VISUAL ARTS

KATIE ZHOU - EX MCKINNON STUDENT PRESENTS VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN WORKSHOP

Both Units 1 & 2 Vis Com classes were fortunate to have Katie Zhou come and do a Type workshop with their classes this term. Katie is an ex-McKinnon student who is currently studying Communication Design at RMIT.

Katie was very generous with her knowledge, telling students about her design course and her current university lifestyle. Many were inspired by her study/career path and plan on doing similar design courses at university, so it was great for them to hear about her experiences first hand.

Katie showed the students her Instagram page and explained how it has led to many design commissions.

Katie then went on to do a Type workshop with the students, showing them a technique to develop unique Type that she had learnt at university. The students were able to utilise their Illustrator computer skills in the workshop and found the techniques fun and useful.

You can view Katie's work on her website as well as her Instagram

Peter Eglezos

Arts Learning Area Manager

A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT YEAR 12 MEDIA

For my Year 12 Media SAT, I created a short impactful film that explored the effects of bullying on teachers; more specifically, when teachers are disrespected by their own students. In order to pull this off, I decided to go to great lengths to find a large cast of people to be a part of my film, “Have Some Respect”, including advertising on a professional casting platform, auditioning over one hundred applicants, and organising a zoom call with those who were successful in landing a part in my film. As well as this, I had to source locations and equipment that would suit such a large group of people.

Starting the production process in class, I knew that I wanted my film to stand out from the rest, which consequently led me to the idea of hiring professional actors for it. 

Having dabbled in the acting industry before, I was immediately drawn to the program StarNow, which is ironically a platform I used to audition through. There, I created a listing, in which I advertised the roles available within my film and outlined the specific ages and characteristics I was searching for. To my surprise, within the first 24 hours alone, I received over 30 applications! From there, I kept getting more and more applicants, and so I began the auditioning phase, where I had them send in an improvisational audition of their own interpretation of the characters and then began to filter the finalists for auditioning. 

After the first round of auditions, I then sent those who had passed a script and then chose my final cast from there. I also decided to audition a few keen McKinnon VCE students and cast them too, which I thought would be an awesome, eye-opening experience for the passionate actors within our school (Hugo Tran (Year 11L),Aziz Sharipov (Year 11K), and Alyssa Nikolakopoulos (Year 12I).

Two weeks out from my scheduled filming date, I next invited my cast for a massive Zoom call, where I ran over the organisation of the day. From when scenes would run and when lunch would be, to costumes I required them to provide, makeup artists available, and extra props that needed to be sorted. Although not a necessary part of the production task, I found this to be very helpful as I was able to create a close-knit team before we even met in person.  

In terms of the equipment I needed, I was also super lucky to have our awesome school’s library equipment available for borrowing. Through them, I was able to hire a camera and boom microphone free of charge, which ended up making my film look so much more professional and well-made. This is definitely a process I’d recommend for any students thinking about taking media as a Units 3/4 subject. 

Being a film based around school, I had to find a school to actually film in. Working closely with Mrs Binnion, I was honoured to be given access to not only the whole school premises over the school holidays but also her personal office to film in (Thank you, Mrs Binnion!). There, I had my cast of over 20 people run through my scenes multiple times so I could capture the clips from various angles, and thus create a seamless final product.

Now, mid-way through editing, I can tell that all of my hard work has paid off. Media, although at times can be time-consuming, is definitely a worthwhile subject to take as it is definitely the most rewarding of them all. 

If you’d like to see some behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the shoot, check out @havesomerespect.film on Instagram! 

Jordan Berger

Year 12 Student