Youth Media Interns learn some new skills

Storyboarding at the Gallery. Photo: Waimarie Dashper

Sarah Loggie and Jacques Foottit, the two AUT Technical Mentors led a talk today about different types of films, sound, and cinematography. They showed different examples of professional works as well as their own university work.

Being shown references of short films that some of the interns may not have been exposed to before is valuable because it sparks ideas about the different techniques available to actually make a film come to life. The Interns were then shown examples of how to use film techniques in a way that gets your point across to the audience without being boring or using clichés. We also got to see the films that last year’s teens made. It was beneficial for the teens to watch these as they where able to see what worked and what didn’t work in relation to techniques, as well as what can be produced in such a short amount of time.

They also emphasised the importance of having fun and not being too serious, and being playful and professional at the same time. Because the filming time allocated is only one day there are limitations to what can actually be achieved. However, working with these limitations does have a silver lining as it will teach the Interns the value of time management, and they will be able to be very ‘cut throat’ in what they film.

Developing objectives and storyboarding is an important part of any project, especially when creating films. Having come from school where there is normally never such a short amount of time allocated to a project, it has been an interesting initiation for the Interns. They have been asked to come up with interesting questions, strong objectives, plus they’ve been thrown into the mix with strangers. By now we are all very familiar with each other and it is awesome to see the ideas flowing.

AUT Technical Mentor Jacques demonstrating how to use a video camera. Photo: Waimarie Dashper

The teens were asked to come up with an objective in their groups for their films. The purpose of the objective is to create a clear understanding of what each group want to achieve with their films. I spoke to some of the groups about this and asked if they had ever done anything like this before. A few of them had because they take a Media class at school, but most had not.

We then headed over to AUT where Jacques led a technical demonstration on how to use the equipment properly. I think it is fair to say that everyone learnt a lot from this, he is an excellent teacher and the teens all responded well. Having the Media Mentors involved in the project highlights the beauty of the partnership with AUT Co-lab, as they are able to demonstrate skills learnt through their time at AUT. It gives the teens an idea of what areas they could possibly pursue.

We are only into Day Three but the Interns are oozing energy and enthusiasm. Tomorrow filming begins!

- Rachael Short, AUT Media Mentor