My Term 3 Learning Logs

Term 4 Learning Log 2 [Actual Performance]

2009-09-29T03:55:00.000-07:00

Due to the last minute changes before the play itself, most of the actors were unsure of what to do, most were confused, and many questions were asked.

We brought down our props to the music room, where the recording is held. A few adjustments had to be made: we had to inform the teacher that we would be filming from the side instead of the front. The positions were written on the whiteboard and everyone settled down quickly.

Everyone was nervous. This was, of course, easy to understand why. The tension in the music room was so high that smiles were soon gone from our faces. The first to start was the Duke, and I, as Shylock, stepped in slowly.

Our lines started out okay. However, when it came to Portia’s turn, she started to get a little anxious when she seemed to have forgotten her lines. I remembered that Mr Chua said about having to cover for our team members if they happened to forget their lines. After I realised that my line was right after Portia’s, I debated with myself if I should cut in if she stopped for too long. However, our Portia was able to finish the entire speech on mercy, which I found was a great accomplishment, though it was not really that perfect. But her lines were the most difficult to remember, and she also had the most number of lines too, so most of the actors understood her difficulty with the lines.

At one point, the guards seemed to be confused a little. A few of us reminded them about what they had to do, and they quickly went to grab Antonio and tied him up. It was at around this point where I went out of the camera. I forgot that the range of the camera was not wide enough, and I was practically out of the shoot.

The director signalled to me to come in, which I didn’t really notice as he was in my blind spot. It was until he ran to the other side, did I see his signal and moved back into the camera range. I started to get a little nervous at one point, as I was unsure about one of my lines. However, Gratiano helped to confirm my lines by whispering to me, so I went past that part without much problem.

The real problem came near the end. Right after I kneeled down in front of the Duke and said my lines, Portia was supposed to continue and ask Antonio if he would give Shylock mercy. However, Portia skipped that entire part, which caused me to be confused. It took me a while to catch up with what she said, and upon realising that it was my line, I said it out with a questioning look, but tried to hold the questioning tone back.

Then it was Portia’s line again, before it was mine. But I was still lost, so I forgot that I was suppose to say my line. I could hear the other actors calling my name softly, but I was still unsure. However, the Duke kind of saved me by being confused as well, thinking that Portia was signalling to him when she was actually signalling to me… I think…

Anyway, I remembered and said my line after the Duke finished his. I stood up from my place, and I had to walk out of the scene. I walked toward the wrong direction, but Nerissa and Portia corrected me by whispering, and when Gratiano started his line, I walked back in the right direction.

I was utterly disappointed. As soon as I felt that I was out of the camera range, I covered my face with my hands and walked all the way to the whiteboard. The only thing I was worried about was that the camera might have followed me. But when I turned around, it didn’t seem so, so I was a bit relieved.

After hearing that being out of the camera range was not my fault and will not be counted in the score, I felt as if I was saved, as I didn’t cause the entire group to get lesser marks than they should. Most of the team members deserved more marks, and I was in no place to take that away from them.

I can’t really say I enjoyed the entire thing. I was nervous, having to be one of the main roles. After Portia skipped the last part, I committed a lot of mistakes, and I prayed that the long silence I made would create an air of sympathy instead of awkwardness.

After everything, everyone knew that they were in no place to blame anyone of the actors. Instead, most of the actors blamed that director for changing the plan in the last minute.

{809 words}

Term 4 Learning Log 1 [Preparation]

2009-09-29T03:26:00.000-07:00

Like all other groups, our preparations consisted of rehearsals, meetings, costume preparations, props, and all the like.

I'll start off with the rehearsals. We did not have many rehearsals till the days near the performance date, which made most of the actors unhappy, as both directors did not really do their job. The first combined rehearsal we had was at one of the actor's house, during the September holidays. As it was extremely close to the performance date, we didn't really have time to go through many things, and everything was rushed. Most of the actors were uncertain about the actions that they had to do, and the emotions they need to show through their expressions and the way they say out their lines.

Meetings are only during the end of school days. It was usually to decide or change the roles each person is suppose to do, and the place to meet up for the rehearsals (this was on the last day of school). Other than that, there were no other meetings, except for the renting of the costumes.

This will bring me to my next part, the renting of the costumes. As we were following the original time the play was set at, instead of a modern setting, we decided to rent the costumes. We met up and went to Orchid Park Secondary School, where the costumes were rented at an affordable price.

Preparing the props was interesting. We lacked many things needed for the scene, such as a fake knife, the balance, fake money, and the bond. We were unable to find a fake knife, so we decided to use a real knife covered with aluminium foil to make sure no one cut themselves, and also keep the silver colour of the blade.

The solution to creating a balance was creative. We used a pen holder for the base, a paint brush for the stand, a wooden stick, nylon strings and paper plates for the main balance. Though it was difficult to balance it properly if you are not careful, it was still the best solution we managed to come up with. We soon fixed the balancing part by pasting double sided tape on the base.

The fake cash papers from the board game Monopoly was used for the money Bassanio planned to use to redeem Antonio. We originally planned to use a silk cloth bag containing keys, but we decided to use the fake cash papers instead.

The bond was created by using tea bags to spread over two A3 sized paper, before burning the sides to make it look more olden-like. It was only until a while later did we realised that there was no need to burn it. The two papers were then pasted together, and the text of the bond was written on one side with a black marker, with fake signatures of Antonio and Shylock.

Of course, we also had more rehearsal. The entire group was a little confused on the day itself concerning the acting as we were told to act according to a real movie on The Merchant of Venice, which is generally different from the ones which we had planned. Most of the actors were angry at the director for changing the plan at the last minute, causing everyone to be unsure of what to do again.

{558 words}

Term 4 Week 1 Learning Log

2009-09-18T03:12:00.000-07:00

As there is suppose to be 10 learning logs of Term 3 to be completed, I decided to fill it in for week 5, where Mr Chua was absent on both lessons because of the H1N1 incident...

The two lessons were both filled with rehearsals, so there really is not much to talk about. However, as our actual performance was later the week, it really helped us in confirming what we have to do, and also allow us to gain more confidence, as well as understanding for our own roles.

As most of the lines for The Merchant of Venice was confusing and difficult to remember, especially Portia's, the entire group helped each other to remember their lines, and the actions required. However, the bad thing was that the rehearsal was nothing better than the previous ones as everyone was still not serious.

Some of the group members began to get a little anxious because of it. But some still did not comply, and the rehearsal did not really give us must progress with the acting.

I actually find that having the entire week filled with rehearsals is actually quite beneficial, since it allows us to have more time to work on the play, especially when it covers 70% of the final mark.

It will also decide if I will be able to take up Literature next year. The thing is, though, I'm not very confident with my essays. If I can get over that, I will definitely take up the subject.

{252 words}

Term 3 Week 10 Learning Log

2009-09-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

The first lesson was a school holiday due to Teachers' Day... Hopefully the great teachers can have a good rest on this day... Even though they can only enjoy the peace for about 14 hours...

Well, the second lesson was another in-class essay. Practically there is nothing to talk much about for lessons with in-class essays, as we don't really learn much but only go through what we had learn. Like some kind of a revision.

However, I am sure I didn't do well for it. My mind was a complete blank when I wrote down the words. Probably because Mr Chua said that it was different from the 3 points essay we always do, and having to write something in a format which I have no clue of and on a topic, though interesting to me, I am still unsure of, made me a little panicky. I couldn't really think properly despite looking at the worksheet and my file. I just jotted what came to my mind, despite knowing that they were all crap and a too general view of things. I didn't think about the situation deeper enough, and I was disappointed with myself when I passed the paper up.

For sure, I'm gonna score badly for this one.

{211 words}

Term 3 Week 9 Learning Log

2009-08-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

For the first lesson, we were given a worksheet where we had to fill in the blanks for the setting of Prose Passage 2. Mr Chua commented that some of us might have already read it before, and that was a clue telling us that it was from a famous book. The next thing that confirmed my guess was the words "Company of the Ring", which said straight to me that it was from Lord of the Rings. Surprisingly, the scene written was the scene right before the scene of the movie which I had watched on TV once, so it was interesting to find out what happened to them before they were attacked.

The worksheet, however, was kinda tricky. I was almost unable to find the answers to them. The most unlucky thing was that I lost my highlighter, so when we had to highlight, I had to borrow from someone else (but I managed to find it later on anyway). The way the things were described was amazing. Now I know why the novel was so famous (maybe I should try it someday...).

Moving on, we were given back our test papers on the second lesson. But before that, we were given three examples of the work of our classmates. It was interesting to see other people's works. After going through the first one, I started worrying for my marks as I didn't go by that format.

Luckily, I managed to pass the test! Yes! I was so happy, especially since my previous essays all failed terribly. I guess the June Holidays really did fry my brain...

Hopefully I can score better next time as passing by just 1.5 marks is not really a good thing... Plus I'm aiming to take Literature next year. I must really revise my previous work now and see my mistakes.

{308 words}

Term 3 Week 8 Learning Log

2009-08-22T01:30:00.000-07:00

Well, we had our in-class essay on the first lesson, as promised. I felt that I didn't really put in much effort, as I was unsure about how to 'debate' about my view points. I guess the June holidays seriously messed up my head.

As the essay was nothing much, and we did not learn any... much... from it, I will just continue onto the next lesson.

The next lesson was more interesting... probably only to people like me.
This time, we were given a lecture on settings in a story. It had four aspects: time, place, physical environment, and social environment. I was confused about the last two as I always thought that they were the same. However, physical environment referred more to the non-living things in the surrounding area, such as buildings, tables, benches, and such (as well as some living things like plants and animals). Social environment referred to the people in the place, like your parents, your friends and everything. These are usually important as they often help to represent a character's personality. And example that we were given was a picture of Snow White and a little green bird. Mr Chua said that if it was a bird of prey, wouldn't it look strange? I started to giggle when I imagined Snow White standing with a vulture sitting on her arm.

We were also taught about the atmosphere of a scene, and how the setting affects it. It was interesting to know many other professional stories as well, amazing ideas there, and I found it an inspiring topic. Actually, I was more interested to know what every was the plot for every story than the lesson itself! But I suppose that is interest plus curiosity, so I couldn't help myself (and curiosity killed the cat, I know).

Overall, it was another interesting lesson which I enjoyed. Now, I'm getting kinda worried about my play. Hopefully my team won't mess it up somehow.

{327 words}

Term 3 Week 7 Learning Log

2009-08-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

Mr Chua did not come for the first lesson, so I will not linger too much on that day.

For the next lesson, though we were suppose to have an in-class essay, it was pushed back due to his absence for the previous lesson. Instead, we were brought to the Indian Corner on the 3rd floor, where we were given a briefing about things we need to take note of during the play. It was interesting to know about all these things as it would be best if we could do the play to the best standard that we could.

Soon, we were seperated into our groups for our rehersals. It was a bit of a mess, as some of my team mates were still unsure of their lines, how to pronounce certain unfamiliar words, and all of the other team mates will have to correct him or her. It was also extremely noisy, making it hard to hear our team mates' lines.

We were later gathered together again, and Mr Chua wanted to show the teams doing Romeo & Juliet how to act out the kissing scene. Since I am acting the Merchant of Venice, I won't explain about it. However, it was hilarious when he got Sean to be Juliet and the entire class was cheering and laughing their heads off. That was most probably because we are all 'dirty minded'... Yes, kids at our age are like that. But many people from other classes were watching as well, expecially when the bell rang and all the students came out from the classes, and sees Sean on the stage with a male teacher practising a kissing scene... Well, okay, no more on that topic.

For now, I will just have to say that was the best Literature lesson ever because of the late comedy at the end. But of course, we also learnt some important things to take careful note of while acting.

{325 words}

Term 3 Week 6 Learning Log

2009-08-08T05:12:00.000-07:00

As Mister Chua was absent for a week, there was no literature lesson last week. And so, I didn't do any learning log for that week.

For the first lesson this week, we had an in-class essay. It appears that many of us cheated on the narrative essay, as many seemed alike. I was disappointed about it, and a little angry, especially when we were told to redo the essay again. Hopefully this copying thing won't occur again. The in-class essay idea, though helped the situation a lot, but it will take up a lot of time, and we won't be able to learn as much.

For the second lesson, we had to clear our literature files. We also went through a little about the topic we are currently learning, irony, and the Singapore River poem again. We were also given an article about someone who live in Little India, and then a few videos to compare the environment of places such as Little India and the HDB flats that we live in. When we had to complete a worksheet about where we would choose to live, I was a little uncertain as both had their advantages and disadvantages. Living in places such as Little India would allow people to come closer together, but it would also pose as a problem when we have to study. It would be too noisy to concentrate, and making a trip to the library every single time would just be troublesome.

For HDB flats, it is the other way round. It is easier for us to study, but it lacks the bonds between the people living side by side. My mother even have quarrels with our neighbours too. At the same time, I don't even know who lives at the other side of the flat, even though we are living on the same storey.

So, it was very hard for me to decide. However, I find that HDB flats would be better for us now, as we are students and studies are more important. We can decide if places such as Little India would be better for us in the future. It is more definite now that HDB flats would be better for students such as us.

{373 words}

Term 3 Week 4 Learning Log

2009-07-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

The lesson the affected me the most was probably the second lesson. We were asked to do an irony worksheet about a poem on the Singapore River. Mr Chua said that the last sentence was suppose to make us aware of what we had lost with the clean up, but I still couldn't understand what it really meant. However, when he showed us a video explaining to us about it, I finally understood. When the government cleared up the Singapore River, they took away the history and memories with it. It was sad to think about it from that direction. I was sure I would cry if I was emotional enough.

We were then asked to complete the worksheet, to compare the old Singapore River and the new one, and I kind of messed up a bit there. However, it was a meaningful experience, and taught us about how we should not look at things from just one side. Like looking at a pyramid, we should not just look from the sides and see the triangle, but we should also look from the top to see the square. That is how literature is suppose to be; we have to look at things in a general and mature manner, to be able to see things that normal people are usually not able to. I suppose this will allow us to be able to understand the whole thing better and see the full and proper picture. Probably it can also teach us to be fair and equal... It seems to be similar to that. Like being in another person's shoes and looking at things differently. But this is indeed an interesting subject; somehow, it seems to be teaching us life lessons too.

{290 words}

Term 3 Week 3 Learning Log

2009-07-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

For the first lesson of the week, we had to show our costume designs to our directors. My costume turned out okay, I was really glad that the directors were not disgusted by it. Sevester was absent, so he couldn't submit his design and my design was chosen instead. After that, we were given a run-through of what we needed to do, such as having to decide the best costume design, and about memorising the script.

In the second lesson, we had two teachers (I think they are probably trainees) who took over the lesson for us. Mr Chua was not absent, as he appeared a little later. Our lesson generally consist of the going through of answers for our narrative worksheet, plus some jokes here and there. It was fun, overall. However, the teachers were too soft; at some point, it was difficult to hear their voices. Maybe it was due to the class' high volume, but other than that, the lesson was great.

This week's lesson was okay, but unfortunately, we didn't really learn much, so there isn't really anything to reflect about. I just hope that maybe the play can turn out well, with costumes that are convincing enough about the setting of the story, and lines spoken well enough to make the audiences open their mouth wide with awe. Though the latter is a little impossible, it is still a goal that everyone can aim for, at least.

{242 words}

Term 3 Week 2 Learning Log

2009-07-11T07:00:00.009-07:00

As predicted, we had to use the thick notes for this week's lesson.

Mr Chua was absent for the second lesson, so this learning log will mainly focus on the first lesson we had for the week.

A little recap. We went through the notes which some of us filed (including me) and for some unlucky reason, I forgot to bring my file. While I was still battling my conscious, Mr Chua announced that there was a PowerPoint presentation for it and so there was not really much need to look at the notes.

The entire lesson was to introduce the different perspective which a story can be written in, and for people like me who aims to become a novelist, it was quite entertaining. I was also glad that I planned to choose Literature next year.

Well anyway, we had a little quiz after the whole presentation, and I managed to get full marks. For some reason, the questions seemed quite simple. All except the second last question, which I was not very confident of getting the right answer.

Following the next lesson... Our music teacher came and took over the lesson. Coincidentally, our music lesson was on the same day. She gave us a worksheet which was about the narrative thing that we went through on the previous lesson. I was tired for a while, but decided to finish it up (all except the last section), and my classmates all commented that I finished it up quite quickly.

For some reason, the costume design worksheet was not collected... Or did we have to pass it up to the Literature representative? Oh my goodness...

{275 words}

Term 3 Week 1 Learning Log

2009-07-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Our first Literature lesson of the term was generally like the rest of the other lessons... We were given a short introduction on how things will be carried out in the rest of the term / semester, and also on our performance. We also had to file in some papers, this including two extremely thick ones containing notes on literature. We went through some parts of it, but most probably it will be used again in future lessons.

The second lesson was more interesting. We had to settle down in our groups in the empty space behind our class... Or is it in front? Well anyway, we had to decide on a play and split our groups into two. We decided on The Merchant of Venice and I went into Haziq's group, where I had an argument concerning the roles, mainly because there were only two female roles and Portia, the character with the hardest and longest lines, was one of them. In the end, it was decided that I would be Antonio, and Amanda would be Portia. Though I was happy with the results, Amanda was not, and I was quite sad for her too. Yet, hopefully our play will not turn into disaster, but with that said, I need to design a costume for Antonio, and I hope that it will not turn out 'gay', like some annoying boys would say. I will need a lot of research if I have to make a good design.

{248 words}