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. 

Year8 unit 2

Reflection on the performance in overall Drama

The pictures posted below are my reflection sheets for rotation 1, Drama

STAGE COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHYReflection for Drama and Stage Combat assessment:

In my stage combat performance, I think I did do okay. We made a few cues to each other so that we know , when each movement is coming. However, I noticed I was panicked during my performance which I will have to figure out a way not to. Because of this, I skipped some lines (changed them), and had a delay on the actions. In our choreography, we used slaps (one to be ducked, one blocked, one hit, one back and force), shoves (twice), stomach punch (twice), choking, and hair pull. I found the stomach punch quite hard, since I have never done one before. We could have improved on the timing of the actions, since we could not perform in the best timing although we used some cues to tell each other. After I finished the last lesson of the 12 weeks of drama, I have noticed that the topic we did this term was connected. Melodrama was all about over reacting, and Stage Combat was reacting to something that is not actually occurring. In both topics, I had to over react, to let the audience enjoy or know what was going on. I have learned something interesting in this drama session, which I definitely would not learn if I was not in the school. The slaps, punches, chokes, shoves, killing, eye poke...... They were hard for me since my personality did not fit the topic, but at the end, I finished my drama sessions having fun. I would like to thank all my classmates and my teacher who taught us something quite interesting an fun!! I would like to utilise what I have learnt in drama onto Visual Art and Music which I am going to have in the future. 

This is the video for my stage combat performance

Stage combat Production Notes

Who is she/he?

Person A;
name: Ashley
description: Ashley is the sidekick for Monica and is always with Monica and does whatever Monica said. She was a nerd and was called as Looser Ashley before she became th sidekick of Monica

Person B;
name: Monica
description: Monica is the queen bee of the school. She has a bossy personality and is mean to everyone is meets. Her man sidekick is Ashley and she judges everyone and always makes mean comments about people's outfit, hairstyle, make up and style.

Why are you fighting?

We are fighting because Monica makes mean comments about Aria's hairstyle, when Ashley is friends with her. Ashley feels offended about how Monica talked about Aria. Then she starts to talk about how she was like when she was a looser and nerd before she started to hang out with Monica, who changed her completely. Ashley gets mad and tells Monica, that she is done hanging out with her and she shoves Monica and then they both starts to fight. 

How do you think the stage combat will go?

I am actually very anxious about this project. Both me and Samia are not good with this topic, because we have never really been violent (like slaps, punches, upper cut in the face) before. Plus my personality are not sufficient for this topic since at least I don't know how to be confident when I come in front of people and perform something that I am not good a . That's why we would like to practice outside lessons, to improve our skills on stage combat to take this opportunity in learning how to become over the fear of making mistakes when performing something you are not very good at. 

REFLECTION ON STAGE SLAP

For this stage slap task, I paired up with Maanya. The situation was that I am a worker, who works for the boss which is Maanya. However, we had to create a situation where we create a plot so that it ends up to me slapping the boss. We created the plot which is something like this;

I try to talk to the boss about what I have done so far

She does not listen because she is busy with doing nail polish

I start to get angry and again try to talk to her

Boss gets annoyed and say 'I FIRE YOU!'

Then I say 'YOU FIRE ME, I QUIT!'

Right after I say this, I slap her in the face. 

I think the successful point in this task was that both of us memorised the lines and knew what is to happen next during our performance. I felt really embarrassed when my grade coordinator came into my class when I was about to fake slap her. From my point of view, I felt this task was quite hard, since I have never done things such as slapping someone before. Maanya was very skilful in this, however, I caused her a lot of trouble, since my facial expression looked like as if I was smiling (although I was not) and the slapping hand was too weak. I thought we were not as successful, but not quite unsuccessful either. Let me mention why I think so. I felt like this because we both knew our roles and what we will do next, but our timing wasn't great, and in the first try, I panicked which lead me to slapping her before stopping for my teacher to take a picture (shown above). By the next time I perform, I will have to learn how to not to panic when performing in front of people, which I think I can utilise in other subjects too. 

INTRODUCTION

MYP: Stage Combat
Key concept: communication
Related concept: audience, expression, interpretation, and presentation
Global context: personal and cultural expression?
Statement of inquiry: Combatants use safe and choreographed stage combat, communicating personal and       cultural expressions for the benefit of an audience.
Inquiry question: Factual -why is safety, eye contact and cuing important during stage combat?
                           Conceptual-what is stage combat? Why will actors engage in stage combat? How do you communicate as combatants on stage?
                           Conceptual- How do we mask the audience to create the illusion of contact in stage combat, reflecting conflict in a real life situation?
                           Debatable-how realistic is stage combat in different movies? How do they create sound: today snaps or prerecorded sound effects?