The Arts

🎬 Reelies Student Film Festival and Awards!

Last Thursday, The Gap State High School rolled out the red carpet for the annual Reelies Film Festival. ‘The Reelies’ celebrates the visions and reflections of the Year 12 Film, TV & New Media students and features a selection of Year 10 music video productions. 

Hosted by Year 12 students Jake W and Ty W, the films were screened outdoor cinema style to a packed audience of students, parents and community members. The students were both excited and humbled by the attendance and recognition, and the feeling in the audience was one of excitement and joy. 

Alumni of The Gap SHS Film, TV & New Media course, affectionately known as The Gap Film School Kids, were invited back to judge and present the awards. These talented young people, who are currently studying at Film and Animation school and working in the film industry in various capacities, returned to their old stomping ground to network with the aspiring filmmakers and encourage them to pursue their passion in the flourishing Queensland film industry. 

The films selected to screen at Reelies this year showcased excellence in production and unique creativity of style, written, produced, directed, filmed, and edited by our talented emerging filmmakers. As their teacher, I am continually in awe of the hard work, dedication, experimentation, and maturity on display each year. The winning films and award recipients are listed below. I’m sure you will join me in congratulating our award winners and all our budding screen media artists. 

This event could not have happened without the support of our wonderful Arts Team. A shoutout to Megan Ball’s 9 Media class who provided a delightful and comical interlude in the form of a special effects reel! Special thanks to Monique McMullen, Kevin Quaid, Venus Ganis, and alumni Konrad Dumo, Angela Bevis, Kyrah Tunks, Julian Anderson, Joy Ferrentino, Sally Custance and Dylan Perkins.

From one very proud teacher, 

Miss Suzannah O’Brien 

What if I told you the world revolves around dung beetles? by Nou D – Best Overall Film, Best Screenplay, Best Direction, Alumni Pick of the Night, Audience Choice Award

The Sting by Oliver K – Best Narrative Film, Best Sound, Best All Rounder

Daydreams by Ty W – Best Editing, Best Performance

Notice by Tabitha H – Best Visual Effects, The Quaid

Canoeing around the globe by Nou D – Best Documentary

Slowcore by Zac B and Ari E – Best Cinematography

Purple by Edie S– Best Production Design

Omelette by Ari E – Most Original Concept

Waiting for the Sun by Alexander G and Sebastian R – Best Music Video Clip

Congratulations...

Some truly wonderful news to start the week: our percussion ensemble, Asymmetry, led by in the incredible Mr Jeff Jarrott, are Fanfare 2024’s Most Outstanding Ensemble!

Huge congratulations to Jeff and his students who, in a highly competitive field, managed to stand out! Their musicianship was next level, and they performed, as did the other four competing ensembles, like professional musicians. 

Instrumental Music 

On Tuesday 13 August our Instrumental and Choral Music students came together for their second concert of the year. Celebrating our graduating Year 12s, all of our incredible ensembles performed to a rapt audience. A huge thank you to our wonderful Instrumental Music teachers for their excellent work with their students – each ensemble shone through their performances of exciting and engaging repertoire which showed off all the talent we have in each group. Farewell to our seniors who are now moving on to focus on their final assessment – thank you so much for your contribution to our program over your time here – we will miss you all!

Year 11 Drama

Year 11 Drama have been busy this term working on a performance for The Scene Project with QT (Qld theatre) and will be heading out to The Butter Factory at Kingston this week to present their production to QT representatives and other schools. 

The Scene Project is an annual QT theatre program that works with schools to deliver original performances based on a new play commissioned for the project. This year’s play is Flowers in Antarctica which will also be performed at QT, by a QT cast, with a previewing performance at The Scene Project for school participants. Flowers in Antarctica is set in an underwater world of where the oceans creatures are in turmoil as the environment is degrading, killer whales have decided to fight back attacking human boats, and one day an alien creature turns up determined to colonise the underwater lands, mine all their minerals and sets out to annihilate all the indigenous sea animals who reside in the ocean. The alien, named Columbook (Columbus meets Captain Cook), has bizarre and strangely worded lines have literally been lifted from the journals of the two infamous explorers. Taking the idea of colonisation and the quirky character of Columbook as stimulus from Flowers in Antarctica, the Yr11s have developed their own original group production through a process of workshops with QT and class room rehearsals to generate a 20 minute original play devised and written by the whole class. 

They have been working hard, giving up lunchtimes and staying after school to get the production up and running and we wish them well for this Thursday 29th August, as they head to Kingston for their world premiere performance!

News from Visual Art Studio 

Enrolments are now open for our Term 4 Visual Art Studio program – SCREEN PRINTING WITH NANCY BROWN. Please see details below – open for any interested students to enrol and commencing in week 1 Term 4. 

Nancy Brown is a visual artist working in printmaking, ceramic, mosaic, metal and textile printing. Beneath the surface of her creative works are the aesthetics of etching, serigraphy, lithography and engraving. Printmaking informs Nancy’s artistic practice and brings unity to her projects. Processes include printmaking on ceramics, artist books, work on paper, canvas, jewellery and metal construction, sculptural surfaces and textiles.This 7-week course covers screen printing and stencil making, understanding its place in popular culture and its influence on contemporary art, fashion and design. Sourcing media imagery and advertising imagery, designs can merge the boundaries between popular media and contemporary arts practice, fashion and popular culture. During the course, the students will create images for stencilling, photographic printmaking and screenprinting and learn how to print these images on a range of surfaces.