Making Movies Roadshow

‘Film fever' captivated Wongutha CAPS School in the lead up to Esperance's 2009 Festival of the Wind, as Fremantle's Film and Television Institute's well respected Making Movies Roadshow came to conduct a week-long, hands-on digital story making workshop with the indigenous students who board there.

Three visiting filmmakers, along with local media consultant Serena Shaddick, from Living Juicy Media, taught the enthusiastic Wongutha students the basic processes involved in creating a digital film production. This included scripting & storyboarding, video camera skills, sound and editing techniques. A total of three short films were produced by the end of the week, which were brilliantly received by a large public audience on a big outdoor cinema screen after the Festival's main dance event.

Wongutha teacher Gayee Graham loved what the workshops offered the students and hopes to develop the student's new found skills in future activities.

"This is the first time the school has done something like this, and the positive reaction from the students has been really obvious to all, and it's flowed into other areas of their development as well, both scholastically and socially. We'd love to do it again."

While the Festival of the Wind and the "Making Movies Roadshow" visit to Esperance may be over, the positive impact that the filmmaking workshops had on the Wongutha CAPS students, and the creative stories they created during that time, will live on. Already the films have been shown to an audience in Perth and there are plans for them to be screened on SBS and ABC television, as well as the National Indigenous Digital television station. News of the exciting workshops and stories has also been mentioned on ABC radio, and in numerous arts publications as well.

The Making Movies Roadshow was financially supported by Woodside, Screenwest, Lotterywest and National Indigenous Television. Wongutha CAPS would like to thank Country Arts WA, Esperance Community Arts, The Festival of the Wind 2009 Committee and Serena Shaddick from Living Juicy Media for believing in their students and making the opportunity available.