Re-editing of the script

Working further on that Principal and child script, we had a hard time editing it, my fellow group members and I realised that we were performing no miracles. All the students from our class ( other groups) had a very similar story or theme.

                    

Also, as the administration office is located near the playground, there was a lot of noise in our video and this made us look very disorganised. Though our teacher told us some of our shots were really good, she seemed disappointed with the sound quality and also with certain shots.

So we all decided to take the risk and start with a new script all over again. That night three members stayed up late, we had many, many different ideas in mind, the fact that we had to shoot in school helped weed out most of the options. Arika came up with the idea of showing a saas-bahoo ,  ( mother-in-law/daughter in law argument), which can be humourous topic. I suggested that we make the mother-in-law criticise her daughter in law about amount of salt in the food she cooked, I suggested we use the school kitchen. I also suggested that the mother-in-law would notice the daughter in law wearing expensive jewelry and then scream at her son for wasting money. On the other hand, Arika came up with the idea that we show that it is the son’s Parent-teacher-meeting which both daughter in law and her mother-in-law attends. But neither of these ideas became successful , because none of the people our age would resemble the mother-in-law or the daughter in law and that would make the video seem unrealistic. Secondly the school kitchen was too small and had bad lightening. We did make the story board and present it to our teacher , but she didn’t really like it too much as a topic. 
That Script was as follows:

Daughter in law with her son in a Parent-Teacher meeting. She hears her mother in law calling her.
Mother in law: Sarah stop it! Why in the world are you running? What are you doing here?
Wife: (shocked but recovering) uh what do you think I am doing? I wanted to search on the African zulu tribes in my sons parent teacher conference. (she laughs while they both look at her as if she has lost her mind. Bahu notices that no one is laughing at her joke) I was being funny
Mother in law: don’t sweat it my dear. People will end up getting in loony bin for just trying to figure you out 
Wife: (surprised) what are YOU doing here(and slightly irritated)
Mother in law: (in a sophisticated manner) I am here to support my boy (she grabs the other hand of the son. Son gives a fake smile)
Wife: (holding the other arm) he doesn’t needs your held thankyou not very much 
Son: ooouuw
(A secretary comes from behind)

Secretary:excuse me there is a meeting going on. Please have a seat n keep it quiet here..
Mother in law, Wife and son in a chorus: sorry
Next scene
Secretary showing Mother in law, wife and their son inside principal office.
Principal: ( on the phone) no no it is today. … .(pause) yes there would be no more meetings (she looks up distractedly) oh hello! You must be his… (she trails of and looks at them expectantly)
Wife: mom (she holds her sons arm)
Mother in law: (holding other hand in a death grip) Grand mom 
Son: (grumbling) ease of both of you
Principal: uhh good good. Please have a seat and please excuse me (in a hurry) I really need to take this call (walks out of the room). There are only three seats. Grand mom marches forward and sits down haughtily (I was a day away from being a principal. You know I can be more professional than her (she sneers at the mention of her) by attending the parents and telling the caller to buzz off. She examines her nails. Son and mom roll their eyes and take their seat.
Mother in law: That is because every time u laugh, it was as if you were talking and trying to swallow a truck engine at the same time.
Mother in law: Are you trying to joke again? 
Wife: no this time it was a complement
Mother in law: Watch it you sorry excuse of woman!! First you ruin my sons life now you misbehave with me!
Wife: Oh did I hurt you feelings! I am so sorry 
Mother in law: you should be !
Wife: I don’t specialize in dealing with pure evil 
Mother in law: how dare you!! My poor son! You made his life miserable. I regret that day when you trapped by son and started growing over me like a smelly fungus!
Mother in law: yeah even I regret that! I should have asked if his mother had some sort of personality disorder. Or maybe also send you to zoo along with your monkey! 
Son: Mom!
Grandmom: did you say disorder?? You’re the one who serves boiled eggs without actually boiling them!! And what about that pant you wear all the time with a kitty face drawn on your fat butt!! 
Wife: (getting agressive). If we are discussing disorder than let’s talk about u using razor to shave off your mustache 
Mother in law: you do that with your armpits! And….
Son: Cut it out both of you! Please give it a break you both are in my god damn school! 
Wife: sorry son. 
Mother in law: see how dare you ruin my young man’s day
Son: (warningly) grandmom! 
Grandmom: sorry (and she sits down brooding)
Principal: I am so sorry to make your wait. Seems like a happy family 
Son: (mumbling) you have no idea 
Wife: not a problem. Always ready to meet the two headed monster. (Mother in law and son look at her as if she has lost her mind. Principal shocked) 
Principal: I am sorry you called me a monster
Wife: no No . you are a principal, a head…. And …uh… u have a head…. And …. It was a joke 
Principal:…. Uhh…hahaha(fakes laugh) funny. Anyway you son is progressing well in his new class. Here are the reports. He is doing it really well in media, thinking skills! And …….(and the principal goes on)

We made a promise to ourselves , that we will make the best video in our class as we had taken a lot of time to come up with an idea already. 

My mom suggested the idea of showing a typical maid servant, so we can raise awareness of how tough life is for the working class people in our country. But when I discussed this idea with my group , we ended up making really good modifications to the idea and we came up with a script, which we all felt we could work with.

We had our whole script ready in our Facebook inboxes. We then got a print out of it. We all made the storyboards individually so we could choose the best one and came fully prepared to shoot the next day.

Next day, the shooting day was really memorable. After attendance we left the class. Fatimah Qayyum (our group member) wore my lab coat and a shawl on her head. Our friend Abeera also wore a labcoat. We had to ask permission from the lab assistant for shooting in the lab, he granted us the permission. Arika and I tested placing the cameras at different angles as there was sunlight coming in from a window and it was difficult deciding what locations cameras should be placed at while our actors went through the script and we explained to them what they have to do. During the lab assistant’s absence I stood up on the lab table , beside the chemicals (carefully so as not to break anything) and started shooting. We had a really tough scene in our video where the lab assistant drops a conical flask with chemical in it and it breaks.  We used ink water instead of chemical, a conical flask and a broken conical flask (that was already broken- we didn’t damage anything) and a transparent water bottle to give the impression of an object falling.

That turned out to be a successful sequence , but we created a lot of mess in the science lab so we mopped the floor up before we left the lab.