Sara Bernstein Arts 2gether Journal November 20, 2012
I was definitely not looking forward to today’s arts together meeting. Its no secret that I have been becoming increasingly frustrated as the weeks go on, however I am determined to not let this hold me back or to make me stand offish with M. He is truly a great person and I need to focus on the things he does do rather then get disappointed by the things he doesn’t. I think my problem was not that I had expectations for him to complete tasks but as I look around at what my classmates are doing I become worried when M doesn’t stay on task. However after having a conversation with Alice I understand that not only is no student alike, no disability is alike. Although M has downs and autism there is no way to predict how he will or will not act, therefore we need to do what is best for him. Today we started off by trying to do an adaptation of an activity with clay. We wanted M to throw it at a piece of paper that was on the ground. We thought it would be a way to do the paint splatter activity with another medium, but M never really seemed interested so we went for a walk. On this walk Cameron and I really took the time to hang out with M and embrace his personality. He is really loving and funny. He loves to make people laugh and have a good time. We walked around the entire campus and I think he enjoyed this activity more then anything else we have ever done. At this moment I realized that M is not like any other student involved in arts together not because his disability is different but because he is significantly older then everyone else. He doesn’t come to arts together to do art, although I’m sure he enjoys that component of the class but to be around people his own age. M is a very social person, he loves being around other people, and filming others. He interacts with Cameron and I as friends. I think he likes when we walk around because we are just hanging out in an informal setting just as normal teens. During this time M listens to music and is independent, which is something he doesn’t get to do very often. His mother, his sister or Alice his instructor, are not around. He is free to act how he pleases. Coming to this realization really opened my eyes and truly helped me to understand that no matter what activity we do or do not do does not matter. What matters is that we all have a good time especially M which will only happen when I relax, let my guard down and trust that whatever happens will be ok. I don’t need to know exactly what will happen when we are completing tasks, this opportunity is not only for M to learn from me but more for me to learn from M.
Taryn Pizza Disability Studies in Art Education Reflection #6: November 20, 2012
This week in Arts2gether Amanda and I worked with J to finish the filming for our music video. There were a few scenes that we needed to get done and were able to keep J on task to do them. J was excited to finish up the filming and we got to be quite inventive while doing it. Although the theater people did not come this week to work with us we were able to get quite a lot done on our own and in Smiley. We hung up the graveyard scene backdrop on the wall that J had created and we got right to work.
One scene that became quite interesting was the transformation of Amanda into a zombie for narrative purposes. We have been trying to steer J away from making this exactly like Michael Jackson’s video and want her to take some artistic liberties of her own. With this scene she really did that. She came up with the idea to show Amanda’s transformation by outlining her body, covering her up with the outlined paper, and having her grow out of the paper in a sense. Without realizing it J was sort of creating the paper, particularly red paper, as a symbol for this transformation from human to an evil being. Including herself in the scene to act as the scarred victim, we practiced her shock face a few times. Doing this scene we had to do a few takes, playing around with a few different camera angles, seeing what J liked best.
Through doing different takes and going through each one seeing what we like, it seems that J is getting a sense of what it takes to make a film. That you’re not going to get it perfect each time and have to work to get exactly what you want. J was very creative in this process and is no doubt a natural actress. She is anything but camera shy and clearly has fun with what we are doing. A big part of this I think is that we allow her to set up the scene. Amanda and I have found a nice balance of giving her the task but then allowing her the artistic liberties as in how exactly she wants the particular scenes done. I am looking forward to getting these clips up loaded and begin putting the music video together. I know that J will get enjoyment out of being able to go through what we’ve done and put it together.
Last class, Michelle, T, A, and I focused on doing the cropping theme again with the video. We once again had a great, enjoyable time. I had said that seeing both T and A was the biggest highlight of my day. A said in response, “this is actually the highlight of my week. I don’t want to give you both too much credit- maybe this is one of my highlights, jokingly.” I love how I can see A’s sense of humor come out, and you can tell that A has a great time with us. Hearing that from A made me feel really happy. As well, T was sad that we only had a few more classes with her. She was like, “what are we going to do when we don’t get to see you anymore.”
What was interesting about today was that we not only focused on similar things as last week, but also we introduced props. We utilized the props a little bit, which put an interesting dimension on our narrative. It amplified the silliness, which are trying to provoke through our narrative movie. Michelle and I tend to ask questions to both A and T such as they think certain things can be accomplished, what they think about certain ideas, how they can implement that idea. For example, I may ask A a question like, “how can we make your facial expression and accent more like a certain character.” I can see him thinking things through. As well, T has such wonderful ideas. I feel like she thinks like an older, more mature individual. For example, she will say something like, “I think that we all can be the first character of the narrative (the Vet), but after that to distiquish between the characters, I think we all should be a different character.
Again, the dynamic between T and A was great. There is such an energy that puts the room alive!
During this last class meeting, we continued with filming our student and director of his film, a documentary on his favorite hobby, archery. We set him up in a chair in front of a bookshelf with books to make him look more scholarly and/or to make it look like he was in a library. Overall, he seems very happy with this filming project on archery.
Heidi and I have really learned how reciprocal teaching and learning can be through this endeavor. Heidi worked on drafting a story board for the film to be developed; ordering the information be shared in a sequential manner. She is using a black marker and poster board for this story board. We reviewed together the topics and subtopics covered.
We again discussed filming on location at the archery course where our student practices with permission secured. In order to do this a date and approximate time were determined. Directions were secured for the Ti Yogi Bowmen Archery Course in Hyde Park. It is a private club. Contact was made with one of the members who had to give permission for us to come in. Safety was one concern determining where we could shoot. Privacy was another. Wednesday is the designated day for us to come of this week. Our student actively shoots though on Monday nights. He was promoted to a higher division and his night changed.
Heidi and I decided we would write a poem based on archery for the project too. This is a challenge to our student director also, since he likes poetry writing. This gives us an opportunity to be creative together with our student.
Michelle Williams Disability Studies in Art Education Arts-2-Gether Reflection Paper #6 11/26/12
Tuesday was another encouraging class for Amy, A, T and I. We began by continuing videoing for our project. We had a blast, as always. T also brought in her drawings, which were amazing. T was asking all of our ages, and I realized that she is only 10. She is so mature for her age! Besides being polite, respectful, and smart, she is incredibly artistic. Her cartoons were amazingly well done, and humorous. I really hope she continues to pursue this, and I will keep encouraging her to keep drawing.
Each week, T and A ask us how many more days we have together. When we told them only four, they became sad, especially T. She keeps asking if we can go longer, and this time she asked if maybe we could meet together another day, or make a club so we could hang out. T told us it was the highlight of her day, to which A responded that it was the highlight of his week. It’s very interesting, because it seems as though A isn’t listening, but really he is listening intently to everything. I think this is very useful to take note of. As a teacher, it is only normal to search for a response, and to watch for a students reaction to listening. Yet, we cannot assume that a student is not listening if they do not act as if they are, or if they do not respond immediately. Working with A has helped me become more patient, and showed me how students will respond in their own way and at their own pace, if you give them the time.
One thing I noticed about A is how he was very possessive over his hat. He had his cookie monster hat on, and we asked him about it. A mentioned how friends ordered it for him, and you could tell how sincerely happy he was about it when he recounted the story to us. Amy put his hat on, and then walked out of the room with it on still. A asked, Where is she going with my hat?. He looked disturbed and started to twitch. Then, he mentioned it again under his breath when Amy got back with his hat still on her head. I thought this might be an characteristic of Aspergers, yet it seemed more like an act to be funny. Why I say that is because when his mom came into the room to pick him up, he told her how Amy took his hat, and told his mom how he started twitching. So, he is either very aware of his feelings, or he did it to be funny. Either way, he does have a strong attachment to his hat. A continues to thoroughly think out all his voices and narratives. He calls himself a perfectionist, and definitely sets high standards for himself.
While we were in the middle of discussing ideas, T randomly said we’re like the Five Musketeers, and told us that we make a great team. It really touches my heart how much they enjoy our time together, and that they trust Amy and I. We’re making art, yet they are so busy having fun, they don’t really realize it. I think that is the way it should be sometimes, especially with certain students. Instead of making things seem like a project that we’re assigning them, not only do we work as a team but we discuss how we would like to do things. While Amy and I do facilitate how we work at times, all we are really doing is directing and keeping us on track. A and T do the rest.
This past week, we hung up the backdrop we’ve been working on with J since we had finished painting. Since there were no theatre people, we decided to film all the little scenes in between for the sake of the plot in our final video. Because we knew what specific things she wanted to include, we had more control this week that last time. We filmed me being J’s date as we walking past the graveyard and waking up to a bad dream. The Michael Jackson video is completely out of our reach to replicate or ever reinterpret exactly, which is something J seemed to want to obtain. We’ve been trying to explain to her that our music video will be a lot different and we can’t do every scene or every detail as it was originally done. However, she can change things to suit what she wants to do creatively. I think that we will end up with a good balance of focusing on the story we created that is based around the original idea. In one scene, I was meant to transform into a zombie. We were trying to figure out how we could achieve this since we did not have zombie makeup or anything. J came up with the idea to get paper and trace my body. She chose the red paper to use and began tracing my body. We then figured out that it would be most beneficial to have only half the body cut out then when I lay underneath it, I can pop out, as if from the ground and transform. It is interesting to come up with ideas with J since she thinks of things differently than the way Taryn and I think. Together we make a good collaborative team. After we were finished we re-watched the various dance scenes and we all were very proud of the things we filmed, especially J. We’re having a lot of fun together in the making of this project. It has developed into us joking around and laughing at ourselves on the camera. J and I were matching and we kept joking around about it for the duration of our time together. We are all looking forward to the next step of reviewing our videos, re-filming any extra parts and editing it together.
This Arts 2gether session Jenn, N, and I started filming. We spent some time searching the building for a good place to film the interrogation scenes from N's script. He envisioned the interrogation scene in a basement room with no windows to get that dark, intense feeling he wanted for the scene. We couldn't find any rooms in the building that really fit that description. Though, we found the elevator. N really liked the way the elevator looked and we decided to film in there. We found a desk we could roll in there and started filming some dialogue. We went through the dialogue a couple times and N decided he would like to take it home so he could memorize it better for next time. We decided to just use the filming we had done that day as test film. We established the location for filming and how we're going to film, so next time we just need to set it up and do some concrete shots. It was actually pretty fun having us all crammed into that elevator and acting out scenes. The only challenges I came across this session were that N's ideas for how he wants things to look for his movie scenes are very specific. Luckily, I feel like Jenn and I together are pretty flexible and able to find places that meet his standards.
Today was a lot of fun. We finally got started on filming. We spent the first few minutes getting the camera all situated and getting out the graph paper, pencil, and putting a math equation on the marker board. It took me a while to try and remember how to make an equation for the graph that she wanted to draw. I was kind of mad that I couldn’t remember how to do it. I used to be so good at math but it’s been a while I guess. After that we were trying to act out what we wanted to do for the video. We started with me as the teacher at the board teaching a math lesson on graphing equations and I notice that Hannah isn’t really paying attention so I give her a disturbed look that says, “Pay attention.” After that the camera goes to Hannah and you see her face all quizzical because she just got caught. She tries to do the problem but she gets confused so she scruples up the paper and throws it in a pile next to her. Even after I talk to her she still can’t seem to pay attention so she starts to doodle. First she doodles a bunch of whatever. She didn’t like it though so she crumpled it up and threw it in the pile next to her. That was as far as we got on that day but next week we plan to draw the parabola shape we had planned all along. I feel like we got a lot done today. This video has been a lot of fun.
December 20th we met again with A and we decided to change locations. We noticed that A gets easily distracted by the other students as well as the dog. The change of location was very successful; A seemed to be able to concentrate a lot better. We continued with making monsters and telling a story. I am so glad that we found something that A is interested in. Even though it took a while to find a topic A likes, I believe we are now on the right track. A seemed to like the idea of aliens and he told us a story about the orphan planet. I don’t know much about science, but A really loves the subject. He goes on and on about the stars and planets among many other topics. A is very enthusiastic when it comes to science and astronomy so I’m glad we are incorporating that idea into our project. We asked A if he wanted to include the orphan planet into his story and he said yes. He decided to name his alien Bob. The story is that Bob decided to take a trip to his uncle’s house on the orphan planet; but Bobs spaceship caught on fire and he ended up crash landing into his uncles house. A likes to tell stories so this part was not so difficult but it seems like A hesitates a bit when it comes to drawing. I think it helps A when we draw with him. So we started asking A about the story and drawing parts of it along with him. When we are done A can determine if it works for our story or not.
In this arts 2-gether Rebecca and I decided it would be best to change locations. It seems that A gets very distracted when there are other students around. It is difficult to get him to focus on a project. A seems to enjoy his projects for a couple minutes and then gets very distracted and begins to talk about other things and discontinue his drawing. When we moved to the other room he really seemed to be able to focus on the task in front of him. We moved to the computer lab where there were only a few people working quietly, rather than an entire class working loudly. We started by working off the monster drawings and stories that we started the class before. Once we got him focused, we began to explain our new project. We were going to create a character, A ended up creating an alien, and then write a story based on that character. A seemed to be very interested in this project. We were writing down the story as he told it and began to draw it. As he was drawing I continued to read the story back to him. I think that this helped him focus on the task in front of him. This was the first class that I could see A was enjoying himself. He seemed to be very interested in the story. I think this was a very good start to a great story by a very talented boy.
This was a pretty productive session in our Arts2Gether experience. N*** had his script ready to go and all we had to do was find somewhere to start filming. Surprisingly, this was harder than it sounds! The bulk of our film takes place in an "interrogation room," so we needed to find a room with no windows that looked like an intense, possibly threatening place to be. N*** had a very specific idea for what he wanted his film to look like so there was a lot of pressure to find the perfect place. I feel like Susan and I were pretty accommodating with N***'s requests to find exactly what he wanted, but it was definitely a little nerve-wracking when we were wasting our short time together not filming. Something that is definitely a little frustrating working with N*** is his unwillingness to change once he has his mind set on things. I attribute this mostly to his age, because I know when I was 15, I felt a lot more comfortable doing things I already knew than trying something new and doing the latter kind of freaked me out. Susan and I try to over-compensate for this because we realize how he gets pretty annoyed when things don't really go his way, but sometimes it's difficult when we are trying to get things done and N*** doesn't understand the time constraints. We did get to film a little bit that class, however, none of it was really usable in the end. N*** wanted to go home and rehearse his lines some more, because it was hard for him to remember them all in sequence (especially since he is playing two characters). We also found a really cool place to shoot the interrogation scene: the elevator! Although it was a little small, we were able to wheel in a small table and figured out a cool way to arrange the shots. N*** was totally the overseer on everything from the costumes to the directing to even the filming, and it was inspiring to see how invested he was in the movie. The elevator was a fun place to film in because we had to always worry about the possibility of it moving, or someone coming in, and it made us all a little more on edge... like we would be in an actual interrogation room! Overall, definitely a productive day and in the end, we had some fun with the bad takes and errors made in the filming process.
Today we decided that we needed footage of our student looking intelligent and like a professional, so we asked him some questions in front of the bookcase in the back of the classroom. He looked like a scholar and a gentleman! We are very excited for our video. He recited the safety rules of the range from memory. It seems he sometimes gets caught up on things, like when reciting the rules he repeated #3 twice, and repeated one of the rules twice. It is perhaps like the order of things gets jumbled in his mind. I am amazed at his ability to remember all of these things, and am impressed by this skill. We also started a story board for our movie today. I started laying it out while Freida talked to our student about poetry more. Trying to figure out the order of our movie is difficult, because there is so much we want to include in it!! I am amazed at how much we are learning from him. Take things simply, and go slow because there is a lot you can miss when you are moving fast all the time. I have realized that I need to slow down; I talk fast, I walk fast, I eat fast, I am doing everything at such a fast pace that I have no time to slow down and appreciate everything around me. Yes, maybe our student is taking things slow because he has to, but in such a fast paced world, I believe he is making the best observations and getting the best information at the pace that works for him. I admire this, and hope to apply this speed to my life.
Sara Bernstein
ReplyDeleteArts 2gether Journal
November 20, 2012
I was definitely not looking forward to today’s arts together meeting. Its no secret that I have been becoming increasingly frustrated as the weeks go on, however I am determined to not let this hold me back or to make me stand offish with M. He is truly a great person and I need to focus on the things he does do rather then get disappointed by the things he doesn’t. I think my problem was not that I had expectations for him to complete tasks but as I look around at what my classmates are doing I become worried when M doesn’t stay on task. However after having a conversation with Alice I understand that not only is no student alike, no disability is alike. Although M has downs and autism there is no way to predict how he will or will not act, therefore we need to do what is best for him.
Today we started off by trying to do an adaptation of an activity with clay. We wanted M to throw it at a piece of paper that was on the ground. We thought it would be a way to do the paint splatter activity with another medium, but M never really seemed interested so we went for a walk. On this walk Cameron and I really took the time to hang out with M and embrace his personality. He is really loving and funny. He loves to make people laugh and have a good time. We walked around the entire campus and I think he enjoyed this activity more then anything else we have ever done. At this moment I realized that M is not like any other student involved in arts together not because his disability is different but because he is significantly older then everyone else.
He doesn’t come to arts together to do art, although I’m sure he enjoys that component of the class but to be around people his own age. M is a very social person, he loves being around other people, and filming others. He interacts with Cameron and I as friends. I think he likes when we walk around because we are just hanging out in an informal setting just as normal teens. During this time M listens to music and is independent, which is something he doesn’t get to do very often. His mother, his sister or Alice his instructor, are not around. He is free to act how he pleases.
Coming to this realization really opened my eyes and truly helped me to understand that no matter what activity we do or do not do does not matter. What matters is that we all have a good time especially M which will only happen when I relax, let my guard down and trust that whatever happens will be ok. I don’t need to know exactly what will happen when we are completing tasks, this opportunity is not only for M to learn from me but more for me to learn from M.
Taryn Pizza
ReplyDeleteDisability Studies in Art Education
Reflection #6: November 20, 2012
This week in Arts2gether Amanda and I worked with J to finish the filming for our music video. There were a few scenes that we needed to get done and were able to keep J on task to do them. J was excited to finish up the filming and we got to be quite inventive while doing it. Although the theater people did not come this week to work with us we were able to get quite a lot done on our own and in Smiley. We hung up the graveyard scene backdrop on the wall that J had created and we got right to work.
One scene that became quite interesting was the transformation of Amanda into a zombie for narrative purposes. We have been trying to steer J away from making this exactly like Michael Jackson’s video and want her to take some artistic liberties of her own. With this scene she really did that. She came up with the idea to show Amanda’s transformation by outlining her body, covering her up with the outlined paper, and having her grow out of the paper in a sense. Without realizing it J was sort of creating the paper, particularly red paper, as a symbol for this transformation from human to an evil being. Including herself in the scene to act as the scarred victim, we practiced her shock face a few times. Doing this scene we had to do a few takes, playing around with a few different camera angles, seeing what J liked best.
Through doing different takes and going through each one seeing what we like, it seems that J is getting a sense of what it takes to make a film. That you’re not going to get it perfect each time and have to work to get exactly what you want. J was very creative in this process and is no doubt a natural actress. She is anything but camera shy and clearly has fun with what we are doing. A big part of this I think is that we allow her to set up the scene. Amanda and I have found a nice balance of giving her the task but then allowing her the artistic liberties as in how exactly she wants the particular scenes done. I am looking forward to getting these clips up loaded and begin putting the music video together. I know that J will get enjoyment out of being able to go through what we’ve done and put it together.
Amy Diener
ReplyDeleteDisability Studies
Last class, Michelle, T, A, and I focused on doing the cropping theme again with the video. We once again had a great, enjoyable time. I had said that seeing both T and A was the biggest highlight of my day. A said in response, “this is actually the highlight of my week. I don’t want to give you both too much credit- maybe this is one of my highlights, jokingly.” I love how I can see A’s sense of humor come out, and you can tell that A has a great time with us. Hearing that from A made me feel really happy. As well, T was sad that we only had a few more classes with her. She was like, “what are we going to do when we don’t get to see you anymore.”
What was interesting about today was that we not only focused on similar things as last week, but also we introduced props. We utilized the props a little bit, which put an interesting dimension on our narrative. It amplified the silliness, which are trying to provoke through our narrative movie. Michelle and I tend to ask questions to both A and T such as they think certain things can be accomplished, what they think about certain ideas, how they can implement that idea. For example, I may ask A a question like, “how can we make your facial expression and accent more like a certain character.” I can see him thinking things through. As well, T has such wonderful ideas. I feel like she thinks like an older, more mature individual. For example, she will say something like, “I think that we all can be the first character of the narrative (the Vet), but after that to distiquish between the characters, I think we all should be a different character.
Again, the dynamic between T and A was great. There is such an energy that puts the room alive!
Arts-2-Gether 11-20-12 Freida Wright
ReplyDeleteDuring this last class meeting, we continued with filming our student and director of his film, a documentary on his favorite hobby, archery. We set him up in a chair in front of a bookshelf with books to make him look more scholarly and/or to make it look like he was in a library. Overall, he seems very happy with this filming project on archery.
Heidi and I have really learned how reciprocal teaching and learning can be through this endeavor. Heidi worked on drafting a story board for the film to be developed; ordering the information be shared in a sequential manner. She is using a black marker and poster board for this story board. We reviewed together the topics and subtopics covered.
We again discussed filming on location at the archery course where our student practices with permission secured. In order to do this a date and approximate time were determined. Directions were secured for the Ti Yogi Bowmen Archery Course in Hyde Park. It is a private club. Contact was made with one of the members who had to give permission for us to come in. Safety was one concern determining where we could shoot. Privacy was another. Wednesday is the designated day for us to come of this week. Our student actively shoots though on Monday nights. He was promoted to a higher division and his night changed.
Heidi and I decided we would write a poem based on archery for the project too. This is a challenge to our student director also, since he likes poetry writing. This gives us an opportunity to be creative together with our student.
Michelle Williams
ReplyDeleteDisability Studies in Art Education
Arts-2-Gether
Reflection Paper #6
11/26/12
Tuesday was another encouraging class for Amy, A, T and I. We began by continuing videoing for our project. We had a blast, as always. T also brought in her drawings, which were amazing. T was asking all of our ages, and I realized that she is only 10. She is so mature for her age! Besides being polite, respectful, and smart, she is incredibly artistic. Her cartoons were amazingly well done, and humorous. I really hope she continues to pursue this, and I will keep encouraging her to keep drawing.
Each week, T and A ask us how many more days we have together. When we told them only four, they became sad, especially T. She keeps asking if we can go longer, and this time she asked if maybe we could meet together another day, or make a club so we could hang out. T told us it was the highlight of her day, to which A responded that it was the highlight of his week. It’s very interesting, because it seems as though A isn’t listening, but really he is listening intently to everything. I think this is very useful to take note of. As a teacher, it is only normal to search for a response, and to watch for a students reaction to listening. Yet, we cannot assume that a student is not listening if they do not act as if they are, or if they do not respond immediately. Working with A has helped me become more patient, and showed me how students will respond in their own way and at their own pace, if you give them the time.
One thing I noticed about A is how he was very possessive over his hat. He had his cookie monster hat on, and we asked him about it. A mentioned how friends ordered it for him, and you could tell how sincerely happy he was about it when he recounted the story to us. Amy put his hat on, and then walked out of the room with it on still. A asked, Where is she going with my hat?. He looked disturbed and started to twitch. Then, he mentioned it again under his breath when Amy got back with his hat still on her head. I thought this might be an characteristic of Aspergers, yet it seemed more like an act to be funny. Why I say that is because when his mom came into the room to pick him up, he told her how Amy took his hat, and told his mom how he started twitching. So, he is either very aware of his feelings, or he did it to be funny. Either way, he does have a strong attachment to his hat. A continues to thoroughly think out all his voices and narratives. He calls himself a perfectionist, and definitely sets high standards for himself.
While we were in the middle of discussing ideas, T randomly said we’re like the Five Musketeers, and told us that we make a great team. It really touches my heart how much they enjoy our time together, and that they trust Amy and I. We’re making art, yet they are so busy having fun, they don’t really realize it. I think that is the way it should be sometimes, especially with certain students. Instead of making things seem like a project that we’re assigning them, not only do we work as a team but we discuss how we would like to do things. While Amy and I do facilitate how we work at times, all we are really doing is directing and keeping us on track. A and T do the rest.
This past week, we hung up the backdrop we’ve been working on with J since we had finished painting. Since there were no theatre people, we decided to film all the little scenes in between for the sake of the plot in our final video. Because we knew what specific things she wanted to include, we had more control this week that last time. We filmed me being J’s date as we walking past the graveyard and waking up to a bad dream. The Michael Jackson video is completely out of our reach to replicate or ever reinterpret exactly, which is something J seemed to want to obtain. We’ve been trying to explain to her that our music video will be a lot different and we can’t do every scene or every detail as it was originally done. However, she can change things to suit what she wants to do creatively. I think that we will end up with a good balance of focusing on the story we created that is based around the original idea.
ReplyDeleteIn one scene, I was meant to transform into a zombie. We were trying to figure out how we could achieve this since we did not have zombie makeup or anything. J came up with the idea to get paper and trace my body. She chose the red paper to use and began tracing my body. We then figured out that it would be most beneficial to have only half the body cut out then when I lay underneath it, I can pop out, as if from the ground and transform. It is interesting to come up with ideas with J since she thinks of things differently than the way Taryn and I think. Together we make a good collaborative team.
After we were finished we re-watched the various dance scenes and we all were very proud of the things we filmed, especially J. We’re having a lot of fun together in the making of this project. It has developed into us joking around and laughing at ourselves on the camera. J and I were matching and we kept joking around about it for the duration of our time together. We are all looking forward to the next step of reviewing our videos, re-filming any extra parts and editing it together.
This Arts 2gether session Jenn, N, and I started filming. We spent some time searching the building for a good place to film the interrogation scenes from N's script. He envisioned the interrogation scene in a basement room with no windows to get that dark, intense feeling he wanted for the scene. We couldn't find any rooms in the building that really fit that description. Though, we found the elevator. N really liked the way the elevator looked and we decided to film in there. We found a desk we could roll in there and started filming some dialogue. We went through the dialogue a couple times and N decided he would like to take it home so he could memorize it better for next time. We decided to just use the filming we had done that day as test film. We established the location for filming and how we're going to film, so next time we just need to set it up and do some concrete shots. It was actually pretty fun having us all crammed into that elevator and acting out scenes. The only challenges I came across this session were that N's ideas for how he wants things to look for his movie scenes are very specific. Luckily, I feel like Jenn and I together are pretty flexible and able to find places that meet his standards.
ReplyDeleteBethany Hall
ReplyDeleteToday was a lot of fun. We finally got started on filming. We spent the first few minutes getting the camera all situated and getting out the graph paper, pencil, and putting a math equation on the marker board. It took me a while to try and remember how to make an equation for the graph that she wanted to draw. I was kind of mad that I couldn’t remember how to do it. I used to be so good at math but it’s been a while I guess.
After that we were trying to act out what we wanted to do for the video. We started with me as the teacher at the board teaching a math lesson on graphing equations and I notice that Hannah isn’t really paying attention so I give her a disturbed look that says, “Pay attention.” After that the camera goes to Hannah and you see her face all quizzical because she just got caught. She tries to do the problem but she gets confused so she scruples up the paper and throws it in a pile next to her. Even after I talk to her she still can’t seem to pay attention so she starts to doodle.
First she doodles a bunch of whatever. She didn’t like it though so she crumpled it up and threw it in the pile next to her. That was as far as we got on that day but next week we plan to draw the parabola shape we had planned all along. I feel like we got a lot done today. This video has been a lot of fun.
December 20th we met again with A and we decided to change locations. We noticed that A gets easily distracted by the other students as well as the dog. The change of location was very successful; A seemed to be able to concentrate a lot better. We continued with making monsters and telling a story. I am so glad that we found something that A is interested in. Even though it took a while to find a topic A likes, I believe we are now on the right track. A seemed to like the idea of aliens and he told us a story about the orphan planet. I don’t know much about science, but A really loves the subject. He goes on and on about the stars and planets among many other topics. A is very enthusiastic when it comes to science and astronomy so I’m glad we are incorporating that idea into our project. We asked A if he wanted to include the orphan planet into his story and he said yes. He decided to name his alien Bob. The story is that Bob decided to take a trip to his uncle’s house on the orphan planet; but Bobs spaceship caught on fire and he ended up crash landing into his uncles house. A likes to tell stories so this part was not so difficult but it seems like A hesitates a bit when it comes to drawing. I think it helps A when we draw with him. So we started asking A about the story and drawing parts of it along with him. When we are done A can determine if it works for our story or not.
ReplyDeleteIn this arts 2-gether Rebecca and I decided it would be best to change locations. It seems that A gets very distracted when there are other students around. It is difficult to get him to focus on a project. A seems to enjoy his projects for a couple minutes and then gets very distracted and begins to talk about other things and discontinue his drawing. When we moved to the other room he really seemed to be able to focus on the task in front of him. We moved to the computer lab where there were only a few people working quietly, rather than an entire class working loudly. We started by working off the monster drawings and stories that we started the class before. Once we got him focused, we began to explain our new project. We were going to create a character, A ended up creating an alien, and then write a story based on that character. A seemed to be very interested in this project. We were writing down the story as he told it and began to draw it. As he was drawing I continued to read the story back to him. I think that this helped him focus on the task in front of him. This was the first class that I could see A was enjoying himself. He seemed to be very interested in the story. I think this was a very good start to a great story by a very talented boy.
ReplyDeleteThis was a pretty productive session in our Arts2Gether experience. N*** had his script ready to go and all we had to do was find somewhere to start filming. Surprisingly, this was harder than it sounds! The bulk of our film takes place in an "interrogation room," so we needed to find a room with no windows that looked like an intense, possibly threatening place to be. N*** had a very specific idea for what he wanted his film to look like so there was a lot of pressure to find the perfect place. I feel like Susan and I were pretty accommodating with N***'s requests to find exactly what he wanted, but it was definitely a little nerve-wracking when we were wasting our short time together not filming.
ReplyDeleteSomething that is definitely a little frustrating working with N*** is his unwillingness to change once he has his mind set on things. I attribute this mostly to his age, because I know when I was 15, I felt a lot more comfortable doing things I already knew than trying something new and doing the latter kind of freaked me out. Susan and I try to over-compensate for this because we realize how he gets pretty annoyed when things don't really go his way, but sometimes it's difficult when we are trying to get things done and N*** doesn't understand the time constraints.
We did get to film a little bit that class, however, none of it was really usable in the end. N*** wanted to go home and rehearse his lines some more, because it was hard for him to remember them all in sequence (especially since he is playing two characters). We also found a really cool place to shoot the interrogation scene: the elevator! Although it was a little small, we were able to wheel in a small table and figured out a cool way to arrange the shots. N*** was totally the overseer on everything from the costumes to the directing to even the filming, and it was inspiring to see how invested he was in the movie. The elevator was a fun place to film in because we had to always worry about the possibility of it moving, or someone coming in, and it made us all a little more on edge... like we would be in an actual interrogation room! Overall, definitely a productive day and in the end, we had some fun with the bad takes and errors made in the filming process.
Today we decided that we needed footage of our student looking intelligent and like a professional, so we asked him some questions in front of the bookcase in the back of the classroom. He looked like a scholar and a gentleman! We are very excited for our video. He recited the safety rules of the range from memory. It seems he sometimes gets caught up on things, like when reciting the rules he repeated #3 twice, and repeated one of the rules twice. It is perhaps like the order of things gets jumbled in his mind. I am amazed at his ability to remember all of these things, and am impressed by this skill.
ReplyDeleteWe also started a story board for our movie today. I started laying it out while Freida talked to our student about poetry more. Trying to figure out the order of our movie is difficult, because there is so much we want to include in it!!
I am amazed at how much we are learning from him. Take things simply, and go slow because there is a lot you can miss when you are moving fast all the time. I have realized that I need to slow down; I talk fast, I walk fast, I eat fast, I am doing everything at such a fast pace that I have no time to slow down and appreciate everything around me. Yes, maybe our student is taking things slow because he has to, but in such a fast paced world, I believe he is making the best observations and getting the best information at the pace that works for him. I admire this, and hope to apply this speed to my life.