Lights, Camera, Careers!
Dozens of SD83 students used their artistry, innovation and imagination to create original work at the end of the school week.
Over sixty students from every SD83 high school made the trip to Kelowna to check out the College of Arts and Technology or CAT. The institute is known for placing its grads into creative careers in BC and around the world. Students had a choice spending the day focused on one career field and to do a project connected to it. The seminars included: Filmmaking, Acting for TV, Graphic Design, Animation, Audio Engineering and Interior Design.
Those who attended the audio engineering session were able to learn about the program Ableton Live to drop in music and sounds for their creations. ERS Grade Ten Student Mack Lins is with the school band, has played the guitar for a while and has recently started creating tracks on a program on his home device. So, he felt doing this session was a natural fit for him.
In Animation, students worked on two projects—creating a 3D bouncing ball on a floor and then taking famous character faces like Spiderman or Mario and making the image come alive with believable human movement. One of the SD83 students attending the session is seriously interested in animation and graphic design as a career and is contemplating taking an Okanagan College dual credit graphic design program in her Grade 12 year.
Three CAT Interior Design students ran a session giving the high schoolers a drawing of a “blank slate” of a room in a home and a colourful feature picture that will be hung in that room. From there, the students had access to paint swatches, wood, wallpaper, carpet, curtains and other materials to design the space around the art piece. Although many of the sessions involved lots of concentration and quiet attention to detail, school supervisors especially noticed the focused work of the design students as they quietly got their products ready to show the class for the final reveal.
When it came to Graphic Design enthusiasts, all students had to draft out their concept for custom stickers and logos. Students started with some sketches and doodles before turning to digital, professional tools to complete their work such as Adobe In Design or Illustrator.
Filmmaking and Acting for TV students had various activities that their shared through the day. One group learned to operate the camera equipment, lights and sound on a set while another group of students acted a small scene in front of them before switching duties. The TV acting students first learned about the subtle differences between acting in front of the camera and acting on a stage. Students needed to make their voice and gestures lower and more controlled rather than the projection and larger gestures needed for a theatre audience. The students then took that work, memorized a short script and then acted in front of the camera in sequence to which they were able to self and peer critique the work later on a screen.
While all of these sessions took place, instructors were good to share more about CAT programs and the various jobs in the industry that exist for this work. If you have any other ideas for creative field trips for our students, please contact SD83 Career Education Coordinator George Richard via phone or text at 778-824-1188 or email grichard@sd83.bc.ca.