One Little Pigeon and the Big, Bad Spider: The Final Draft

Last night we shared our movie with family and friends.  We rolled out the red carpet, enjoyed pizza and salad, and smiled for the paparazzi.  This project couldn’t have been possible without the children’s creative ideas and the help of Mrs. Haluszczak.  Filming in the past, we discovered that attempting to film the story straight through was a painfully long process.  This year, we tried arranging filming day a bit differently.  While Weird Eric and I worked with current scene actors, Mrs. Haluszczak took the remainder outside.  They spent the morning exploring Spring as it presented itself that day.

For those that are intersted, our final draft follows.  I’ve also attached some of our shot notes and the storyboard if you are curious to see how we organized ourselves for this process.

2018 Pre-K Movie_Final

Scene I: Pigeons’ House, exterior

Narrator:  Once upon a time there was a little pigeon playing basketball.  A Big Bad Spider came along.

BBS: “What are you doing?”  

Pigeon: “I’m playing basketball”

Narrator:  Then the pigeon ran into his house.  The BBS was very hungry and now he was grumpy and lonely.  He knocked on the door.

BBS Knocks

BBS: Pretty please, can I come in and get some food?

Pigeon:  Not by the feathers of our feathers, feathers, feathers!

Narrator: The BBS tries to wrap the house in a web.

BBS tries to throw a web on the house

Narrator:  The police officers came.  

Four police officers and two police dogs enter the scene.

Officer X: Halt in the name of the stars!

Officer R: Halt in the name of the star loft!

Officer N:  You’re going to prison.

Officer F:  I’m going to capture the Big Bad Spider

The BBS is hiding from the police.

Officer N: The police dogs can sniff out the Big Bad Spider.

PD V:  We’ll find him, sir.

Police dogs run back and forth sniffing for the spider.  Eventually, they find him and go get the police officers.

PD Kate: Woof Woof! We found him!

PD Victor:  We found him! Can we have lunch now?

Officer R:  Yes, you may.

Officer X:  Good job, doggies!

Officers F & N:  Good job today!

Police give the PDs dog bones.

PD K:  Woof, woof! Thank you!

Narrator:  They captured the BBS and took him to the police car.  

Police take BBS to car and drive away.


Scene II: Pigeons’ house, interior

Narrator:  The pigeon decides to watch tv.  

Pigeon W: (turning on the tv using remote) I’m going to watch, “The Unicorn Drives the Bus” show.  


Scene III:  On the TV, Unicorn driving a bus

Narrator:  The Sparkly Unicorn decides to drive somewhere.

Sparkly Unicorn:  I’m going to have some mac and cheese and some Brussels sprouts.

Narrator:  Then the Sparkly Unicorn gets dressed in pink stuff.  Then she puts on some make-up. She begins to drive.

Sparkly Unicorn: I have to pick up White Cat on the way.  

Pick up White Cat on the bus.

Sparkly Unicorn:  Come on, let’s go to our meeting.

White Cat: I hope we have fun at our meeting.

Sparkly Unicorn:  Sparkle Butterfly and Rainbow Butterfly are going to be there.

White Cat:  Ok. Well, that sounds fun.

Narrator:  They drive to the meeting.


Scene IV:  An office or meeting place

Narrator:  Rainbow Butterfly and Sparkle Butterfly are at the meeting.  They are all talking about work.

Improv “work talk”, Sparkly Unicorn, White Cat, Rainbow B, and Sparkle B.

Narrator:  Rainbow Butterfly and Sparkle Butterfly accidentally end the meeting by being too silly.  

Rainbow Butterfly and Strawberry leave scene.

Sparkly Unicorn & White Cat: What in the world!!!!


Scene V: The bus

Narrator:  White Cat and Sparkly Unicorn get back on the bus and leave.  After they drive for a while, they stop and go to sleep.


Scene VI:  Pigeons’ House, exterior

Narrator:  The pigeon goes back out to play basketball again.  

Everyone that isn’t BBS or police slowly comes over and says, “Can we play, too?”  All play basketball for a bit.

Order:  Rainbow G, Sparkly B, Sparkly Unicorn, White Cat

Narrator:  Then they all get tired and fall asleep in a heap.


Scene VII:  Police Headquarters, interior

Narrator:  The police officers drive the BBS to jail.  

Police taking BBS through the headquarters.

BBS:  “I just wanted some food!”  

Officer X:  We have some spider webs in the closet.

PD V:  They are really yummy.

PD K:  They are super good for spiders.

Officer N: They are very healthy!

Officer F:   “We have a web cage that can help you with that!”  

Officer R:  You have to keep eating it all day because we have lots.

Narrator:  The cage is made out of webs.

BBS: This cage is GREAT!

The BBS eats the web jail.  

Officer R:  “We’ll drive you back if you say please.”  

BBS:  “Please drive me back.  I want to make new friends.”  

Narrator:  The police drive everyone back to the pigeons’ home.  


Scene VIII:  Pigeons’ House, exterior

Narrator:  Everyone was inside when they arrived.  

Officer F:  Go knock on the door, spider.

The BBS knocks on the pigeons’ door.  

Pigeon:  “Who’s there?”

BBS:  “The Big Bad Spider, can I please have some webs to eat?”  

Pigeon:  “Sure! Here’s a web.”

Pigeon hands BBS some web.

Pigeon:   “You can have as much as you want.”

Rainbow B:  Let’s make a cake for the spider.

Officer X:  We’ll make it banana flavor

Sparkle B:  Let’s have a party.  

Narrator:  Everyone has a party at the pigeon house.

Dancing and partying ensues.


If you are curious about organizing an amateur shooting schedule here is how I did it:

Play2018_Storyboard

2018 Movie_Shots-character

Shooting_Order_2018 Movie_Shot List

Filming Day

Our class has gone from authors, to actors, and now to movie stars! Today we officially wrapped the filming of our movie and it went off without a hitch. The students delivered their lines, waiting patiently while other’s filmed their scenes, and acted their hearts out. Below, you can see a little sneak peak of our characters in their costumes and how we filmed with a blue screen with the help from Weird Eric (our cinematographer).

As a second treat, I thought you might want to see another glimpse into the students’ writing process. This script was written on January 23rd and largely has the same story line as before. Some of the students have added speaking parts for their characters and they have introduced a problem to the story (the snake). However, no one actually signed on to play the snake, so I guess we had an invisible snake problem. We also had some very imaginative character names that I clearly don’t know how to spell, so bear with me!

Enjoy!

 

S.A. – Mom princess heart

E.C. – Mom princess Bear

C.P. – Princess Butterfly

G.K. – a pot chef

Z.G. – Rainbow the Fairy

G.S. – Gavin the skeleton (with fire hat)

C.S. – Princess Snowflake

N.T. – Izza the fairy

I.M. – Santa

V.J. – a turtle

W.W. – A Prince Zowkoo

F.R. – a princess kitty cat

T.S. – Prince Blaze

 

Once upon a time there was a little home out in the west where Santa lived and it was snowing. In the snow there was a castle where some princesses live. Santa shows up at the castle and he goes down their chimney and he puts some presents under the tree. Then he goes back up the chimney and leaves. Outside the castle there was a moat and in that moat lived a turtle. He looks up at the chimney and he sees Santa coming out. And he says, “Just gimme a present.” And Santa said, “Please ask nicely.” And the turtle says, “Please can I have a present?” And Santa says, “Yes you can,” and then Santa gives him a baby for a present and he then flies away.

Then Prince Zowkoo wakes up early in the morning and comes downstairs to see if Santa came. “Santa came! Santa Came!” Izza the fairy comes out of her room and says, “What’s going on?” and she checks to see if the sun is up and if it’s time for breakfast. The Pot Chef says that “the food is ready!” Princess snowflake looks outside and there was a big snow storm happening outside. There was lighting. The storm happened all day and snows a lot.

Then all the princesses wake up and come downstairs for breakfast. They look under the tree and see some presents. They open their presents. Then they go outside and play for a little bit but then they come inside to take a bath.  Prince Blaze opens the door for the princesses.  But he forgot to close and the door and Mom Princess Heart notices a snake has come inside. “A snake has come inside!” The snake bites her and she gets hurt. Gavin the skeleton comes with his fire hose and he blows the snake away with the water.

Princess Kitty Cat and Rainbow the fairy take their mom to the emergency room so she can get a shot and a glued band aid that she has to keep on for a while and that makes her all better. They also check her eyes to make sure she can see alright.

Gavin the skeleton becomes the protector of the castle so that no more snakes or monsters can come inside.

And they lived happily ever after!

The End!

Pre-K Makes a Movie: Part 3

We are excited to announce that we have officially finished filming our movie! The students worked so hard on designing costumes and sets, learning lines and where to stand, and how to patiently wait while others delivered lines. That’s a lot to ask from 4 and 5 year olds, but they pulled it off with ease! Now, while we wait for our fabulous videographer Weird Eric edits and scores our movie, please enjoy the third draft of the play. This version was written on Feb. 17th and became the base story for our final draft. After rereading draft #2, the students had decided that they needed to write a new script that had one cohesive story line, rather than several separate stories. We also discussed how stories need to have a problem, so we decided to try thinking of a problem first and then creating a story around it. The result proved to be a pretty amusing, cohesive story!

Enjoy.

Third Draft

L.W. – a talking football

W.S. – Dark the triceratops

Z.W.– a talking soccer ball

A.H. – a lamp

C.S. – a talking building

R.F. – a chicken that talks

K.H. – a talking bone

A.G. – a talking stinky sock

K.V. – a horse

M.H. – a talking baseball

S.S. – a witch

N.P. – spell Witch

 

Problem: The bone keep eating everyone’s food and at the end of the day there isn’t any food left for anyone, even the bone.

Person keeps going into Campbell building

A running scene

Someone wants to wear the sock

 

Once upon a time the football (L.W.) wanted to play a game so he invites the soccer ball (Z.W.), and soccer ball invites the stinky sock (A.G.), and the football invites the triceratops (W.S.). They play the game for a long and time and then they decided to stop for a snack. Just then the bone (K.H.) comes in and eats all their food and then runs before anyone can see her.

They say, “Where’s our food!?!”

Soccer ball says, “I’m hungry.”

The sock says, “The only thing that is left is a potato.”

They try to share the potato but it’s not very big.

The football says, “I need more food, I’m still hungry.”

 

In the next house, the lamp (A.H.), a baseball (M.H.), a witch (S.S.), and the building (C.S.) all live together.

Everyone is having a dance party and the decided to stop and eat some food.

The building says, “Let’s stop and have some pancakes and cupcakes.”

The witch says, What!?! “There’s no food!”

The lamp starts to pace across the room and comes up with an idea!

The lamp says, “It’s a mystery! Who took our food?”

The baseball rolls out of the house and starts looking to see if he can solve the mystery.

He looks outside and notices that there is a trail of crumbs on the ground. He runs back inside and is breathing hard and he says, “There are pancake crumbs outside. Let’s get our magnifying glasses!”

So they all run outside and start to follow the pancake crumb trail.

Just then the phone rings.

It’s the soccer ball and he says, “Hey somebody ate our food!”

“Somebody ate our food too! We found a trail of crumbs. Want to come search with us?”

“Sure!”

“I don’t know where it leads to, but let’s go.”

 

The spell witch (N.P) lives all by herself. She sees the bone (K.H.) try to steal her food and she stops her and uses her wand to make her come closer. The bone tries to run away but the spell witch locks up her house so she can’t leave and then she locks up her food too so that the bone can’t get her food. The spell witch uses her spell to make the bone want to stay in her house forever.

The second group follows the trail of crumb to the spell witch’s house and the baseball says, “One of you ate our food. Was it the bone or the witch that did it.”

The spell with says, “It was the bone and she tried to eat my food too!”

The regular witch says, “AHA! I solved the mystery, it was the bone that took our food!”

The lamp says, “That wasn’t nice. Please don’t eat our food again!”

The bone says, “Ok, I’m sorry. I just didn’t have any food.”

The spell witch uses her magic wand to make a new house with a refrigerator for the bone to live in.

The spell witch unlocks the bone and then they all have the dance party.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

Pre-K Makes a Movie! (First Draft)

For the past several months, our students have been working together to write their very own screenplay. Starting in January, we periodically sit the children down and ask them what kind of story they would like to write. We usually start by having each child choose a character and then they take turns adding details onto the story. The story is completely their own and can include almost anything the students’ dream up. The first few writing sessions usually result in a story that has little to no plot and often very little dialogue. It takes a few practices to understand how to work together to create a story that not only makes sense but involves all of the characters.

The next time the children sit down to write, they can choose to either change the story they wrote last time or try to write a whole new story. The students are allowed to change their characters and the storyline as many times as they want until spring break. Now that we have returned from spring break, we will begin practicing our lines for the play and designing costumes and sets.

On April 26th, our friend Weird Eric will visit the class to film and help us turn our little student-written screenplay into a movie! On May 19th, we will premiere the Pre-K Movie to our families and friends. Until then, please enjoy the students’ first draft.

First Draft

Jan 7, 2016

N.P. – Thorn Rosa

A.H. – Blue ninja 1

R.F. – Creeper 1

C.S.– Elsa 1

K.V. – Elsa 2

M.H. – Minecraft zombie 1

L.W. – Yoda

L.Z. – creeper 2

W.S. – blue ninja 2

Z.W. – Minecraft zombie 2

K.H. – Princess Leia

A.G. – Blue ninja 3

S.S. – Blue ninja 4

 

Once upon a time the Minecraft Zombie 2 (Z.W.) is in the loft. Then the blue ninja 1 (A.H.) came and meets him for lunch. Then Elsa 1 (C.S.) came out and said, “Hmm probably we should take their sandwiches and freeze them”. The minecraft zombie 2 (Z.W.) and the creeper 2 (L.Z.) warmed up the sandwiches in the toaster.

Yoda (L.W.) was flying a ship and saw a red light and Minecraft zombie 2 (M.H.) was crossing the street to the taco shop and Yoda said, “Get outta the way!”. Thorn Rosa (N.P.) hops on Yoda’s ship. Then Yoda (L.W.) came and found the bad guys and he turns them into bunnies and then Thorn Rosa (N.P.) finds the bunnies and they’re standing near the toaster oven and she locks them up in a doorway. Princess Leia (K.H.) comes flying in from a different ship and becomes friends with the zombie bunnies. The blue ninja 2 (W.S.) also becomes friends with the bunnies. Blue ninja 3 (A.G.) makes a boat out of ice and he sails back to land and he goes on a bus back to town and he eats pizza.

The creeper 1 (R.F.) crosses and street and he sit down and he watches the cars and eat a sandwich. Blue Ninja 4 (S.S.) turns on some music and Elsa 2 (K.V.) comes over and starts dancing. Then everyone comes and joins in the dance party.

The End.

 

 

Pre-K Play: First Draft 2015

Many of you already know that our students have been hard at work writing the script for our Pre-K movie since the beginning of January. Now that we have finished our final draft, we thought it might be fun to look back at the development of our story. Below, you will find the first draft of our play. This copy of the script is written word-for-word as described to us by the students, so please ignore any run on sentences or the lack of actual dialogue. However, if you look closely, you’ll see their ability to include many important story elements such as a beginning/middle/end, as well as a problem and solution!

You’ll also notice that several students choose a character but then do very little in the actual play. Typically, we start each script writing session by acting out the story line that was previously written on another day. This helps the students to see how big or small their roles are and then gives them an opportunity to change it (if they so choose).

The students were allowed to make as many changes as they wanted to their characters or the story line until the beginning of March. Since then, we have begun practicing our lines and designing our costumes and sets.  On May 8th, we have invited our videographer friend, Weird Eric (of WT Summer Camp and Applefest fame), to help film and turn this fantastic story into a movie! We are very excited to dive into the movie making process!

But first, please enjoy this little window into an exploration in script writing!

 

 

First Draft

N.M. – a  flower

V.H. – Anna

Z.W. – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

R.M. – a rainbow flower without a stem

A.H. – a baby unicorn

Z.B. – Elsa

P.M. – Mickey Wizard

L.W. – Woody the cowboy

L.L. – Snow White

J.K. – a forest guy

 

Once upon a time, Woody found a cage and he looked in and he said, “Wow there’s a little dog. Hey, you wanna play?” and they played together and he said, “I’m going to throw this football like a quarterback.”

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse plays football too and then he paints with his brother and then he calls the mickey wizard to come over to have a big party and they all play with their family. Then they have a sleepover. They heard Mickey Wizard crying. He’s crying because he lost his magic wand. Now he has to get a new one. So Mickey Wizard goes to the store to buy a new a wand.

Just then, they see a princess named Anna. Woody says, “Anna would you like to stay over”. And Mickey Mouse Clubhouse says “ok, we have 400 beds for you sleep in” and then Elsa comes and they invite her to stay. They tell her that there are 400 beds and that she can sleep with her sister and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will stay with his brother. Just then, Mickey Wizard comes back from the store with a wand and he feels happy.

“Hello, Mickey Wizard,” they say. They tell him that there are 400 beds and he can stay with Woody in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’s bed.

Elsa sees Snow white who is riding in on a baby unicorn and everyone invites them to stay for the sleepover. Everyone gets tired and they all go to sleep.

The next day everyone wakes up and they decided to go outside and play. When they get outside, they find two beautiful flowers and they pick the flowers. The forest guy says, you have to put those flowers into the water. So they take the flowers inside and put them in some water.

Then the baby unicorn gets lost! So everyone goes to look for the unicorn, except for Anna who stays home to take care of the flowers. They looked around and they realized that the monster had taken her into the cave. The forest guy hears a sound and he thinks it’s the baby unicorn and it was the unicorn. But Snow White says, “this will take forever to find the unicorn!”

Mickey wizard breaks the cave with magic from his wand and he uses his magic wand to bring the unicorn to him and to safety. The baby unicorn made it back to the house safely. Everyone says, “YAY!!!”

The End.