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Overview
In fourth grade, students complete two major projects that explore audio and visual storytelling. To do so, students explore film and stagecraft (theatrical design).
Current Project: Students work in pairs to produce a short hand colorized film inspired by early film history. Throughout the process, they explore early film technology, acting for the camera, physical expression, and composition. The project culminates with a viewing party and release of their short films to the MP&MS community.
Ensemble Building
Before diving into major projects, students spent several weeks taking part in drama games to build ensemble and review performance basics. They also spent time learning how to compose dynamic stage pictures using tableau: motionless actors representing a scene in a story.
Madlib Fairytales
In small groups, the fourth grade actors wrote silly Madlib fairytales. Although their fairytales were classically Madlib nonsensical, they were challenged to incorporate key elements of a fairytale: magic, hero vs. villain, happily ever after, etc. To prepare for their in-class performance, each group collaboratively staged their fairytale and applied their tableau skills.
Kinetoscope Films
Inspired by late 19th century Kinetoscope films, student filmmakers acted out and filmed their favorite MP&MS recess activity in 12 long shot frames.
After filming, they hand colored black and white printouts of each frame.
During the colorizing process, filmmakers watched a variety of early silent films such as A Trip to the Moon and One Week. Throughout they discussed what surprised them about the films, how they differed from modern film, and how they imagined the films were made.
Please enjoy their final film below!
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