VCAL students’ short film success
In Summary
This year, students from Swinburne University of Technology’s Croydon campus have been busy producing a series of short films, which were featured at the 2014 St Kilda Film Festival.
The students, who are currently completing their Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), have spent the year creating media works, including digital stories, animation and stop motion.
As part of their VCAL Personal Development Skills outcomes, the students developed and organised their very first youth media festival, SWIN-MOTION, which was an exhibition of all their creative works. The public were invited to view the students’ work via the interactive screens at KIOSC, located at Swinburne’s Wantirna campus.
Youth Programs Coordinator, Adam Cooper, who mentored the students throughout the project said the program was a great success.
‘It engaged students in a new experience that allowed them to be creative, engage with technology, work in teams and eventually showcase their work to an audience beyond their teachers and peers,” said Mr Cooper.
Following the success of SWIN-MOTION, a film documenting the students’ journey throughout the year, including snippets of their short films, was produced and screened at the Armed and Dangerous Youth Film Festival.
Armed and Dangerous has been running for 10 years as the youth component of the prestigious St. Kilda Film Festival.
Two of the students represented Swinburne at this event, which was attended by the director of the festival, Paul Harris, and the Mayor of Port Phillip, Amanda Stevens. They spoke about their experiences working on the project and how thrilled they were to see their work on the big screen.
Selected works from the SWIN-MOTION exhibition will also be showcased in the Armed and Dangerous TV series on Melbourne’s Channel 31.
The series is now in its eighth year and is produced by VET Certificate III Creative Industries students at Swinburne Senior Secondary College. It highlights film and media work made by young people outside of mainstream VCE, and includes interviews with the filmmakers and advice from industry professionals on how to get into the film and TV industry.
Armed and Dangerous TV will screen over 6 Thursdays from October 16, between 4:30pm and 5pm.