With only 39 days until Christmas (and counting..!) the pupils at Fenland Junction started a brand-new project which we'll be working on for the next few sessions before performing live in concert on December 13. Having had a go at writing a radio play with spooky soundtrack for a scary Hallowe'en special, we decided to go in a rather more heartwarming direction for our festive works. As usual, our students weren't short of imagination, and whilst you might recognise some elements of more traditional Christmassy tales mixed in, the end results were entirely new....
For our first session, we split up into three groups working with one of our musicians in a flurry of brainstorming activity as they decided what the basic plotline was going to be. Having managed to agree (almost!) on what the story would involve, we then broke down the action into separate scenes (making storyboards to divide up the plot), then started thinking of how we could show the narrative through sound. Whilst this might seem easy enough, just try making a snowy scene with no words or pictures!
Later on in the day, we started to get recording, using mobile phone rings, unusual effects (the sound of a match being struck was tricky!) and some strange noises ('mean laughter' from a cruel and heartless bailiff was pretty impressive!) on top of the GarageBand pre-recorded sounds and beats.
Whilst we're only at the beginning of our project, I can reveal a sneak preview of one of the stories so far, which go a bit like this (apologies for any mistakes!)...
A Cambridgeshire Carol
Bob* and Liza* Smith are poor parents whose small son Tim is disabled and badly needs an expensive operation in America to get better. Bob's boss, Scrooge, is a hugely wealthy man, but despite numerous pleas, refuses to give Bob any money to save little Tim. In fact, Scrooge is so horrible that on Christmas Eve he tries to evict Bob and Liza as they have fallen behind with the rent (mean laughter)....however, Scrooge's ghostly sister Fran visits him that night, firstly as a far-off light, glowing in the distance, but then getting stronger and stronger until she reveals images of Tim in pain, then of herself and Scrooge as children. Suddenly she disappears, as Scrooge awakes: and is gone. But the memories of the dream are left, and Scrooge repents of his ways and not only allows Bob and Liza to stay in their house, but even pays for little Tim's operation in America after a super Christmas celebration!
Keep watching, lots more to come!
*names changed for the purposes of anonymity!
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