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
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.
