Behind the Scenes - The Making of Stop Action Videos

Mrs. Stewart assisting Hannah D. with Fire

This whole project started in December of 2010, when the Sixth Grade took a trip to the Walters Art Museum. We saw a whole exhibit on Walter Wick, and saw his amazing scenes built for his books’ photographs. We were thunder-struck by how awesome they were! When we returned to school after winter break, we started building and designing scenes in Art. Our group was assigned Medieval Exterior, so we built a castle and a winter scene. It took a long time, and a lot of paint, but we finished by Spring Break.

Once we finished making our sets, it was time to start writing our stories, we used a few Digital Thinking classes to brainstorm and write our story’s plot. Then, we wrote a script for our story. Once we had our plot planned out, we needed to bring in toy characters to be in our videos. Then, we started shooting. This was a very long process, because for every second we had to take about 7 photographs. It was important that we kept the camera in the same position to avoid a choppy video.  At first it seemed impossible to shoot a stop action movie, but everyone worked so hard, and did it really well. 

Editing in Final Cut Express

Once we had all of our pictures, it took a long time to get them all organized in the S:Drive. There were so many pictures, and many weren’t organized. After hard work to get them all in the right places, we could finally start to import them in to Final Cut Express on the iMac computers. We grouped them together by scene, and then we added voiceovers. We decided which characters each of us would act as, and then we began recording. Since we were all working in the same room together, to ensure that no background noises were in our recordings, we called, “Quiet on the Set!” It took a while to record, but it was really fun. 

Adding Voice-Overs and Sound Effects

Fun facts about the Stop Action Movies, Sets, and the Process!

• Our scenes are made mostly out of trash.
• It takes around 7 photographs to make 1 second of film
• When finished editing you can have as much as 5 tracks playing at once.
• It took ½ a school year to create 3 minutes of film.
• The most popular set-building materials are legos, cardboard boxes, tubes and fake grass.

-- Text by Ali B. and Maggie B. (Class of 2017); Photos & Videos by Diana Gross

SINGING at HERSHEY PARK

Performing for the Newly Accepted Students, 5/10/11

Isabella Z. and Kara F. at Rehearsal

 Since I have been in Middle School, the chorus has always done some amazing performances.  Whether it was rocking out to ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, or singing a song from Camp Rock, the chorus always seems to impress. This year I decided to join because I wanted to be a part of the group.

Jenny Y. and Sakinah R. at Rehearsal

This year so far, we have sung songs such as ‘Round Rolling Moon’, ‘When I Close my Eyes’, and ‘Waka Waka’. We have performed in places such as Morning Meeting, the Arts Galas, the Upper School Winter Recital, and many more. Chorus has been a great learning experience for me.  It has taught me much more about singing than I had known. Although we practice for only twenty minutes a week, we are able to get a lot accomplished.

This year, Mrs. Flynn has organized for us to be in a competition at Hershey Park!  We will be performing against schools from all over Maryland this Friday, 20^th. Even though I hope we win, I know that our chorus will be respectful and polite to whomever the winner may be. Still, I hope we come back with a trophy! Wish us luck!

-- Text and Photos by Sophie Polovoy (Class of 2016)

CHEERLEADING at THE FOREST

As most people in the Middle School at Garrison Forest School knows, we have clubs. One of the clubs is cheerleading! A new club made by students, two students to be exact Emma A. and Jamie G., they have worked so hard to make this club and now it is finally here. The cheerleading club includes girls from each grade:

 8^th grade: Miana M, Lexi H, Ashley B, Amanda C, Ali G

7^th grade: Emma A (captain), Jamie G (co-captain), Erica D, Nylah A, Ayanna D, Ashlei C, Princess G.

6^th grade: Eryn F, Colby y, Augusta W, Jaida M, and Lindsey L.

Even though it is the end of the school year the cheer leading club has done so much: play days, morning meetings and the talent show! 

The talent show was probably the best in my opinion even though only Emma A, Jamie G, Erica D, Princess G, and Eryn F participated in it. We are happy with the people we had and we had 1 person who was not in the club: Bella Z. Even though she was not in the club we had room for one more. The talent show was a week away, so we made one cheer and one dance all in just five days! We met several times during lunch, study halls, help sessions, advisory or at someone’s house! The song we chose to do the dance on is “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga, and I think the dance actually goes with the song. We luckily finished the dance and cheer in time for the talent show. Even though we didn’t win the Talent Show, we won in our hearts because we had fun and making the dance and performing. I hope you will have fun and take some time to watch our dance/cheer in the video below.

Text and Photos by Erica Downing (Class of 2016); Video by Hallie Angelo (Class of 2016)

SNEAK PEEK! Decorating for Tonight's Courtyard Dance!

 The Seventh Grade has been assigned to decorate for the Eighth Grade Courtyard dance tonight: Friday May, 13th. The theme colors for this dance are pink and gold. Parents brought decorations such as balloons, streamers, and festive string for us to put up. There are also gold lights to hang up and put around things. The parents also brought food for the dance. We are wrapping the streamers around the poles. Also some students have created a couple balloon arches that look very well made. 

The Eighth Graders got dismissed around two o'clock to get ready for their dance. Many of the Eighth Graders are getting their hair, nails, and make up done while we set up the dance. We hope they love the decorations!    

-- Text and Photos by Isabel D. and Katie P. (Class of 2016)

Another Baby Chick is Born!

On Friday, Mrs. Meyers received four new eggs from Mr. Clark at Carriage House Farms. When I came in on Monday morning, I found a surprise. One of the chicks had already hatched! We put it into the new brooder we received where it began chirping and hopping around excitedly. We have not yet named it, nor do we know whether it is a girl or a boy. Check out the video to see the new baby chick, and check back for more updates on the other baby chicks that are sure to hatch soon!

- text and video by Kara F. (Class of 2016)

Riding to Success! The Interscholastic Equestrian Association Nationals

On April 28^th our IEA riding team went down to Prince George Equestrian Center for Interscholastic Equestrian Association Nationals Competition. We were the two riders who made it to Nationals from the Middle School. The Upper School qualified as a team and some of the riders qualified individually. Everyone was very excited!

Jackie: This was my first time going and qualifying for Nationals. I was very excited to show against people from near and far. I was a little nervous going into the ring for my course, but my nerves eventually went away. The course had a lot of tight turns and bending lines. It was challenging and fun!  I ended up getting fourth place out of 19 riders. Nationals was a very fun experience and I can’t wait to do it again.

Gabi: I got very lucky at my first Nationals: I drew a Garrison Forest horse. I was in group A: it had ten girls in it, and group B had nine. They announced the eight out of nineteen finalists. I was the second number to be called for callbacks. About an hour and a half later they had my callbacks. There were eight girls total in my class. Finally came the award ceremony. They started from eight and went up to first. Finally, there were four girls left. Then the announcer said, “In fourth place number 236, Miss. Gabi S.” I went up and took a picture with the head of IEA. I was very proud of myself. To read more about the Garrison's team performance, visit the Garrison Forest School website.

-- Text by Gabi S. and Jackie W. (Class of 2016); photos by M. Sorrentino

Garrison's Middle School's GOT TALENT!

 Seventh Graders Singing "Mr. Postman" 
(VIDEO EXCLUSIVE!  This video can only be displayed on this URL.)

Near the end of every year, the Middle School hosts a Talent Show for the students and faculty. Every year there is such a wide variety of acts, but this year there were so many cool and unique acts!

Student Leaders as Harry Potter characters.

There were singing performances, dancing performances, cheerleading, robotics, acting, and more! This year’s talent show had some of the best acts by far! Cammie’s favorite thing about the Talent Show is “All the students and faculty come together to cheer on everybody and everybody is so supportive.” Ashlei’s favorite thing about the Talent Show is “Everyone gets to show their talent that some people may not have known about.” Evie’s favorite thing about the Talent Show is “All the cool acts! No act is exactly the same.”

Will Sarah Share?!

 Also, before the Talent Show we have some sort of fundraiser to raise money for an organization.  This year, the Sixth Grade held a raffle for a Movie Night Basket and a five pound chocolate bar. This year Sarah S. won the chocolate bar and Eryn F. won the Movie Night Basket. On top of that, the Sixth Graders sold bags of candy for one dollar. All the money went towards an organization called The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra OrchKids. OrchKids supplies schools in Baltimore, Maryland with instruments, and also teaches the children how to play music. We thought that it was great how we benefited an organization that teaches children the importance of the Arts when we are doing the same thing in a way. After the Talent Show we had raised $200.00 for OrchKids!

We can’t wait for next year’s Talent Show!

Text by Cammie G. and Evie G. (Class of 2016); Video by Hallie A.

Welcome to Our World, Baby Chick!

On April 10^th, 2011 Mrs. Meyers received an egg from Carriage House Farms in Stevenson, MD.  Today, May 5^th, 2011, the egg hatched, revealing a beautiful baby chick. We were all very excited.  It started hatching at around twelve pm, during a seventh grade science class. No one could focus and we didn’t get very much work done because we were waiting for it to hatch. Two hours later, at one pm, the chick finally finished hatching. Everyone was crowded around the table, wanting to catch a glimpse. Kara F., Erica D., and I caught the entire hatching on a Flip camera and my iPhone 4. Take a look! 

-- text and photo by Lauren T.; video footage by Lauren T., Kara F., and Erica D. (Class of 2016)

So You Think Your Robot Can DANCE?

 
On April 16^th, 2011 I attended the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Robotics Challenge. The challenge is open to middle school and high school students.  This year’s competition consisted of 5 categories--Petite Slalom, Mystery Course, Search and Destroy, Innovative Use, and Robot Dance. Each category was very different yet equally challenging.  

I competed in the Search and Destroy and the Robot Dance challenges. My robot detected four tumors in 47 seconds, which resulted in second place. For Robot Dance, I choreographed two robots to dance to the Cha Cha Slide.  The robots danced well and the audience was very impressed.  I was awarded with grand prize in this category. Visit the website for the complete list of 2011 winners.

The day was challenging, rewarding, and fun at the same time. The JHU Robotics Challenge expanded my experience in the field of robotics. I learned a new programming language and improved my engineering strategies. I also found ways to apply mathematics to solve problems I encountered. At the end of the day, I was able to take a tour of the Johns Hopkins campus and the Engineering Research Center.  At the JHU mock operating room, I had the opportunity to control the DaVinci surgical robot. I learned that grad students are integrating webcams with the DaVinci surgical system. They are also trying to integrate Xbox 360’s Kinect with the DaVinci system.  This will expand the system’s gesture base to include the hands and arms. I also operated a robot that was used for spinal surgery. This system incorporated software for haptic sensation. I enjoyed this competition a lot and highly recommend it to those who want to expand their knowledge in the math and science discipline.

-- Text and Photos by Jackie M. (Class of 2016) ; Video via www.abc2news.com

Seventh Graders Learning Photoshop CS5

As Seventh Graders, we have been exploring the world of Marketing and Photoshopping Images in Digital Thinking Ι. We have looked at advertisements and websites that show how they make food look so delicious on TV, but not very good the store. We were completely blown away by the things they put in a basic meal. Ever thought about why on commercials with ice cream, the ice never melts or has any sign of it melting? Well we know why and it definitely doesn’t make your mouth water about wanting to eat ice cream. Here is the list of the ingredients: Shortening/Margarine, Powdered Sugar, Corn Syrup, Vanilla Beans Strawberry jam, cocoa and other colorings and flavorings. To add to that, you can put this type of ice cream in a plastic bag for months and it wouldn’t change its looks. Yuck! Moving away from that thought, let us explain our Photoshop projects.


 

The Projects we are working on are fun and challenging. The first project we had involved us cutting ourselves out of one picture and copying it onto another picture. They turned out pretty awesome. We took approximately six classes to complete this. We basically pasted ourselves into somewhere extraordinary that we wanted to go to or something we always longed to do. We tried to make it as real-looking as possible. For example, we put ourselves on a beautiful beach in Hawaii. It was really dreamy to pretend to be on a nice beach in the midst of the freezing cold winter. Some of our other classmates were placed on trampolines, walking down fashion runways, and even on the moon!

Now we are in the process of working on another Photoshop project. This one is being completed in pairs because it requires more work. We are using to Photoshop to create something archival from the pre-1980s. It’s slowly moving along, every pair working out all the study halls we have together to finish it as quickly as possible. Some partners have chosen to do old books, old music, etc. For example, Sakina’s partner and she are doing old animated cartoons and we are going to Photoshop all the prehistoric cartoons, like The Jetsons, and Popeye the Sailor, into a Color bar based on the year in which it was originally produced. We can’t wait to see how it all turns out!  

Text and top photos by Sakinah R. and Paige S. (Class of 2016)
Photoshop projects by the Seventh Grade Digital Thinking II students