The Rough Cut & Halloween 2018

In May of this year, my Grade 10 English students and I embarked on a video project in the hopes of making a short film about life in Arctic Bay.  We were inspired by the 2007 YouTube series Don’t Call Me Eskimo.  The three-part series was made in Arctic Bay by a local video club.  Principal photography lasted two weeks and we accumulated 46 minutes of raw footage.  Finally, after many months, I had a rough cut to show the students.  The cut ran for fifteen & a half minutes.  Music and sound effects would be added to the final cut.

            

When the project began, we thought our short film would take place all over the community.  However, we mostly filmed within the school and my classroom.  It soon became apparent that our short film would be about a high school teacher and his students dealing with everyday struggles at Inuujaq School.  Some students chose to play themselves while others used stage names.  I decided to use one of my old student-given nicknames from 2013 as my character’s name, which became the title of the film: Mr. Putugu’s Classroom.  “Putugu” is Inuktitut for “big toe”.  To be honest, my toes are not big, but I guess that one student assumed they were, based on my shoe size.

            

I assembled all the students involved in the film in my classroom a few days before Halloween.  I briefly explained that I was a showing a rough cut of the film and thanked them again for their participation.  I also suggested that they watch themselves as if those were different students on screen.  (I said this to combat embarrassment).  The lights were turned off and I pressed play.  There was silence, laughter, and focus from the students watching the film.  When the credits began to roll, the students gave me their approvals and were excited to see the final cut.  I promised to have it cut ready before Christmas. 

My classroom door decorated for Halloween.

Halloween is a festive time of the year in Arctic Bay.  You know this quite well if you’re a frequent visitor to my blog (Thank you!).  The school had the usual activities planned for the day: door decorating contest, costume contest, drum performance, and afternoon games.  The community also kept the same routines by announcing that trick-or-treating would be from 5-7pm, immediately followed by the community costume contest. 

            

Me wearing my Ghoul Warrior mask.

I decided to dress up as a Ghoul Warrior this year.  I ordered the costume from Spirit Halloween and it arrived on time.  Unfortunately, the quality wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.  The armour & cape felt flimsy and I could only see through one hole in the mask.  I had to use scissors to enlarge the hole on the left side.  I was glad I only had to wear it for one day.  (I don’t recommend buying this product).  I’ve been buying costumes from Spirit Halloween since 2013 and the best one so far is the Grim Reaper.

           

Everyone gathered in the gym in the afternoon for the assembly.  The place was alive with people dressed in a variety of costumes.  I did my best to see & breathe through the mask I was wearing.  Judging from the reactions I was somewhat seeing, I looked intimidating.

            

My drummers & I arrived early after the extended lunch to set up the drums in the gym.  I made it easier by having all the equipment stored in the cadet office above the gym.  I gave my drummers some final words of encouragement before we were called to perform.  We walked in a line and took positions behind our drums.  I signalled a teacher at the back to turn off the lights.  I bought specially made drum sticks that light up when you play.  Unfortunately, light up bass drum mallets don’t exist so my bass drummers had to use regular mallets.  I raised my sticks in the air, clicked them four times and our performance began.

            

This was the first time we were using light sticks.  It was a good choice because the audience loved the visual effects.  I was later told that many people recorded our performance.  Unfortunately, I was so focused on getting everything set up that I forgot to ask someone to record everything on my camera.  I don’t have any pictures or videos of the concert.  Sorry.  We played three cadences as a group and a few solos.  It was a little challenging to see in the dark but we managed to put on a great 6-minute show.

            

The assembly continued with the costume contest.  Each class walked around the gym twice, showing off their costumes before sitting down.  Several high school students wore my old costumes.  The judges were members of the local District Education Authority (DEA).  The winners received gift certificates to the local CO-OP.  The winning high school student used my Grim Reaper mask.  The class that won the door decorating contest received a pizza party at a later date.  School was dismissed early at 3pm. 

I gave out free candy while dressed in costume.  Parents drove their kids around town to collect candy because the weather was dark and cold.  In some communities, trick-or-treating has to be done inside because of roaming polar bears.  I still had plenty of candy left over even though I was handing out 4 pieces to each person.  I changed out of my costume and walked down to the community hall for the annual Ugliest Costume Contest.

Contestants came dressed in whatever they could find in their houses.  Numbers were taped to their costumes and were instructed to sit in front of the stage.  It’s always fascinating to see the wild combinations that people come up with.  The contest got under way once the hall was packed with spectators.

The first group was the 12 & under contestants.  They walked around the hall while music played on loudspeakers.  A few kids didn’t wear masks.  It was difficult trying to guess the identities of the kids wearing masks.  The 13 & over group was next.  All the older contestants were wearing masks of some kind. (Part of the contest is to not to reveal your identity until the very end).  They walked around in a circle twice, except for the contestant who was inside a suitcase.  They had to be pushed around on a cart.

Cash prizes were given out for third, second, and first places.  Each winner was called up to the front by their number, shook hands with the judges, and then revealed their identity to the audience.  I was only able to correctly guess who was the person in the suitcase.  He was a former student of mine.