Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Essay

Romeo and Juliet Essay
            Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, written in 1594 or 1595 has captured the interest and imagination of generations. This play was not only read, but performed on stage to enthusiastic audiences.  Although a parent in the school system feels that reading and discussing Shakespeare is the best way to understand his work, it is important for students to experience other forms of expression.  High schools students examine literature to a fuller extent and a project that encourages students to interact, and specifically to produce a film version of the play, has numerous advantages.

Since the project requires work over many weeks, friendships can be fostered and memories created. Projects like this allow students to work together and collaborate, not only with students from other schools, but from different states.  This opportunity exposes the students to other points of view.  It also allows them to see their peer’s mistakes and help correct them. Students learn to give and accept constructive criticism from each other. This is a life lesson in appreciating the opinions and creative talents of others.

Creativity is encouraged by the use of technology in making a film. It gives students hands on experience with valuable tools such as blogs, Wikis, Skype, and other internet applications. Students are able to research the project, communicate with each other, create print ads, and learn to shoot and edit films.  Without the technology, the film would have been very challenging to make. This experience is helpful not only in school, but can be used later in life in a career.  

Another advantage of this project is that students learn to take responsibility for their actions.  If the students chose to not to participate, the job they had was not completed. This left uncompleted work for others to fulfill.  Most of the decision-making was left up to the students. The decisions were made by the writers, directors, actors, and a few by Mr. Provenzano in times of need.  A majority of the work was done outside the classroom, therefore, students had to organize their schedule so that they could participate in the production of the film.
           
Film making gives those who work on the production a chance to interpret the play for themselves.  The students read the play, discuss themes, and then write a script which has been adapted for modern audiences. Writing the script for a modern audience helps students put the old English text into their own words. This improves their understanding of plot and themes.  There are different ways to learn. Some students learn better by hearing the material, some by seeing the information, and others through hands on experience. A project that incorporates all three provides the variety needed to reach all students and give them the best learning experience possible.

The value of high school students producing a film to better understand literature is sometimes overlooked. Mr. Provenzano's project with his freshman English class has shown that a subject such as Shakespeare can be more appealing to adolescents when they have the opportunity to approach it from different angles. Some of the advantages include the collaboration with other students, the use of technology, the responsibility of individual students, and the recognition that everyone learns in a different way. Hopefully, the school board recognizes the importance of supporting this type of project, knowing that there are diverse learning styles. This project has given students a deeper appreciation and more enthusiasm for Shakespeare.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

The End

we still have a little bit of filming to do but we are basically done with the project. all that is left to do is the editing which is mr. P's job. im sort of happy that we are done with the project because i really want to see the finished product but it was a lot of fun to do with everyone. i had the role of sampson and he was only in the beggining of act one so i spent most of the project working on blog posts and discussion questions.i really enjoyed the project.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

ending

i know we are getting close to the end of the blog posts and i think for filming on our side. im not sure how they plan to do the ending scene or where but i think they should do it like it was done in the original. this makes it so that both sides are okay with it and we dont have any conflict. also, i finished up the discussion question 3. we dont have much time left in this project but it has been fun for everyone involved. we all worked really hard and it was fun to do. i didnt reaslly know what to expect but now im hoping we do something luike this again in other class'

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

almost done

so i know that we are still working on our filming for the other acts but since im done i dont really know whats going on. i guess today im working on my discussion question and the next time we are here i will work on my blog posts again. i have rerad alot of peoples blogs and they all look really good. im still working on the same print ad as before. i dont really like doing them because for me they take a long time to finnish.

Friday, April 1, 2011

print ads 2

this will be the second day that i ahve to do print ads. i am looking forward to getting another one done. i really want to do well on not only the blgo post but my discussion wuestion as well. even though our job in act one is basically over, we are still doing stuff with the Romeo and Juliet literature and film. we watched an old movie throughout this week that uses a more traditional dialouge and a more traditional plot or theme for it. so now that were done, looking back on it, it was a lot of fun. we had some fun times trying to figure eveything out but once we got it we just shot it and had a lot of fun. hopefully this isn't the last time that we will do a project like this.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

new job!

so because i am done with acting he moved me to advertising. so now i have to make posters and ads for the movie. i hope its fun. there are a lot of people that are already doing it but i guess having more would never hurt. so i started my first print ad and i still need to work on it a lot but its getting better.

Monday, March 28, 2011

filmling

i finished my filming for the rest of the play on saturday. i think it went pretty well. we had some trouble at first because it was freezing outside and we were waiting for a while but we moved inside and shot it and it turned out great. it took some time for us to figure out everything and tell people where to go. after that we just kept filming. it took us like nine time for everyone to get it right including me. im done with my part in acting but now i know that ill have to be assigned more work.