The Production of Production

The Production of Production

“The show must go on,” is a theatrical saying that dates back to the nineteenth century. It means that: regardless of what happens, the performance ought to continue. Thus, in a world plagued by a deadly virus, the annual CIS school production was unable to perform live as usual. So… we improvised, adapted, and overcame to create the Broadway Revue, aka the first-ever virtual CIS production (coming virtually March 19, 2021)!

It will be a medley of musical hit songs throughout the years from the 1950s to the 2000s featuring songs from The Lion King, Mamma Mia, High School Musical, and more! Since September, the production team has been working extremely hard to make it a masterpiece, so here is a behind-the-scenes special on the overall rollercoaster ride this year’s production creation process has been.

September 11. The day we all auditioned for… Annie! Yup, that’s right! When this all started and we signed up to participate this year, we all joined for some sort of role in Annie. Well, that’s what we thought, but of course, things changed and the plans for production were swiftly switching up day after day. One day I was Mr. Warbucks from Annie; the next I was the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera! To be honest, it was quite chaotic, to say the least; however, it started to come together. Slowly but surely, with the passage of each session, we began working more in unison; we had a vision and an idea to create an assortment of famous musical performances virtually through editing and greenscreens. 

The process of making each scene would normally go like this:

  1. Practice our parts individually
  2. Record asynchronously with a green screen set up behind us.
  3. Then upload it for the editing team to deal with.

This 3-step process may at first seem like not much of a challenge, but it’s a lot harder than you might think. First and foremost, a key challenge we faced was communication. From most of the production team members I’ve spoken to, they said it was a struggle as doing it virtually isn’t the same.

One production member stated how it was hard to “point out what needed to be improved as it’s easier for us to communicate and practice in-person”. I even found it difficult to try to put up my green screen because the instructions confused me and my house had no space for it to be placed. Then, when I did get it up and it was time for me to perform, I fell while dancing because of how slippery it was.

Moving on, a lot of other production members had issues submitting their required performances on time. Most people had other priorities; therefore, doing production became more “stressful” and “challenging to balance” as time went on.

Nonetheless, we all still had a wonderful time creating and conjuring up such special scenes for the production this year. Most of us may have not been used to standing in front of a green screen and singing to our camera, but we still cherished every moment and had fun while doing it. In fact, here are a few photos of the recording, filming, and final product snippets that were captured along the way:

Me realizing I’m wearing headphones while recording.

The Mamma Mia! Cast ready to perform.

And here’s a sneak peek for the Cats and Annie songs soon to be released!

Overall, the production may have been quite unusual, but it was still very fun and exciting because doing something like this virtually is not something you get to do on a day-to-day basis. The production this year is definitely one you don’t want to miss and on behalf of the production team, we can’t wait for you to watch it.

See you on March 19 (mark your calendars)!


Article by Sean K. (Grade 10); Feature Image by Renoa K. (Grade 10); Images from the Production Editing Team

The views expressed in this article represent the personal views of the author and should not be taken to represent the views of Dragon’s Print and Cebu International School.

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