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. 

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 5

This Week...

This week, we had came back from Spring break, which means that we will not have a lot of time until our performance. We had aimed to create at least one piece of music this week, which we had achieved to do so. We have everything noted down, so that it will be easy for us to finish the piece. Our goal this week was to create one piece of music and finish off the script

Monday 10th April, 2017

In this lesson, we had a short recap on the piece of music that we had created last term. We had thought of recording our piece, however the room was too noisy and we did not know how long we should play each instrument for, since the script was not yet fully done. Then we had started to finishing off the script so that it will be easy for us to also create and record the piece. At the same time, this way, we could calculate on how many seconds we will need to record for, since the length of the audio depends on the length of the story. We will add the final touch in the next lesson so that we can perfect it by spending more time on it.

Wednesday 12th April, 2017

In today's lesson, I used the link that I had searched up during the spring break. It was the video on YouTube which was the tutorial for creating Halloween based music. At the beginning of this lesson, we took some time to change and add details to the script which I had planned to get it finished by today. Then us, as the music group was successful in creating the piece, practicing it, and also deciding which sound effect on the key board we should use. This piece is meant to be used for the music before the jump scare occurs so that I can frighten the audiences even more. Although we figured these things out, we have to find the audio which is used to SCARE the audiences whether it could be a scream, bang noise, big sound, and many more. I am happy that I was able to stick with the action plan at least for this week.

Next Week...

Next week, we will have to create more piece of music and possibly explore more types of instruments that we could use. I am aiming to create 1 piece of music at least so that we can stick to our action plan. At the same time, I may have to help out the art group since they seem to be having trouble creating. We can take more time on the creation in stead of filming as Raushan (who is member of our group) made stop motion video before and she has the app to put everything together. I am thinking that this will be a very helpful tool when we are creating the movie or the video. We may have to plan out an after school creation since we are not sticking to the plan at the moment especially regarding the script. 

Year 8 Rotation 3 Week 4

This week...

This week, we focused on the creation of the introduction music. We have finalized what instruments we are going to use, and what sort of beat it will have. The arts have started the sketch and the script. However, the arts are not making much progress on either of them, meaning we will have to help the arts complete it. Otherwise, even us, music team cannot finalize the length we will be playing the instruments. Depending on this, we have to change the beats/ rotate the type of music we will use.

Monday 20th March 2017

In this lesson, music team was successful in creating a piece of music which we are planning to include in the introduction part of the performance. In this music, we decided to use 3 instruments; guitar, piano, and the drums to create the scary beat. The beat will be 1.2.3.4. The guitar code will be 6-4-5-6, strumming pattern as 3: 4th and 5th string, 4: 6th string. On the keyboard, it will be like Ab (A flat) - A - Ab - f. The percussion instrument will be like 1.2.3.4 but the last beat will be double. Since we only have two people who are in charged of music, we will ask the art students to help us record the music so that it can go with the video. In terms of recording, we will edit the music using mixcraft or possibly any other types of music editing app, transfer it so that it can be added to the stop-motion video.

Wednesday 22nd March 2017

This lesson will be missed due to the Shakespeare day, where Gr.7, 8 and 9 will be involved to perform what we have created in relation to Shakespeare's life and/or the plays he had made. Since we will be missing this lesson, we could be practicing the piece of music we had created; Mayukh-guitar and Me- Piano (keyboard) beats. This piece has to be done at the same time so we will have to keep on practicing the piece until we can master it.

Next week...

We will have to have the script finished by then, start planning for the actual music we are going to us during the actual story part goes on. We have to speed up in creating the piece so that we can finish by the deadline. The fact I am missing many lessons times, due to school events taking place. I am taking part in many things leading me to miss a quite a lot of lessons. To catch up with the action plan. We have to make sure that the art has made some progress too, so that we can decide on when to start filming for the stop-motion video. 

Year 8 Rotation 3 Music Week 3

This week...

This week, we finished off the planning, shared it with my groupmates and made sure that we know exactly what each of the groups has to do. We have also started on the creation of each area. Art is mainly in charged of creating the stop-motion video and the script, although music team will also be helping it whilst we create the piece of music to go with the video.

Monday 13th March 2017

In this lesson, we have started the lesson altogether (with the art students) to make sure that we all know what the plan is. We have also discussed the storyline and deciding what each of the team will be doing. We have reached the point where we have decided that music will be focusing on the background music and help the art team do scripts and the video since we only have two people. Art is mainly going to focus on creating the claymation characters, but at the same time, work on stop-motion video, and the script. After the art group had gone to the art room to start planning their work,  Mayukh and I started on exploring the music. Since we don't have the scripts yet, we decided on what instruments we will use. We thought of few pieces of music which we consider in actually using it. While we were exploring, Ms.Cross came in, and she told us that there are many ways of using an instrument, which I was quite amazed by. I also realized the importance of thinking out of the box and the fact it is always a formula that idea + creativity = special performance. 

Wednesday 15th March 2017

I was not here in this lesson. Although I was present in school, I was taking a part in tech fair. From my group, me, Mayukh, and Raushan were involved. However, Kaisan and Omar had started on the script since they sent me an invite on email to edit the document (script) which also helped me in knowing what they did during the lesson. Me and Mayukh while then, discussed that how we can stick to the action plan. We decided that Mayukh will start creating the music on the guitar, and I will be starting to create the tunes on the keyboard. We will both surf on the internet too, to find any music that may give us ideas on creating the best-fitting piece. 

Next week...

Next week, we will ask the art team to finish creating the script and/or help in creating it. Music team will then record reading it (if possible) we will decide on which music to play live, and which to record since we only have 4 hands. We should not forget to finalize what our core instruments will be, and how we will be using them. 

Year 8 Rotation 3 Music Action Plan

We have completed the action plan for both art and music. In terms of music performance, we will have a lot of the work as a homework since it's just 2 people instead of having more people like last term. We will have everything that we cannot complete as homework so that we could stick with the action plan until our performance.

The screenshots below are the action plan for our group.

Year 8 Rotation 3 Music Week 2

This week....

This week, we had two lessons, where we were given time to decide on the topic (story) for our claymation video, finalize it and complete the action plan.

Monday 6th March 2017

I was not here in the lesson on this day due to the netball tournament we had on the school team, however, my groupmates had discussed the ideas, leading to the point where they want to mix fairytale and horror into our video. They have also decided that one of my group mate Raushan, will do the video creating mainly and everyone could help her, since she had already made it once for tech fair. They were also starting to do the action plan.

Wednesday 8th March 2017

I was present in this lesson. I had discussed the ideas with my group mates in the back room and started to do the action plan. Since the discussing took a lot of time, until we can finalise the idea, we could not complete the action plan. We had shared the document on google drive so that we all can edit it and share it so that we can get the action plan done, plus we all will have it even after we separate, so that all of us can follow it. 

Next week...

Next week, we have to finalise what we will need according to the action plan and the story plan, and check if art supplies are enough. The art group (Raushan, Kaisan and Omar) will start by the sketch drawing, and make more detailed action plan on when they will have to finish each puppet by. Me and Mayukh will both have to start exploring the instrument we are going to use. Most probably, I will be in charged of creating the script, so me and Mayukh can decide on which music/instrument to use depending on the scene. 

Year 8 Rotation 3 Music - MYP The Art of Storytelling

Art of storytelling

KEY CONCEPT: Communication

RELATED CONCEPT: Narrative

GLOBAL CONTEXT: Orientation in Time and Space, Personal & Cultural Expression

STATEMENT OF INQUIRY: Symbols and conventions used to convey meaning to audiences are influenced by time and space

INQUIRY QUESTION: What is the relationship between arts and audiences?

ATLs:
Social-Collaboration
Research-Media Literacy

INTERDISCIPLINARY UNIT-Music, Art & English

Group mates: Kaisan 8AA (Art), Mayukh 8AA (Music), Omar K 8AA (Art), Raushan 8AA (Art)

Genre : Horror

Year 8 Rotation 2 Term 2 Visual Art

Phantasmagoria

Type of story: Horror
Subjects Included: English, Music, and Art
Story name: Mental Mary
Global Context: Personal and cultural expression

Brief Summary: Mary is a girl who gets diagnosed with schizophrenia in the late 1700s. She started to see the world to be completely different and surreal; monsters and demons took over her mind, darks words coming out of her mouth, screeching and shouting voice all over the place.... At last, she was chained to her bed with scratches on her face and bruises on her legs. One misty night, her parents decided to get the rid out of her. Her parents dragged her out. Suddenly, goblins and monsters were taking over her mind. She started to go screaming and shouting. Soon later, she fainted when her dad quickly grabbed her and dragged her to where the coffin was. The parents quickly placed Mary and put sand around so that she cannot come out. They heard nothing although their distance during the night. When her parents opened the coffin next morning, they saw nothing but splattered blood. They tried to look for her everywhere, but she was not found anywhere. The parents died during the year Mary had gone missing. Then as the new family moved in, they were killed in a month or so. All because of Mary's curse. 

Group members:
-Alissa (8AA Music)
-Danya (8AA Music)
-Mayukh (8AA Art)
-Runa (8AA Art)
-Safa (8AA Music)
-Lina (8BB Music)
-Nazih (8BB Art)

Lesson 1-4

We spent our time in the music room discussing our ideas and planning out on what to do, by when and the story requires in the field of music and art. Started to plan out the music required (decided which app/instrument to use), and the rough draft on the characters too. Both art and music members were able to give ideas to each other to make the successful play. 

Lesson 5-10

We separated ourselves into musicians and artists. This helped a lot in focusing on our job that has to be completed for our play. We started off with backgrounds then moved onto characters since we can identify the problem in the size and design of each character only after we finish the background. I was the one who drawn out the requirements onto the cardboard, and Mayukh was the one to cut out and fix any necessary parts after an easy test with the flashlight. Nazih mostly did the steps alone, creating monsters that completely follows his imagination. For instance, he created a dragon that blows fire out of his mouth. In this case, I contacted the musicians to find a noise for fire so that the visual is not just seen but also heard. However, as the time passed we needed to use cutter knives. In this situation, me and Mayukh's role switched, since I was more used to using such tools.

Reflections

- Reflect on your Process and Tell how the Work is coming together

Right now, we are finished with the puppets that are things (which includes cottage, 3monsters, 4graves). Mayukh and Nazih were in charged of creating the monsters, meanwhile, I was creating the cottage and graves. In one of the graves, I made a big one that says ‘RIP MARY’ which is cut out using the cutting knife. Since it is the shadow, no matter which color we use, we could not manage in showing the letters. That’s why I decided to cut it out. This was the difficult bit on my part. The setting was ‘family after the family went dying after Mary’s curse’. For this reason, I had to create a few of the graves. If we have time, we are also planning to create the coffin, which is for Mary to be locked in. We have sort of started with human characters. We have planned to create 3 Mary, which is one normal, one hurt, one sort of dead, (if we have time, Mary cursing the cottage too), the parents (4 since 2 for each mother and father), doctor, and the family that moves in. We started with the family since they only have to be done as a piece but with 4 people’s silhouettes has to be in it. We have to make 1 more so then the number of graves and the number of people who dies matches. We have to create 2 mothers and fathers because one is meant to be normal, other ones dragging mary to the grave. The doctor is the one to tell Mary that she has schizophrenia. I am honestly not sure how our presentation and music’s presentation will come together since we did not practice together yet, just because neither of us finished with our own part. Hopefully, we will finish by January so that we could practice from February.

- Tell about the style of the horror story, and describe the music that is paired with it. Where did the inspiration come from?

Our group's horror story is about Mary who gets schizophrenia and describing her situation, so it becomes like a descriptive piece but easier to understand since it has visual and sound effects. Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts. It also makes the person have difficulty in distinguishing between the real word and the imaginary world. In some cases, they may also have difficulty in expressing normal emotions in social situations. We have especially focused on the part of fact, which is 'having difficulty in distinguishing between the real world and imaginary world'. This was due to the fact that the imaginary world here means the world full of monsters and demons according to our research. We thought if we use this in a way of creating monsters that look scary and frightening, it will be very helpful in creating the scary imagery in visual performance. The music is based on piano, guitar, a song that sounds like a hymn, and the narration of the story. This piano will require 3 people, 1 person will be doing guitar, hymn sort of sound is from the internet, and narration voice will most likely be recorded. According to what my group mates had said, they told me that they did not get much inspiration, they only got a few from the movies they had seen in the past. Mostly, their music was explored, during the lesson time. For the narration, we will ask Mayukh to read it, since he is able to create the scary atmosphere, and can read without making a lot of mistakes. 

- Describe the use of technologies in your work and describe how this relates to the Global Context of Scientific Innovation. 

In our group's work, there aren't much of the 'significant use of technology'. However, we are using them in bits of pieces in here and there, such as taking music from the internet, recording voice requires devices, using a flashlight to project the visual imagery, etc. The rest is operated/created by hand since there aren't a lot of things to use technology. I think that the well-balanced combination of handwork and use of technology can lead to being able to create a project with better quality. I think that this should not be applied just for this project, but also at any time when creating tech-related performances.