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SHORT FILM B WHO U WANT 2 B
Primary school students' multimedia explorations around the rights and responsibilities of children
[2009-2010]

CATEGORIES

  • Graphic and Web Design and Publishing
  • Short Film Production and Live Video
  • Music Production and Performance
  • Education and Training

PARTNERS

  • Camden Council
  • Save the Children
  • Banksia Road Primary School, Greenacre

TASKS DELIVERED

  • Workshops co-planning and delivery
  • Post-production of the final film and package

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

In an excellent opportunity to validate the voices and opinions of children and young people by harnessing their creative talents, Camden Creative Studios partnered with the world's largest independent organisation for children, 'Save the Children'.

As part of an 'Art for Advocacy' pilot project, students from Banksia Road Public School in Greenacre, spent four days at Camden Creative Studios in a series of intensive multimedia workshops, exploring the theme 'The Rights and Responsibilities of Children'.

The aim was to educate, inspire and empower these children by allowing them to express what they want to say about issues that have relevance in their lives.

The result of their ideas and opinions on social justice issues as expressed in their media explorations were compiled and post-produced into an infectious 13-minute short film 'B who U want 2 B'.

OBJECTIVES

  • To seek partners to collaborate with beyond the local and regional and to connect with key national and international organisations.
  • To actively promote positive social change from a young age by building a deep awareness of child rights while simultaneously providing students with opportunities to engage with the arts.
  • To develop models for delivering non-formal education in arts and culture. In school, pupils rarely get to work in ways that use digital media to its full potential. By exposing them to Camden Creative Studios' comprehensive range of tools and techniques, students are allowed to use their imagination to enhance creativity and produce work that has originality and brings added value to their learning.
  • To develop ways in which to increase literacy across a variety of media. By way of example, the craft based arts can often be a solitary pursuit. Contrastingly, filmmaking requires teamwork and negotiation. The seemingly chaotic interplay in filming sessions (often mistaken for disorganisation) is an opportunity for students to develop an adaptive social and creative intelligence.
  • Harnessing group creative work to encourage community cultural development.
  • To produce a 'mockumentary' DVD as a tangible, re-playable educational and promotional resource.

PROCESSES, ACTIVITIES AND PARTNERS

After having been approached by the Education Coordinator of Save the Children to collaborate in an Art for Advocacy pilot project, Camden Creative Studios devised and conducted a four-day intensive program of multimedia and filmmaking with students from Banksia Road Primary School, Greenacre, as participants. Save the Children underwrote the exercise.

First, the students were primed on the ways of the various media they would be working with at the Studios and were then stepped through a range of exercises, culminating in the production of a one-minute short for DVD output.

The exercises included taking computer camera snapshots of their software-contorted selves, controlling lighting for dramatic effect, importing the shots into a movie editing timeline, then applying movement, transitions and colourising. A soundtrack was quickly generated from audio loops, simple titles added and the final composite exported, burned and a design printed to DVD disk in a complete round-trip media creation journey.

At every turn, the key considerations of 'thinking' and 'teamwork' were reinforced.

Following briefings by Save the Children's Education Coordinator and subsequent brainstorming regarding the rights and responsibilities of children, Banksia Road pupils were able to apply their freshly tested media skills during the course of the following days. Augmenting their toolset with video and stills cameras and audio recording gear, the students engaged in directing and capturing interviews from multiple angles. They also created their own music mixes derived from libraries of audio loops.

Since the project wasn't storyboarded, once the workshops had finished, Camden Creative Studios compiled and edited the raw material of interviews, outtakes, music, stills and other recordings into a rhythmic montage that juxtaposes interviews and performances with snippets of process and technique in creatively delivering its social justice message.

STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVEMENT

  • Camden Council – provided studio facility and staff: workshop planning and delivery by the Cultural Development Coordinator, Angela Pasqua
  • Save the Children – funder of the project and provided staff: Education Coordinator, Penny Lee
  • Banksia Road Primary School – provided over 30 students, a teacher and the Deputy Principal
  • Designer / producer / educator Olev Muska – workshop planning and delivery and post-production of the final film and package

FORMAL COUNCIL COMMITMENT / RELATIONSHIP TO MANAGEMENT PLAN

Council's 2025 Strategic Plan sets out the long-term vision for Camden, including a Camden that has achieved a broad range of opportunities for a prosperous and complete lifestyle. In the Cultural Plan, objectives, goals, outcomes and actions are detailed that address specific strategies for achieving these ends. The initiatives of this project continue to help consolidate the vision of Camden Council's Cultural Plan 2008 – 2013, 'Cultivating Creativity in Camden', specifically in:

  • OBJECTIVE 5 - Providing opportunities for further education and training, OUTCOME 1 - There are increased opportunities for people to access both formal and non-formal education - particularly in arts and culture - throughout the area.
  • OBJECTIVE 5, OUTCOME 2 - There is a greater level of literacy across visual, aural, motion and interactive media throughout the LGA.
  • OBJECTIVE 2 - Ensuring community cultural equity and diversity, OUTCOME 3 - A community offering access to involvement in the arts and culture for people covering a broad spectrum of ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds, inclusive of minorities and special interest groups.

PROJECT OUTCOMES

  • The establishment of a new partnership with a key organisation.
  • An opportunity to have developed, further, models for non-formal arts and cultural education.
  • A chance for the participants to explore and develop various technological, social and creative literacies.
  • In addition to engaging with the full gamut of movie-making tasks, several impromptu or hurriedly rehearsed performances were put in by the kids, including singing, dancing, photography, drawing and drumming, clearly demonstrating how a conducive environment can foster a healthy appetite for creative improvisation.
  • Being a film, a re-playable and up-loadable educational and promotional resource.

ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS

Camden Creative Studios is a facility for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. Its eclectic range of programs and projects is designed to afford accessibility to many, inclusive of minorities, special interest groups and people with special needs.

In ensuring community cultural diversity, this project sought to develop an awareness amongst children – through considering and expressing each other's values, beliefs and aspirations in a creative way – of tolerance, understanding and accessibility for all.

BUDGET AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS

Primary funding to run the project was received from Save the Children.

Camden Council provided the studio facility and the services of the Cultural Development Coordinator.

The designer / producer / educator was able to value-add by imparting a uniquely wide range of high-level digital multimedia knowledge which, otherwise, would have required several professionals to achieve.

In December 2009, over four days, the kids from Banksia Road Primary School came to Camden Creative Studios and shot a whole lot of video, took a whole lot of photos, recorded a whole lot of interviews, mixed a whole lot of music tracks, did a whole lot of drawing and were seriously creative.

They learned about how to express themselves through multimedia and shed light and sound on the Rights and Responsibilities of Children.

View the short film (parts 1 and 2) ...