Lights, Camera, Original Title?

Several years ago when I started having students take scenes from Hamlet and reinvent them in their own forms (inspired by the Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo and Juliette), my project seemed pretty forward-looking and progressive. Nowadays, it is a run-of-the-mill tech project, but I continue to be pleased with the results. I come from a fairly traditional school of teaching English and when I first started, the thought of giving the students so many “unstructured” days of class almost made me hyperventilate. The chaos of having to help with so many projects where students could get themselves into tech binds that I could never reproduce if I tried, was enough to keep me up at night. But we did it. And it worked. Students who were only remotely engaged in our study of Hamlet, were now rehearsing lines, arguing about their meaning and creating visual concepts that reinforced the themes of their scenes. Additionally, it provided the opportunities for collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity which were almost completely overlooked in my classroom. I know that the students enjoy having a final product they can be proud of and many come back and ask if I have shown their film to the new classes.

Every year I tweak the project, but here are this year’s set of observations:
1. This year we attempted to use Final Cut Express rather than iMovie. While our students have tablets, their work on these films would be limited to the iMacs in my room. We had to add time to the project to instruct the students on the software and there were turf wars over computer time when groups who were sharing a machine both wanted to work on it. With Adobe Premiere on their tablets, is it better for them to be mobile in their film making or does the power of Final Cut Express trump mobility? Also, is there any benefit to the “studio” atmosphere that was created in my room over the past two weeks. The place is trashed, but good work was done.
2. I added a story board/preproduction report component this year. I wanted them to do more work on the front end and really think about what they were doing and why before they got their hands on a camera. I think this paid off with better shot selection and creativity, but I am still not happy with the amount of planning. Many of the students would not stick to the production schedule they created and still got behind. I also toyed with the idea of using storyboard software.
3. Production and post-production report: I have always had this writing component because I think it is vital for them to explain their choices, but some are better than others. I am thinking I need to give a more formalize rubric for this rather than just telling them the topics I want them to cover. Highlights from the reports are below.
4. Film education: I would love to find time to add some education on the influence of text, audio and visual tracks in film and how all of these combine to create meaning. While many of the students did some of these things intuitively, I think they could have benefitted from a closer look. I was pleased, however, with their cooperation and relative ease with my enforcement of proper copyright use of music. Once we actually figured out that since you own it on your ipod, it isn’t really yours to use however you want and worked through the complicated math of 10% of a song that is 3:20 isn’t really 32 seconds, things went pretty well.

Student comments from Production reports:
“Animal behavior is extremely different from human nature, humans are more developed and have a better understanding of common sense whereas wild animals are harsh and live under the precept of survival of the fittest. Therefore animals are almost desperate to survive that they will do anything to succeed. This idea connects with the play Hamlet because the characters in it are reckless enough to do whatever it takes to achieve what they want.”

“Darth Vader (Laertes): We decided to cast Laertes as a parallel to Vader because in many ways, Vader’s character mimics Laertes’. Both begin as generally “good” characters but allow their anger to overcome them, and both become minions of their respective leaders. Also, in the end, both turn “good” again, and confess their sins and try to repent. Playing into this, we decided to use Vader’s clothing to show his change of heart. During the duel and wounding of Hamlet, this character wears his signature mask, and talks in a deep, almost robotic voice. However, once he is mortally wounded, he takes off his evil helmet to signify his change of allegiances and talks with his normal voice.”

“Although we initially didn’t want music, we took Ms. Mittler’s suggestion that we could find appropriate pieces to enhance the mood. We choose part of the opening movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica.’ It is in a minor key, which gives a more negative and suspicious feeling, and it is classical. To reinforce Hamlet’s emo style, we chose some hard-core ‘screamo’ from a song by Slayer called ‘Raining Blood.’”