So for this unit, we were focusing on the play Macbeth, by some guy named Shakespeare. However, we were also learning about World War II. Our assignment: create a recreation of Macbeth set in WWII. This movie should be around 20 Minutes long and would be made by the entire class. Our question to focus on throughout the unit was this: What is the nature of evil?
After reading through Macbeth, and learning about WWII, we were ready to start our project. With the help of Ms Willemse and Mr Hughes, we got into departments of what our jobs would be. We needed a producer, a script department, actors, make up, props, and a lot more. I wanted to be a script writer, and I was also in charge of continuity. Joining me in the script department was Gabi, Alanah, Luciano, and Kirby.
I found it quite difficult to write a script, especially for such a long movie. Maybe the hardest part was making the script sound natural, so after we had finished the actors read over the script and gave us feedback. After we finished the script, received a lot of complaints about it from other classmates. While this offended some people, I knew that it was just constructive criticism and I think it helped us improve the script. After the script was finally finished it was time to start filming.
Our first day of filming it was very snowy outside, which had its pros and cons. While the snow looked good cinematically, it was really cold while we were filming.
The first few days were also not especially productive. We were too concerned about every scene being perfect, which led to us not getting a lot done.
By the time we were a week into filming, we were way behind schedule. The project was shaping up to take way too much time. We also had a habit of showing up to filming unprepared, so we often had to make decisions at the filming. This cut into our filming time and slowed us down even more. It also didn’t help that apparently no one in the props department knew how to make a tent.
At that point our teachers helped us get back on track by helping us make storyboards. This would make our filming more efficient and we like have everything prepared beforehand. While these helped, we were still too picky about everything being perfect. We were now past the due date with a lot more work still to do.
With the teachers’ help, we decided that we needed to cut some scenes out of the movie and keep only the necessary ones. This would enable us to finish and have something to hand in. But we were now well past the due date, and the amount of work the project required was passing the learning that we had done. It was then that we decided to abort and stop working on the project. A few things made us come to this decision. There was no end in sight to this project, because in order for us to make it how we wanted it, it would require a lot more work.
Also, we had learned all that we were going to, so what was the purpose of putting so much more time into it. However, we had worked so hard on the project that we were unsatisfied with not having a final product, so we decided to put together the scenes that we had filmed.
After that we gave everything to Zak, our editor, to stitch everything together. Realizing that parts of our film were unclear, we added some narration to help things make sense. We would make Michael, who played a main role in the film, pretend to write in a diary and narrate some scenes
The final product was not what we pictured when we started, that’s for sure. But it turned out ok considering the project had basically been aborted.
Well, here’s the final product, our WWII version of Macbeth:
Insert movie here
Throughout this project, I learned a lot, especially about large group projects. In fact, a few weeks ago, we had to write a paragraph about what we learned/ our thoughts on the project. Here’s an excerpt from mine:
So basically, aside from a ton of stuff about Macbeth and WWII, I learned that projects in large groups don’t work well unless everyone fully commits. Without full commitment, the project will quickly become behind schedule as some members will have to step in and do the jobs of others. Also I learned that when making a movie, always come to filming prepared. If decisions have to be made at filming, it will slow the entire process down.
To summarize the unit, we arrive at the same question: What is the nature of evil?
I guess that in WWII, the prejudice and discrimination of the ideals of Hitler and the Nazis embodies the nature of evil. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the evil one, as she ultimately influences Macbeth to become evil as well.
But what really is the nature of evil? I would have to agree with what we talked about in our Helmut Podcast. Evil comes down to a few choices made at some point in our life. These choices can be deliberate or indeliberate, but they ultimately set us on a path for good or evil. For example, when Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, the king, it sets him down a path of evil.
Well, I guess that’s that. This unit was really interesting as I knew very little previously about WWII.
Here’s some extra photos of us creating the project:
