The Pre-K Movie Premiere

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Last night, we held our seventh annual Movie Premiere where we debuted the masterpiece: The Pre-K Movie. Our stars arrived in their fancy garb, walked the red carpet, had their picture taken by the paparazzi, ate pizza and popcorn, and even received their very own 3D printed Oscars. We could not be more proud of all of the creativity and hard work this class put into this movie!

If you’d like to see the script for this four month long project, you can check it out here.

Thank you to all who were able to join us last night and to all those that made this fabulous evening possible!

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

Freezenburg Princesses Premiere

Last night, we held our fifth annual Pre-K Movie Premiere where we debuted the masterpiece: The Freezenburg Princesses. Our movie stars arrived in their fancy garb, walked the red carpet, had their picture taken by the paparazzi, ate pizza and popcorn, and even received their very own 3D printed oscars. We could not be more proud of all of the creativity and hard work this class put into this movie!

Thank you to all who were able to join us last night and to all those that made this fabulous evening possible!

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: Final Draft

The final draft of our play was based on the storybook Snowmen at Night, which the children had read earlier this year. However, in order to put our own spin on this tale, we decided to tell a story that would show what toys do at night while we sleep. The students created a story with a beginning, middle, and end while also creating a problem that needed to be solved.

Some children worked on writing the dialogue for their characters, while others help write the plot of the story. Some students decided that they felt more comfortable just acting in the play and not having lines. Each child was thoughtful about what they wanted their characters to look like and how they would act in each scene.

It was a long journey from our first script-writing session, but they crafted a wonderfully creative story and we could not be more excited to share it with everyone at our up-coming movie premiere!

Enjoy!

 

What Do Toys Do at Night?

 

The Toys

A.H. – a fairy

A.R. – a ballerina

A.J. – a green robot

D.K. – Princess Aurora

E.S. – Sven

H.P. – Spiderman

J.W. – Ben Kenobi

J.J. – Iron Man

O.M. – a football player

O.A. – a bear

S.M. – a vampire squid

S.B. – a fairy mermaid

T.O. – a blue robot

 

The little girl

S.C. – Elsa

 

A little girl, named Elsa, is playing in her room. The toys are all silent and not moving. Elsa stretches. She says, “I’ll put these toys away in the morning.”
Elsa goes to sleep. Then the toys start to wake and decide to play hide seek.

The bear is counting while everyone else hides. Then Sven, Aurora, the fairy, the robot, and Spiderman go to hide in the toy box, but they get stuck inside.

The bear starts to look for his friends. He finds, the vampire squid, the football player, the dancer, fairy mermaid, Ben Kenobi and the blue robot.
The bear notices there are a lot of friends that are missing.
“There are not as many friends as I used to see.”
Some of the toys say, “Oh, no! I’m worried for my friends”
Ben Kenobi uses his binoculars to look around.
The bear says, “Wait a minute, I see foot prints. There are two kinds of foot prints. One leads up to the roof, and one leads to the wall.”
The dancer stands on her tippy-toes to look on the shelf and says, “All I see is a box”.

Elsa wakes up and the toys freeze. Elsa goes to get a drink of water and goes back to bed.

Meanwhile in the toy box, Sven tries to use his antlers to open the box but it does open. Aurora says, “I have an idea, let’s all work together to open the lid.”
Then all the toys work together to push the lid open but it doesn’t budge.
“It’s too heavy” says Iron Man.
Spiderman says “It’s locked”.
The fairy says, “It’s stuck”.
Iron Man tries to laser a circle to try to get out of the toy box. Spiderman tries to use his webs to open the box. The fairy tries to fly out, but the lid is too heavy.
The robot says “I’ll make a key”.
The robot tries to use the key from the inside but it doesn’t work. The lid doesn’t budge.
“Sven says the keys is too little.” says Spiderman

The fairy mermaid uses her wand to make a map of the bedroom. The toys looks all around the room and then mark off on the map, the places they have looked.

“The first set of footprint don’t lead anywhere, they just walk around in a circle.” says Ben.
“The second set of footprints that lead to the roof, disappear.” says the football player.
The football player puts on his secret spy helmet with x-ray vision that helps him to see into things. He looks around the room.
“I found them.”
All the toys say, “Where?” and the football player says
“They are up on the shelf in the toy box.”
The vampire squid says, “I see the key under the bed.”
He tries to go under the bed to get the key but he gets stuck in gum.
“Oh no, I got stuck in gum”.
So the toys send the ballerina, Ben, and the fairy mermaid on a rescue mission to save the vampire squid. They work together and pull on the vampire squid really hard and he breaks free from the gum.
Now that they have the key, Ben goes to the fire engine to borrow the ladder.
“Come one guys, let’s use the ladder to get up on the shelf.”

Once they all get up on the shelf, they use the key to open the box.
The box opens, “Thank you! Yay!” say the toys
All the toys cheer!
Just then, the toys realize that it’s almost morning and Elsa is waking up. The toys all jump down from the shelf and return to their regular positions on the floor.
Elsa wakes up and says, “Wow, what a dream!”

 

 

What do toys do at night?: A Movie Premiere

Attention ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! We are very excited to announce that you are cordially invited to the Pre-K’s movie premiere of What do toys do at night?

You have been watching our script develop and now we are getting ready to put the final touches on our performance.  Our annual, student-written play will be converted into a short feature film, allowing the students to share the experience with family and friends. Once again our class has partnered with the Pittsburgh Filmmakers to help us shoot and edit the film. The students have been working tirelessly on making costumes, learning their lines, and making props and scenery.

The screening party for our movie will begin at 5:30 PM on May 29, 2014.  We will gather to dine with the actors as we rub elbows with this soon to be famous crew.  Dinner will be followed by the official screening in the multipurpose room at 6:15 PM. Please join us in celebrating the work of these amazing students!

Official invitations to follow.

And the Oscar goes to…

photo(2)

Our movie premiere went off without a hitch! Our fabulous movie stars walked the red carpet, stopping only for a picture or two from the paparazzi and to wave at their adoring fans!

Without further ado, I give you our final script for our Pre-K movie “Birds”.

J– A spider

K and Ev – a mouse

A – Edward the train

O – a giant

Cl, Ra, and So – the mean birds

Re and Sa – A talking dog

El – a talking sandwich

Ca – Tiana

 

Once upon a time there were three mean birds (Cl, So, Ra) playing on a bridge. When along came some mice (Ev and K).

 

“We want to cross the bridge.”

“No one is allowed on our bridge, it’s only for us!” said the mean Birds.

“There are some bigger animals coming, wait to eat them. They are much juicer!”  Said the mice. (K and Ev)

And they let them across the bridge.

 

When along came some dogs (Re and Sa) and they wanted to cross the bridge.

 

“We want to go across the bridge.” said the dogs.

“No one is allowed on our bridge, it’s only for us!” said the birds.

“There is a much juicer spider coming. You should eat him!” Said the dog

“What the banana peels is going on??” said the birds

And they let the dogs cross the bridge.

 

Then along came a spider (J).

 

And he said , “I want to go across the bridge.”

“No one is allowed on our bridge, it’s only for us!”

And the spider said, “Eat the sandwich that is coming. He’s much tastier!”

And they let the spider cross the bridge.

 

And then along came a talking sandwich (El), “I want to go across this bridge.”

“No one is allowed on our bridge, it’s only for us!” said the Birds.

“Tiana is coming and she is much juicer. You should eat her.”

And they let him go across the bridge.

 

Then along came Tiana (Ca) and she said, “I want to go across the bridge.”

“No one is allowed on our bridge, it’s only for us!” said the Birds.

“You should eat the train that’s coming. He is much juicer.”

And they let Tiana cross the bridge.

 

Just then, along came Edward the train (A).

He said, “I want to cross this bridge.”

“No one is allowed on our bridge, it’s only for us!” said the mean Birds.

“Beep, Beep” said Edward the train and they let him go across.

 

And then came a giant (O) and he said, “FE FI FO FUM. I want to cross this bridge!”

“No one is allowed on our bridge, it’s only for us!” said the mean Birds.

“Fine, then I’ll huff and puff and do my roar!! ROAR!!”

And the mean Birds fell off the bridge and then flew home.

And the giant cheered on the other side.

 

The End!

Birds: A Movie Premiere!

Attention ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! We are very excited to announce that you are cordially invited to the Pre-K’s movie premiere of Birds!

This year, our class embarked on a new adventure into the world of movie-making. We decided early on to turn our yearly play into a short feature film, allowing the students to share the experience with family and friends. Our class has partnered with the Pittsburgh Filmmakers to help us shoot and edit the film. The students have been working tirelessly on making costumes, learning their lines, and making props and scenery.

The screening of our movie will take place in the multipurpose room at 10:00 AM on May 17, 2013 followed by a reception in the library. Please join us in celebrating the work of these amazing students!

Official invitations to follow.