“Let them eat c̶a̶k̶e̶ brioche!” – Winter Exhibition 2023

Bonjour! 

Our final project of 2024, that we presented in the Winter Exhibition was about revolutions!

To start this project we read the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, which is actually a metaphor for the Russian Revolution. This book is about animals who revolt against their farmer and take over the farm, led by the pigs, who later start to act like humans and walk on their hind legs. We also participated in book chats, like discussion questions that we talked about in smaller groups. Here are some of the quotes and questions I prepared for one of the book chats.

Discussion Questions

We also learned about Crane Briton’s anatomy of a revolution, which is 4 stages that revolutions generally follow, Incubation, Moderate, Crisis and Recovery. To better understand this, we all made creative diagrams to represent the stages. I decided to compare it to the process of making and eating a pizza. Here it is:

After this we were put into groups based on what revolution everyone would like to learn about specifically. I got to do the French Revolution which was the one I was the most interested in, because I know a lot in the language but I don’t know very much about French culture. To begin, everyone separately researched their Revolution and created an infographic about it, organized by each stage of the revolution. I think that this was a very important step of the project for me, because I learned a lot that helped further in the project, like when I wrote the script or was presenting at the exhibition or just needed to look back to remember details. Here is my Infographic.

After this, everyone in the group shared their infographics and we made a list of the 6 or 7 most significant events during the revolution and then our group combined everyone’s ideas together to choose the 7 key events and a metaphor to represent them. Next, we started planning our Metaphor Machine, a Rube Goldberg machine with each part symbolizing an event from our revolution. My part was the execution of King Louis XVI and the end of the monarchy. To present this, a marble knocked the King piece and a few other pieces off of a chess board, just like how when you kill a piece in chess you remove them from the board. I had a few struggles making sure it was strong and didn’t keep falling apart, but in the end it worked okay. As well, I also had the task for writing a script and was the director of the documentary.  I think I could have made sure that everyone was doing their parts for the documentary and ensured everything was done really well and in time and overseeing the process a bit more, because other than a bit at the exhibition, I actually never really got to see the full documentary.

To prepare for the exhibition, we made documents to plan food and costumes. We had baguette and brie and gouda (not a French cheese which is very offensive apparently ;P). For my costume, I was Marie Antoinette, King Louis’s wife. My friend and group member, Alva, was the king and Mika was the pope. Everyone else represented people from different social classes. Marie Antoinette was known for her funky hair styles, so I recreated this using a pearl necklace and feathers from when I used to have chickens!

We also had a few fun facts like ‘Marie Antoinette didn’t actually say let them eat cake, she said let them eat brioche (a sweet bread)’ and some not so fun facts like ‘A group of printing apprentinces massacred every cat they could find, and on trial the cats were guilty of witchcraft and hanged.’

During the exhibition, our set up and decor and food was pretty good, however our machine kept not working and breaking, and in the end we just kind of gave up. Next time, I think we could have had more back up plans for problem solving or tested it more if there was time. In conclusion I learned a lot about the French revolution and its effects. That’s all for this post!

Kaia out 😛

Grandma – Thriller reflection

Have you ever been decapitated and cooked in your grandma’s pot?

Well a few weeks ago, to continue on the thriller project, we got to create our own thrillers! Before actually starting to plan and make our own movies, we watched several mentor videos. By watching these videos we learned what makes a good thriller. One of the main things I learned was the 3C’s, Contract, Clock and Crucible. Contract is an implied promise at the start of what is going to happen or be solved or fufilled by the end. Clock is the feeling of pressure due to the lack and speed of time. Crucible is the challenges, often of increasing difficulty. We also learned 8 key concepts that contribute to creating an amazing thriller. Having a lot of suspense builds anticipation and keeps the viewer engaged and thinking of what will happen. Thrillers should include a main character – the hero and an enemy, either a real person or just an idea or feeling or problem, as well as sometimes a sidekick for the hero. Including plot twists (unexpected events), red herrings (false alarms or clues), cliffhangers (endings or cuts that leave the viewer without explanation or conclusion of what happened or will happen next) and an exciting climax are also very important parts of making an excellent thriller.

After learning about thrillers, we started to create our own, in small groups and I worked with Alva and Aiya (amazing group members!). After brainstorming, we put together our main idea and created a title, logline and plot overview for our movie. 

TITLE: time for dinner

LOGLINE: On a dark night, Antonio tries to find his missing girlfriend, only to find her where he would have never expected.

PLOT OVERVIEW: (1) There is a TV with a news report about a cannibalistic kidnapper and then the scene cuts to Bella and Antonio, on a late evening stroll down a dim alley. (2) Antonio stops to tie his shoe and while he is looking down, a cane comes out of the bush and pulls Bella into it. (3) Antonio finishes tying his shoe and looks up, realizing his girlfriend is gone. (4) He screams her name and immediately starts running and searching for her, when he trips and falls, landing right beside a severed hand. (5) He manages to get up and keeps running, until he finds her necklace caught on the branch of a bush beside a pathway and looks up at the house and gasps, as he sees a high heel on the porch. (6) He approaches the house with an anxious and confused and knocks on the door and an old woman opens the door a moment later – his grandma. (7) She takes him for dinner and lifts the plate cover to reveal his girlfriend’s head.

After this, we worked on character development. Here are the 3 character charts we filled out.

Next, I created a storyboard and included the timing and audio and angles so that we would be organized for filming and editing. 

After all the planning, we filmed all our clips, however the next day going over our videos, we realized that the clips had weird lighting, angles and audio and in general didn’t look or sound good or professional. As well, Aiya as Antonio looked very weird and funny. So we revised the plot overview and changed the script so that there was no talking, because many of the mentor texts that we liked were the same way. We also changed our film’s title to Grandma, to imply that the old woman seen was actually the main character’s grandmother, without saying so in the film. We re-filmed everything, specifically making sure that the audio and lighting were better. We decided to wait a bit longer before filming so that it would be darker without having to change the exposure. The rain was not planned but I think that it actually really contributed to the dark creepy atmosphere. This time we were all much happier with the quality of our videos. Alva and Aiya found music and sound effects and then me and Alva edited the videos and audio together. I think that our revisions and reflections helped us create a really good horror movie! This is our final video:

In conclusion, this was both a super educational and fun (I love moviemaking) project! And our film was so good that we even traumatized our other friend to walk down that alley in the dark anymore ;P That’s all for this post.

Kaia out!