The Filmmakers in The Middle School are at it again! This time they learned about stop motion. These short films took a long time to make and the students took hundreds of still pictures moving the objects just a tiny bit in each shot to make them move. It was a lot of work and very confusing at times, but the results are awesome! Please enjoy! 

What happens when students are asked to make a short film that is about all about suspense but it has to all be shot within 5 feet of a door and they can’t show what is causing all the problems? You get the Middle School Door Projects! The students worked in groups of 3 and besides showing suspense they also worked on their storyboarding skills. This is how it went. After deciding on a story, they created a detailed storyboard. This storyboard was then given to another group who had to use just the storyboard to film the film. The original group got to edit the footage. Are you confused? Don’t worry, just sit back and enjoy! 

Successful filmmakers use various techniques and visual tricks in their films to help the scenes feel like real life to the viewer and to help the viewer understand what is happening. Exploring these techniques and visual tricks, plus the detailed steps involved, is what these 3 films from our 8th graders are about.

The film concepts of “The Establishing Shot”, “Cutting to Action” and “The Cutaway” were introduced as well as requirements for using varying camera angles and shots. The assignment was to illustrate and action, emotion, or event using the above criteria. Each group of 2 created the vision for their film, drew and wrote a detailed storyboard, filmed, and edited their films.

Enjoy!

Inspired by Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life with Ira Glass, the Upper Elementary students of the Jade Room have carefully crafted, recorded, and edited stories from their lives during Theatre Arts with Bonnie Duncan.

This project was about exploring new ways of sharing stories—taking a personal story and turning it into something our entire community can enjoy. To that end, Jade Room students worked with a partner to tell a personal story. Students then chose music that fit the theme or tone of their story. We recorded the stories into the computer and imported music files into Garage Band (audio editing software), where we manipulated sound levels, music overlaps and fades, and any slip-ups from the telling.

The collections of stories are poignant, silly, thought-provoking, suspenseful, and honest.

There are two episodes of stories, each episode with a theme. 

The episode Something Different includes the stories:

Something Different Intro
“A Promise” by Hana B. and Lillian D.
“The Penguin Exhibit” by Yami D., Jenny V., and T.J. W.
“Double Eyebrows” by Tess C. and Molly K-C.
“Wrong Stop” by Markus K. and Orion M-W.
Something Different Outro

OUCH! includes these stories:

OUCH! Intro
“Out the Window” by Jennifer B. and Hannah F.
“Crash” by Frankie H. and Robert P.
“Lots of Madness” by Sophia G. and Morgan Z.
“The Blue Sign” by Tiffany C. and Zak H.
“Spear Fishing in Pordarico” by Paolo M. and Nathan W.
OUCH! Outro

The Podcasts can be listened to by clicking the individual links in the sidebar to the right of this page. If you wish to download the Podcasts, right-click (ctrl-click on a Mac) and download the linked file to desired location.