Congratulations to the Cast and Crew of Aladdin!
Middle school students premiered their production on Thursday night at the Fairlee Drive-in. This unprecedented year called for an unprecedented approach to producing the Middle School’s yearly musical. Below, you will find answers to frequently asked questions about Aladdin, screens, the recording, the editing, the re-recording, and the re-editing. The cast and crew met every challenge and were able to bring Aladdin to life. Students demonstrated courage, perseverance, creativity, and heart every step of the way. BRAVO!
- How did the students do the singing? From a distance and solo! One at a time, students would report to either the art room or the Spanish room. From over ten feet across the room with masks on, the music director would instruct individual students and record the songs.
- How did they do the dance numbers? They were innovative!
- For several of the numbers, two eighth grade students choreographed the dances and taught them in the gym from over twenty feet away with masks on.
- Another dance was choreographed from Texas! This student taught the dance via Zoom and also made a recording for the dancers.
- Other groups of students choreographed their own numbers and a professional choreographer worked on two numbers with the same safety guidelines.
- How did they do the acting scenes? Extra hours and many Zooms! The students met on Zoom in the evenings with green screens set up behind them to record and re-record scenes.
- How did they put it all together? This was an editing FEAT! A group of five students took 1-3 scenes each. Working with FinalCut, they put the scenes together. They learned how to add backgrounds and special effects. The most difficult part? Trying to layer all of the individual voices. They had to not only match the voices with the accompaniment, but also with the dancing. It was no easy task.
- How many hours did this all take? It’s hard to calculate. The hours prior to editing were well over 150, and, with the editing, likely over 225 hours in total!
If you would like to watch the musical, please click the link and enjoy. (If you’d like a program please contact Darlene in the main office. This program was also put together by students and includes a must read op-ed).
