10

This week...

This week, all the groups were to perform their video and submit it. However, none of the groups have managed to do so, which means we spent this week trying to finish off our final published video. Our group did get to finish both the stop motion video and the music piece. Even so, we could not manage to fit them both together yet due to the time management.

Monday, 15th May 2017

In this lesson, we tried to work on the script which the arts were meant to do. This script is not for filming schedule, but a script for our voice over, which is something like a narration to our story.  Since the arts did not finish their video yet, we had worked on them. As I have mentioned in last week's post, we were done with our music piece, and is up to the point where we only have to crop the music piece depending on the length of the video.

Wednesday, 17th May 2017

In this lesson, we have tried to get all the pieces together with the video piece. Although we had some troubles trying to find out how to send the video, we managed it so that we can get all the pieces together. We did not get to finish everything in this lesson. That's why me and Raushan went up to the music room in order to get everything sorted. Mayukh is doing the editing, while I have done the cropping music piece part.

Next week...

Next week on Tuesday, we are performing to our audiences. Although our video is very short, we all wish that the audiences will enjoy them.

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 9

This week....

This week, we did not perform our music, however, we learned how to convert the files. We learned that 'wav' is better than mp3. Even so, just so that we can be flexible with editing, we converted them in both ways. We also realized the variety of the music is too less. That's why, we created another calmer music, that we can use for introduction part.

Monday, 8th May 2017

In this lesson, we started in the art room, where we again discussed what we have done so far. The arts said, they are starting their filming this week, so us music may have to go down to art to help because they will not make it on time. We told them, we are done too. Then after separating, we learned that it is better to convert the files. It is the best to convert the files into 'wav' form so that the quality is guaranteed. As soon as we were told to seprate into the groups, we did all the converting and sending. At first, we did not know what we are supposed to do (especially me) however, Mayukh was quite good at this, that he did them, and I was doing the checking the quality and flexibilty plus exploring the new music, since we thought we do not have enough variety.

Wednesday, 10th May 2017

In this lesson, we finished converting and sending, including the new piece that we had made. It is the introduction music, and the jumpscare music. Since we still had more than half of the lesson, we went down to art in order to see what they were doing. They were filming scene one, which means they barely started. However, we cannnot help them directly. That's why me and Mayukh have planned to do the script for them which was meant to be done by them. Even going through them, we found some points that could be improved. In addition, we could make it a little longer by making them go more descriptive. We have to take this as a homework. Mayukh and I can both edit this document as it is up on the google document. We may have to plan an afterschool shooting, so that we can hand in the work on time.

Next Week...

Next week, we must finish the recording and put the music together to go with it so that we can perform to the class to ask for feedback. Depending on the length of each scene, we will shorten the piece. After performing to the class, we will recieve the feedback. At the time, we will note the feedback so that we can improve referring to it.

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 8

This week...

This week we were meant to perform our music (draft version) however, none of the group were finished with recording. This is the reason why we also had this week in order to finis recording and were told to perform in next week's lesson so that we can know where to improve. In this week's lesson, we managed to add one piece to the music, and record all four pieces in total

Monday, 1st May 2017

In this lesson, we first got together in art and music. We discussed how the process was. The arts said they had started filming the first part. We told the that we are almost done because all we have to do is to record. After we separated from them, we wanted to start recording right away. However, most of the working computers were taken by other groups, that we only had the last ten minutes for ourselves. While we waited for other groups to finish with theirs, we created a piece called "vampire's theme". We found this piece online, and we practiced from tutorials until we an get it sound all right. We also practiced other pieces too so that we can get with recording straightaway in the coming lesson.

Wednesday, 3rd May 2017

In this lesson, as soon as the lesson started, we ran to the backroom in order to get the working computer. We found two that are working. That's why we got started with the pieces on the keyboard. We recorded a little longer than we had expected, since art is not finished with their movie, so we don't know how long it will be. Mayukh recorded the halloween theme, vampire theme and the guitar part while I recorded the created piece and the beat on drums. Thanks to this, we finished recording all pieces.

Next Week...

Next week, we are planning to show it to the class in order to find the improvements. As soon as we get the responses, we will work on them. Then when we finish, we will do the official recording. If the art is not finished at this stage, we will go help them.

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 7

This week...

This week, the music was successful in recording the music. Since the practice performing date is the 1st of May, we only had this week to complete the music. However, we thought that by the time of the next practice run through (after the 1st of May one), we could try to create another piece since we will not have much to do after it has been recorded. 

Monday, 24th April 2017

In this lesson, we started from the art room, where we had met and discussed both team's progress and the schedule for this week. We had told the art team that all we have to do is to record the music piece that we have right now. We also told them that we wanted to create another piece but we will probably not going to make it on time (by 1st of May) as we have to explore the "Mixcraft" app to recall our memory from last year's experience with it. We were not allowed to go help the arts, so we tried to focus on recording all pieces of music at least. Then, as an extension (if we have time) we will start the creation of another piece. Nevertheless, we were not successful in connecting the piano to the computer to record, and this took about more than half of the lesson. That's why we could not even record both pieces. I guess we have to carry on with it next class. 

Wednesday, 26th April 2017

For this lesson, I was absent. However, Mayukh was carrying on with recording the music piece. He also said that he had explored the drums so that we can use them as our jumpscare. Although we had been talking about the jump scare from quite a long time ago, we still did no get to the point where we can decide the instrument to use and their beats. This is because the jump scare holds the key to our play. For this reason, Mayukh and I wanted to explore more and more types of jump scare so that we can use the best fitting one. 

Next week...

Next week, we will be presenting what we have created so far. Then, from the feedback we get, we would like to improve our piece and also add a jumpscare + another piece so that we have more variety of music to play, and for our audiences to enjoy watching.

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 6

This week...

This week, music was successful in adding the left-hand part to the Halloween based music which was just the right-hand until the last lesson. Mayukh was practicing this piece, while I had searched up ideas for another piece of music for next lesson. Since art was delaying compared to the music's speed, I had gone downstairs to help them out so that we can complete the work at the same speed.

Monday, 17th April 2017

In this lesson, I was in the music to help Mayukh practice the Halloween theme, while I explored for a piece on drums and other types of instruments, that we can use for our performance. I had discussed the length of the piece by timing the whole piece then cutting off some parts or fastening them so that it fits the certain length. Regarding the creation of a new piece, unfortunately, I was not successful in creating anything for this lesson but I have realized that using drums would be a good idea since it can be used for jumpscare. I also thought we could do combination piece too so that it sounds more professional and is effective in creating an intense feeling.

Wednesday, 19th April 2017

In this lesson, I went to help art do the puppets since they said they are not catching up with the action plan very well. Since I and Mayukh's plan was to create another piece of music, I told him the things I had explored in the previous lesson, so that he does not have to start from scratch. In art, I had helped my art team make the doctor and the woman (human based claymation). I think they may need more time to complete the work, probably after school or break time since Omar has been absent for past few lessons, which made it harder for art to divide up the work.

Next week...

Next week is the final week before showing (or presenting) our music to our class first before the actual performance. We have to record the music we have decided until now, but at the same time, create another piece of music so that there will be enough pieces of music for our presentation.