Hmm, where do I start. I remember as if it was yesterday. It was the first bright sunny day in February, which made everyone happy. Third class of the day, we enter the classroom excited and anxious to hear about our new project. Ms. Willemse says to our class we will be making a Macbeth movie during WWll. We all had the same look, it was the look that we knew it would be hard but we could pull it off. Than we asked if we would be in groups. Then the answer was “the whole class will be one big group”. At that moment the sun went behind the clouds and became dark in the classroom and everyone’s look switched to, this is impossible.

The whole class would be divided into different sections and roles, like a movie set. You had your producer, director, script writers, cameramen, editor, special FX, prop department, makeup and costumes, and actors.

We had two people write a basic summery of their script and read it out to the class and we would decide which one would be better. As a group decision we used parts of each writers story and combined them to make a good script. I was mainly involved in acting, but I was also in the prop department. Things started rolling and people were excited. We had a script and we got and made our props and we were ready to film.

Macbeth involves 5 acts some acts having 7 scenes some 3. We had lots to film. Our original timeline was about 1 and half weeks to finish but the deadline was flexible. I think our class took that flexibility too lightly. I recall having conversations where I asked if we were going to do anything but some people would say “it’s alright our deadline is flexible”. Preparing to film was hard, we didn’t have a lot of people to help setup the scenes, and getting the costumes, cameras, and actors ready made it an hour to record one short scene. By the time the original deadline came we had probably 4-5 scenes shot, out of like 25-30. Our teachers weren’t very happy about how much we accomplished over 1 week and a half.

We decided to extend the deadline and our class chose to pick up the pace. We tried to film on weekends but the commitment wasn’t there. Trying to get everyone in the class was tough. Conflicting schedules made it hard to have crucial actors here. Some actors had to be replaced because they couldn’t make it out. Arguments starting breaking out and lots of disagreement on the script and disagreeing on actors commitment.

Video of what goes on behind the scenes.

Coming to the end of the deadline tempers where high and nothing was getting done besides arguments from teachers to students and students to students. We had about 3/4, maybe a bit more of the film done. We decided to scrap the project and fill the extra scenes with narration and pictures or animations. It was best for the project since we could never get everyone together. If there is one thing I learned from this, is to have a schedule of all the shots, a list of all the actors we need for that day before hand. Basically being very prepared so we know what we are doing on that day and nothing stressful goes on. Another thing I learned is to have more leadership roles. Have more people show more leadership rather than just one.

We got the movie finished and ready to present and everyone has began to rebuild friendships again. Below is our movie and I hope you enjoy!

*Waiting for movie to be sent*