Juliet and Romeo

Juliet and Romeo

Though Romeo and Juliet is a story based on a variety of characters, the Romeo and Juliet project involved positions like writers, directors and actors, which were filled by regular ninth grade students. This project taught many different values that a simple essay just can’t. In an average classroom, a student takes tests, write notes, and listens to the teacher all day. This project let the students experience things that they wouldn’t get a chance to in an everyday classroom. The project introduces important things like organizations, respect, and leadership skills. It also lets the students use new technology that will be used for the rest of their lives. Also, the project helped develop friendships and memories. Most importantly though, it taught collaboration, which is something all of the students will need in the future. A project, that has never been tried before, has many things to teach that a simple classroom can’t.

As mentioned, the students learned respect, organization, and leadership. The students had to stay organized in order to stay on schedule. If they hadn’t had everything laid out and well planned, the project would have been a disaster. This entire project was student run, and their responsibility. For example, if a writer didn’t do their job and meet the dead lines of the project, everyone else would be behind. When each student did their job, to the best of their ability, the students began to respect each other. The respect each student gained for each other is something that a normal classroom environment cannot replicate. Also, this project brought out the leaders in each class. The students who took control and began making the decisions on the production wouldn’t have been able to show their leadership if it hadn’t been for this project. Leadership, organization, and respect are tools that the students will use for the rest of their lives. These three tools are great things for the students to learn, but so is technology.

A tool that the students used during this project was the use of technology. Throughout the project, technology had to be used to keep in contact with the Iowa students, edit the film, and finish some of the requirements like blogging and discussion questions. The students used Skype to communicate with the students from Iowa, make decisions about the film, and how it would be done. Also, a computer was used to do the editing of the film. Most importantly, the students used blogger.com and turnitin.com to keep a “journal” of what each of them did during the production. All of these techniques taught the students necessary skills to be successful in the job market. These tools can’t be learned without this type of hands-on experience that this project provided. Though technology was a good tool used in this project, the memorable moments were important too.

Other things that the students got out of this project were the memories made. A project this big is something that students soon won’t forget. Since the students put so much effort into this, they won’t forget how special it is. Not only did the students make memories, but they made friendships that could last a lifetime. Not only were local school friendships made, but friendships with the students from Iowa were also created. Those kinds of friendships can’t be made while sitting in class learning the traditional way. This project did more than just teach, but it brought the students together. It also shows that school isn’t just sitting around doing book work and taking tests, it’s about interacting and making memories. Memories and friendships were important things taken from this project, but so is the collaboration aspect of it.

One thing that this project taught was the tool of collaboration. This learning tool was used throughout the project because the students had to communicate not only with their own classmates, but with students in a different state. The writers had to collaborate with the writers from Iowa to make sure that they were writing the same type of story. If the writers wouldn’t have communicated with each other, they could have maybe written two different story lines, which would make the movie very confusing. Also, communication between actors of same rolls is important because they need to decide how they want to present themselves during filming, so they are as alike as possible in the film. All of the student’s collaboration between their own classmates and those in Iowa, teaches the students communication skills that can be used later in life. This type of communication is something that a traditional classroom environment can’t teach as well as this project can.

This project taught these students many things. It taught leadership, respecting each other, and organization. It introduced the students to new technology and created memories that they would never forget. Also, it taught the students about collaboration. All of these things were used and learned throughout the project. This project, that had never been tried before, taught many things that a simple classroom environment couldn’t teach.

Last Blog :(

We finally finished filming! Now that thats done, I am very relieved. The stress of being director was getting to me because a lot of the project relied on me. All of the filming we did made me have to miss some of my practices for tennis and basketball. All-in-all I thought that the project went pretty well because atleast we got it done in time. Another thing that made me agitated was how some people in the group didn't do their work like they signed up for. This all hurt the ability for everyone else to finish their jobs. I really am looking forward to watching the final draft of the project because most of us worked really hard to get the best quality product that we could produce. Though we had some bumps in the road, like loosing the first filming of scene I and having to re-film a portion of scene V, but made it through it all, which really shows how hard we worked. Another thing that we will have to wait for is to see if Van Meter comes through with their two Acts. If all of these things come together, we should have a pretty good project. I am glad I was writer/director for this project, though, because it let me take control and help out in a major way.

Bumps in the Road

This saturday was my first day filming. We all met outside of South ready to film scene 1. As we got started, everything was going fine and we were getting the right shots. Although, after a while, we realized that two of the characters, Lady Capulet and Montague, weren't there. Since the day had been wearing on us, we decided to stop just short of where they would start talking. Calling it a day, we knew that we would have to finish the rest of that scene another day, and we chose Saturday. Everything seemed fine until today when Mike Wronski brought in his camera to see what we had gotten. Going through the tape, we kept playing blank tape. After about 15 minutes of looking, we could not find our film. To try and find out what to do, Matt went down to Mr. Geresy's room to see if he could fix it, but we had no luck. So when Mr. P gets back tomorrow, hopefully we will be able to sort all of this out. The problems keep coming but I have faith that we will be able to finish it in a good amount of time, and with good quality film. The next few days will be crucial for the life of the project and I will keep the blog updated on everything that happens.

A lot of new news!

I just found out that my last post must have encountered some technical difficulties because it is now gone, so i'll just recap what has been going on. I was made director of Act III because Matt Webb had to step down. Now that Act I is done, we have began filming. Yesterday, we filmed scene 2 and 4 at Noelle's house. Though I couldn't be there, I heard everything went really well! Tomorrow we begin filming scene 1, the most intense scene of our Act. We will be using most of the afternoon because we have to get this scene right. The reason we have to is because this is when everything begins to go bad for the characters. Hopefully it all goes well!

New Blog

Now that Mr. Provenzano has posted the schedule for our filming, we found out when our group goes. We will get to start to film Wednesday of next week. Act I will go this week, and Act V is going in two weeks. With all of this planned out, hopefully we can start bringging all of the jobs together. I've been talking to Hunter and Adam, and they said that their prop ideas have come together and they have produced a list. Also I know that Khaled, Jake, and Rachel are going to start filming their video ads today. All of this is very encouraging and  it looks like this is all going to work! I am very excited to see how this all plays out. I will keep this blog updated throughout the process.

Pretty much done

After about a week of writing, it looks like writers and I have finished the basic writing process. Last night I finished Scene III, and today Carolyn and Amanda finished the rest. I am glad to be done with writing because now I can see my writing go into action. It will be cool to see my peers acting it out and all the action come together. I'm anxious for everyone else to get started because we're done now. Hopefully everyone comes through for us. Without them, there is no movie. My part is now done.

Half Way Done

Last night, I finished the last part of Scene I. Not only did we finish scene I, but Amanda already finished scene II which puts us very far ahead of schedule. We still have not started scene III, but I think we will tonight. I'm very excited to keep writing because I finally feel I am beginning to understand the story and what I want to do with it. Another thing that I am excited for is seeing the fight scene that I wrote performed. I can picture what it's going to look like, but once it's actually filmed it will be much more satisfying than just imagining it. Everyone in the class seems to be working hard too, so I think this could work out. I'm keeping my hopes high and I'll keep working hard and this will all work!