a career in media

Exploring the Australian film and TV industry in

Media Unit 2

Emily Doyle

Head of Learning - Media

Year 11 Media Unit 2 is an exciting opportunity for students to participate in a range of activities designed to enhance their learning about Media Industry Production and Australian Media Organisations.

We visited the Channel 10 Studios in Prahran to be the audience for live commercial network talk-show news program The Project, attended the Melbourne International Film Festival to watch the latest release from renowned documentary maker Werner Herzog, Lo and Behold, participated in a ‘Q & A’ session with directors and lead actors of new Australian feature Girl Asleep at the Melbourne premiere of the film, and for the second year running we took part in the Media Seminar Series.

The Media Seminar Series is three 1-hour lectures conducted by media industry specialists across a range of fields. Leath Mattner from DDP Studios in South Melbourne, spoke to the students about his passion for animation in his late teens that lead him to a variety of visual effects jobs across Australia. Stephanie March, journalist and North American correspondent for the ABC, spoke to us about her passion for storytelling - taking time out from busily reporting on the current Trump-Clinton Presidential race . Lastly, Rebecca Mackey taught us about the role of producing within the Australian film and TV industry. It was a unique opportunity to learn about how our industry operates to support a very small number of local productions for very little return, and to discuss how Australian stories and told and sold.

Throughout the term I hope Australia’s next generation of media makers have been inspired to support our home grown media industry and to be at the forefront of producing top quality media content in the future.

Eva Sinclair

Year 11

As part of Unit 2, Outcome 2 of VCE Media we participated in three seminars with people who work within the ever-evolving Media industry. For our first seminar we had Leath Mattner come and speak to our class about his work at DDP Studios in South Melbourne. Leath specialises in the post-production area. It was fascinating to see the amount of work that goes into a single shot, let alone a feature length film, as well as hearing about how he became employed in the industry and different projects that he has worked on. These range from ‘Happy Feet’ to ‘Mary and Max’. For our second seminar we were very lucky to talk to the ABC’s North America correspondent Stephanie March via Skype. Stephanie is an accomplished journalist who has done work in print, radio and TV. Talking to Stephanie was eye-opening and interesting as she discussed the difficult parts of her job as well as the amazing experiences she has had travelling around the world reporting news. Lastly, Bec Mackey, who has worked in various areas of the media industry including advertising and producing at Screen Australia, came and spoke to us about various topics and issues that producers have to deal with and the importance of funding development for Australian films. It was great to hear about how the Australian film industry actually functions in terms of funding and publicity.

All these seminars were extremely educational and definitely helped prompt ideas surrounding university and career options in the media area.

A big thanks to Leath, Stephanie and Bec for taking the time to talk to us!

Ross Carroll

Year 11

In Media this year, all we did was make movies…

Which is what I would say to please all who didn’t choose to do Media this year! How boring does that sound? In fact we did so much more as a unit and as a class than I could have ever thought you could do in a class!

For starters, yes, we made movies - but not just any movies! We were given a certain genre or tip on what our projects should be about, so none of the projects felt the same - adding to the enjoyment.

Now to the cool stuff…

This year we got the opportunity as a class to go to a live showing of The Project in the Channel 10 studios. Not only was that a very intriguing and interesting trip out, it also was extremely beneficial to our documentary unit, and we took great inspiration from the experience. For me, the thing I learned was that the interviews are not done live. Instead they are pre-recorded, giving less opportunity to mess up!

Another excursion we embarked on was the trip to the Comedy Theatre in the CBD. There, we watched and analysed the cyber documentary Lo and Behold. Not only was the film a great experience, the whole evening was fun and insightful. The film once again tied into our documentary unit.

We did more work on film and media, such as having a few guest speakers come in and discuss their roles in the film and news industry. For starters, we had VFX supervisor Leath Mattner from DPP Studios in Melbourne. He came in and discussed his role in certain films and TV series, such as his companies’ involvement in the CGI of Game of Thrones. That was such a cool and interesting look into a really complex element of film.

More recently, we had Stephanie March a North American News Correspondent from the ABC tell us (via Skype) of her experiences with seeing news first-hand and the things you need in order to go into a medium like journalism. I learned the schooling requirements you need for it - Politics and Journalism being the most important of them.

Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot more this year in Media - more than I thought I would - and I would encourage any Year 10 students interested in it to just go ahead and do it!

James Heywood

Year 11

Media this year has been a really enjoyable experience. We've further enhanced our abilities on how to spot representations in different mediums, learned new production techniques and the people whose jobs it is to work with them, and made interesting and entertaining short films. Furthermore, we've been able to learn more about the industry and have had the chance to talk to people who live the life we learn about - like when we had a class interview with Stephanie March, ABC's North American Correspondent.