Twelve Australian schools were recognised for their achievements in filmmaking last night at the annual Kid Witness News (KWN) New Visions Awards held at Luna Park in Sydney. The awards ceremony was hosted by TV celebrities Dave Lawson and James Kerley. Other special guests on the evening included cinematographers Camille Hardman and Jack McCoy and editor Jane St. Vincent Welch as well as Department of Education representatives from each state.
The New Vision Awards concluded the 2007 KWN competition, which saw students from 75 primary and secondary schools across Australia take part in the competition, the highest number of entrants since the local inception of the program in 2004. A total of 20 schools attended the Awards Night at Luna Park, with students enjoying free access to the park’s facilities followed by a special awards ceremony.
Standout winners on the night were Melbourne High School from Victoria and Eagleby State School from Queensland.
Melbourne High School received the Regional Award, National Secondary School Award and the Victorian Secondary School Award for their entry, Parkour. Their film takes an in-depth look at Parkour, the unusual sport which involves jumping, running and climbing from and between stationary objects. The film discusses the origins of the sport and the skills required to execute the highly technical jumps.
As the Regional Award winner, Melbourne High School will be given the opportunity to represent Australia against other countries in the Asia Pacific KWN Regional Awards in Singapore, to be held in December 2007. Melbourne High’s entry will also be entered in the 2008 KWN Global Contest, where national winners from each of the 21 participating countries will compete for the major prize – a trip to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Eagleby State School was named the National Primary School Winner, Queensland Primary School Winner and received a National Spotlight Award for Editing for their entry Jurassic Town Plan. The film follows two reporters who are conducting interviews of local residents on their thoughts for the new town plan. With each suggestion, the reporters imagine what the town would be like, but each time the imaginary scene is overtaken by dinosaurs as a result of over exposure to a dinosaur video game the students have spent too much time playing.
Five schools were awarded with a National Spotlight Award for technical excellence, including Lake Munmorah Primary for Writing, Eagleby State School for Editing, East Victoria Park Primary for Special Effects, Kaurna Plains School for Sound and Christies Beach Primary for Videography.
Panasonic Managing Director, Steve Rust said, ‘I was honoured to be a part of the judging panel for this year’s Kid Witness News entries, and was very impressed by the standard and quality of the entries received. Each student involved in the program should be proud of their achievements and the hard work put into producing such creative and inspiring films.’
The KWN program challenges students to work together to develop a five minute video, involving all aspects of film-making including determining the subject matter, script writing, and filming and editing footage using equipment provided by Panasonic.
Entry categories include: drama, documentary, health, science and technology, community identities, comedy, animation, news and current affairs or a public service announcement. The entries considered for the Regional Awards must have an environmental, artistic or sporting theme.
The films were judged by a panel including industry experts Clayton Jacobson, Camille Hardman, Jane St. Vincent Welch and Jack McCoy, who critiqued the films, looking at the quality of script writing, sound, videography, special effects and editing.
* Winners of the Kid Witness News ‘New Vision Awards’
Melbourne High School – Parkour
Regional Award Winner
National Secondary School Winner
VIC Secondary School Winner
Eagleby State School – Jurassic Town Plan
National Primary School Winner
QLD Primary School Winner
National Spotlight Winner – Editing
Lake Munmorah Primary School – Bag Bust
NSW Primary School Winner
National Spotlight Winner – Writing
Fairfield High School – Evil Uniform Plan Much?
NSW Secondary School Winner
Helensvale State High School – Presidents Bush
QLD Secondary School Winner
Mt Eliza Primary School – Bob’s Life Story
VIC Primary School Winner
Christie’s Beach Primary School – A Lesson In Time
SA Primary School Winner
National Spotlight Winner – Videography
Kaurna Plains School – Never Forget
SA Secondary School Winner
National Spotlight Winner – Sound
Brent Street Primary School – Merlin
TAS Primary School Winner
Marist Regional College – Ideas Anyone?
TAS Secondary School Winner
East Victoria Park Primary School – Walking with Students
WA Primary School Winner
National Spotlight Winner – Special Effects
Ocean Reef Senior High School – Good Points, Bad Points
WA Secondary School Winner
[release from Blackie McDonald]