Paino Doc

Interview:

Ant: Please introduce yourself.

Shelley Weiss Art Department Coordinator PK 3-12 at North Broward Preparatory School.

And Sponsor of the NAHS National Art Honors Society. 

Ant: I have noticed some piano’s in the hallways... with a sign that says “The Piano Project” - could you tell me about the Project?

Shelley Weiss:

It all begins with a single piano. Then an artist creates a piece of artwork. That artwork is placed in a public space, and the community gets to engage by playing, or listening. After the piano's 'public life' ends, it is placed in its 'FOREVER HOME" like a school, community center or nursing home - where the community continues to enjoy art and music! 

Ant: How did you become involved in the Piano Project?

Shelley Weiss:

In the summer I received an email from the Fine Arts office asking if I was willing to paint a piano that was being retired from a practice room. I thought about it for a brief moment and thought - sure - why not?  Each year I look for community service projects that NAHS members can contribute to. This one seemed to have potential.

Ant: Each piano has a unique design. Who designed them.

Shelley Weiss:

When I returned from summer break I met with Mr Petruzzi about the project. That’s when I actually found out about the charity behind the project. We then brainstormed and thought that all members should have the opportunity to design a piano and then the most popular design would be produced collaboratively. The project was announced at a club meeting and the students were given 2 weeks to submit their designs. The designs were then presented to Mr Petruzzi and the selection made. Alejandra Heoningberg’s design was selected. 

Ant: You said one design was selected but I see 2 piano’s being painted….

Shelley Weiss:

Well yes… not too soon after the first piano started. Mr Di then approached me and said he had a good piano in his garage that he would like to donate. Of course the next step was to approach Mr Petruzzi and see what could be done about getting the piano moved here. It didn’t take too long and soon there was another piano to paint… and Cate Strauch design was selected.

Ant: What challenges are you the students’ faced with on this project?

Shelley Weiss:

2 big challenges. Finding time to get them done is difficult. They had to be sanded and primed which took about 3 hours each. Hand painting a piano is not a quick thing to do. Students have to find time during lunch and after school to get it done. This becomes more of a challenge when it is a group. The students are all working round the clock on many other things and scheduling time to gettogether at the same time is hard. Some teams have chosen to come in on a Saturday morning to make it happen. 

Ant: What’s next for the Piano Project? 

Shelley Weiss:

Figuring out where they are going to be placed. Right now even the one outside my room is already being played. People seem drawn to them. We have a lot of good piano players. We are hoping that after some time here, one can be moved to SOS children’s village our Fine Arts charity of choice. Bringing music to others is such a good feeling. I hear there is one more piano out there too waiting for our artists.

This documentary was much more rushed than the last but i think i managed to get a good result with it because i had all on the questions i wanted and all the b roll i needed but i did not need to use that much. With the editing i struggled because i had filmed all the footage in c log to give me more flex-ability with the post production but it ended up basically killing my computer and crashing premier every time i added color correction or imported more clips it would crash so at the last minuet i had switched to one of the macs in class and got the editing done and now i am writing the blog post. I got my inspiration mostly by accident because i had happened to be working on the paino project with cate already so i decided i could film it for my documentary because i could also get an interview with my mom for the doc. I also found out that this project was more of a public project where the paino will be put in a public space for people to play and when the popularity dies out it is moved to its forever home like hopefully one of these painos will be brought to sos children's village.

Reflection on process. Includes inspiration, execution and post production.