Arts News (Music, Art,Media and Visual Arts)
Beginning Of Term 4:
Join the 2026 Podcast Team!
As we close one chapter and welcome a new year filled with fresh beginnings, we are excited to search for the 2026 podcast team. If you have a knack for technology, a passion for media, and a desire to engage with the school community, this could be the perfect opportunity for you!
About the Podcast
- Collaborate with Film Weekly: Work in the TV studio on Thursdays for broadcasts every Monday.
- Content Focus: Share information about upcoming school events and conduct interviews with talented individuals.
What We Need from You
- Podcast Name: Come up with a creative title for your podcast.
- Trailer Submission: Create a one-minute trailer explaining what your podcast will involve for 2026.
This trailer will be evaluated by the current podcast team, and winners will be announced at the award ceremony.
How to Get Involved
For more information, please visit Mr. Philip Clark or speak with any member of the podcast team. Remember, video submissions for 2026 must be no longer than one minute and should be sent to me via Teams for the judging panel's review.
Philip Clark
Theatre Manager
Calling All Artists and Makers – Can you Help?
Are you cleaning out your art supplies or fabric stash?
Our Art and Textiles departments are always on the lookout for donations of materials that can be reused and repurposed in student projects.
We’d love donations of items such as fabric offcuts, sewing notions, threads, buttons, beads, magazines for collage, paints, brushes, papers, or any other creative materials you no longer need.
All contributions help support hands-on learning, creativity, and sustainability in our classrooms. Donations can be dropped off at the General Office during school hours.
Thank you for supporting our young designers and artists!
Gretta Carlson
Art Teacher
Behind Our 2025 Trailer
It takes more than a single great idea to make a film and a lot more effort in trying to reproduce an existing product for a current audience.
In Media unit 2 students took a 1992 film and responded it with original ideas for a 2025 concept trailer. We started by building the scenes in miniature: the 3D diorama storyboard. The limitation here was the cardboard and that it had to be in black and white.
As part of pre-production the mise-en-scène was built being conscious of the foreground, mid ground and background as well as lighting codes long before the camera rolled. This project asked for a collaborative reality check. Each member was tasked with a specific and in some cases specialised role.
From the cinematographer matching the diorama's lighting on the green screen to the rditor executing the final chroma key feature on Adobe Premiere. We learned quickly that when an absence occurs, or a challenge arises (like a technical lighting failure or room change or we forget to book equipment), communication is everything.
We tracked our progress across the five stages of media production and maintained a logs, ensuring that every hour, every choice and every failure was documented as proof of our work for the authentication process.
The walls of our studio building to display the five stages of the media production process, a visual timeline of our work, attempting to turn theory into practice, and next week, the result of that expertise will be complete and on display.
Join us next Wednesday at lunchtime in Studio+ for the premiere of our version, an original interpretation, the 2025 Buffy the vampire slayer trailer and a showcase of the journey from a small cardboard diorama to a final video representation of the narrative in production.
A Cultural Exchange in Clay
It was a busy studio class today as our Year 7 students continued to use a variety of forms to mould their personal values into sculptures. Birds may represent freedom, logs for stability, turtles had a couple of different interpretations.
Next week, we will see the ready to fire work. The sculptures take two intense kiln trips: a bisque firing to harden the clay and the final pass to fuse the glaze.
Each student has been on a journey to select three core values and embody them in a piece inspired by an animal, vegetable, or mineral. Today, however, the classroom was a little noisier than usual. We were delighted to welcome a group of Korean students visiting Melbourne, who joined us for this practical lesson. In a wonderful cross-cultural twist, our guests worked with air dry clay, allowing for a quick to make quick to set product. Their task was to craft a simple pinch pot and then decorate it with features that captured their experience or knowledge of being in Australia, be it native Australian animals or other decorative elements.
Using both additive (building up) and subtractive (carving away) techniques, they transformed simple clay balls into personal souvenirs.Yes, the studio was undeniably noisy, busy and gloriously messy! But beneath the happy chaos, we could see smiling faces and intensely focused, productive artists bringing their diverse ideas to life.
A spontaneous cultural exchange, no time to think about it and all bound together by clay.
Renee Gross
VCE Visual Communications, Media and Design Technology
SOC Archibald Prize
This year’s SOC Archibald prize is being held this term. It is an art competition in which students must create artwork of a member of the SOC community.
We have been busy framing and installing works, and they will be judged by the Arts staff this week.
We are excited to announce the winners soon. Thank you to all the wonderful students who have submitted some work for the competition.
Peta Close
Arts & Tech KLA Leader
Music Department Update
We’re thrilled to announce that enrolments for Instrumental Music 2026 will open next week! Please check Compass for enrolment details. Instrumental students will have the opportunity to take part in our annual concerts, including our first large-scale concert for 2026, which will feature guest speaker Mark Evans, the original bass player for AC/DC.
Meanwhile, still in 2025, hot on the heels of our Spring Concert and SOC’s Got Talent, Term 4 has kicked off with a bang. We’ve flown headlong into our Year 12 Music Contemporary Performance Examinations. Seven students travelled to the Kingston Arts Centre to undertake the exam on October 24, amid a flurry of excitement and nervous energy.
The exam itself was a wonderful opportunity for our students to show off their considerable talents in front of a panel of expert musicians, in a professional space and using South Oakleigh College’s highly professional instruments and equipment. Students accompanied each other on stage, demonstrating wonderful teamwork and offering each other support and encouragement in this high-pressure assessment.
For more information about our instrumental Music program, please don’t hesitate to contact aidan.prewett@education.vic.gov.au
Aidan Prewett
Head Of Music