The show goes on
Determined that “the show must go on”, St Paul’s Anglican Grammar Junior School transformed its live show into a movie musical masterpiece.
In its very different format, movie musical “Cindy” provided a new adventure and great opportunity for students to learn about the five main stages of filmmaking - development, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution.
A group of year five students became resident “recording artists”, rehearsing all songs and then laying down the tracks to be used for each of the songs.
Meanwhile, the year six main cast members were busy learning lines, the backstage crew put in hours of work to design sets for each of the scenes and students in other classes learnt their choreography in preparation for the filming of their “class songs”.
Having performed musicals live on stage in past years, students have learnt about the differences and advantages of filming scenes and songs compared to performing live on stage.
The musical comprised of two shows that allowed year six students the chance to have a main speaking role. The St Paul’s teachers themselves filmed, edited and pieced together multiple shots to create two films of vibrant, inclusive musical numbers of great sound quality as a result of having the songs pre-recorded.
The videos premiered to the year six students during their graduation dinner and musical premiere evening. The students dressed up and walked the red carpet to make the night that little more special.
In normal times, the Junior School musical is held at the West Gippsland Arts Centre in front of families and members of the community and includes every student in the St Paul’s school. Although disappointing the musical could not be viewed live this year, families were looking forward to the final video of “Cindy” and seeing their children’s performing arts endeavours come to life on the screen.