Murray Bridge, SA, June-July 2011

CHALLENGE: The Change Media Team conducted 4x 1-day workshops with Ngarrindjeri Caring For Country and Heritage Rangers at the Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting Depot.
During the production in Murray Bridge, Raukkan and Meningie members of the Ngarrindjeri Ruwe and the Raukkan Caring for Country organizations learned skills in film narrative, interview and editing techniques.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support, Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority; Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association; Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting; Ngopamuldi Aboriginal Corporation Raukkan; Ngarrindjeri Heritage Committee; Tallstoreez Productionz

Ngarrindjeri Ruwe – Working On Country

nolink

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Ngarrindjeri Ruwe – Working On Country.

If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

The team also made several peer-produced training videos, that form part of our Indigenous Media Training online resource.

Click on the link to watch their training clips here.

OUTCOMES:
The project covered storytelling and camera techniques, shooting on traditional heritage locations, interview and event coverage techniques and editing. The resulting 10min film, Ngarrindjeri Ruwe – Working On Country, is available online and will be used by NRC staff for training, recruiting and PR. This project built on the success of the workshops in the last two years.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates! This film will be used as training and induction tool for Caring For Country projects in the Coorong and also features as part of our online training resource.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: We have retained several young members from our first groups at Camp Coorong, Meningie, and Talk Kin Jeri in Millicent/Murray Bridge, while gaining new participants from Raukkan and Murray Bridge. All of the team have recorded their own training videos and had hands-on task during the production, including production skills ranging from organizing the shoots, securing interviews with elders and representatives, storytelling, creating digital storyboards, presenting on screen, camera and sound work, uploading and file management, to editing and music production.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Kalangadoo, SA, July 2010

CHALLENGE: Change Media worked with Ngarrindjeri Elder Major Moogy Sumner to document the making of the first traditional Ngarrindjeri / Boandik tree canoe on Boandik country in over 100 years. This evocative documentary is part of an educational River Redgum DVD combining Caring for Country best practice with transmission of traditional culture.
During the production in Kalangadoo [Big Trees in Water] and Millicent members of the Tal-Kin-Jeri group, Indigenous students and community members from across South East SA learned skills in film narrative, interview & editing techniques and experienced a once-in-a-lifetime event.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; South East Natural Resource Management Board; South East Aboriginal Focus Group; Aboriginal Sobriety Group; Millicent High School; Tal-Kin-Jeri Performance group; Tallstoreez Productionz

Film: Moogy’s Yuki (Moogy’s Bark Canoe)

nolink

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Moogy’s Yuki – 2min trailer for the half hour documentary.

If your device can’t play this clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

You can order your copy of the documentary and River Redgum care DVD here.

We also produced an educational mini-doc with additional Caring for Country interviews:

Click on the link to watch - River Redgum Restoration – a 6min clip, also included on the DVD resource.

If your device can’t play this clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

OUTCOMES:
This project built on the success of the first workshop in May 2010. The peer-produced content will form part of the educational Caring For Country resource DVD, available in September 2010 in our online shop.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner has won a Hero Award at the 2010 MyHero International Film Festival, as well as the 2nd Prize for Moogy’s Yuki in the community film category, selected from hundreds of entries worldwide. The South East Natural Resources Management Board is supporting Moogy and Cyril to fly over to Los Angeles to represent the project at the awards ceremonies on November 19th and 20th. Congratulations!

The canoe along with the DVD is on display in Millicent and Mt. Gambier and at the OurMob exhibition, Adelaide Festival Centre. The Age and local WIN TV ran stories about the project and we will present the final documentary to ABC or NITV for broadcast.

Check out also our News section for updates on media coverage.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The challenge this session was to shoot and edit a documentary for the South East Natural Resource Management Board, including traditional cultural knowledge about caring for river red gums, making a traditional Ngarrindjeri bark canoe. During the second part of the project, we focused on documentation techniques and the educational narrative after the bark was taken off the tree. Ngarrindjeri Elder Major Moogy Sumner demonstrated how to prepare the canoe, spear-making techniques and then launched the historic Ngarrindjeri bark canoe.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Millicent, SA, May 2010

CHALLENGE: The Change Media Team conducted a production workshop with members of the Tal-Kin-Jeri performance group,  Indigenous students and community members from across South East SA to train them in film narratives, interview techniques, editing and media management. The aim was to educate students alongside the production of a DVD about River Red Gum Care, which documents the technique of making a traditional Ngarrindjeri bark canoe by Ngarrindjeri Elder Major Sumner.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; South East Natural Resource Management Board; South East Aboriginal Focus Group; Aboriginal Sobriety Group; Millicent High School; Tal-Kin-Jeri Performance group; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Recording Culture

nolink

Click on the link to watch Recording Culture -  a 6min peer-produced video, also included on the DVD resource Moogy;s Yuki.

OUTCOMES: The project covered an introduction to working with a client on location, intermediate interview and event coverage techniques and editing. The peer-produced content [the peer-produced film Recording Culture and photo slide show] will form part of the educational Caring For Country River Redgum resource called Moogy’s Yuki, to be delivered August 2010.

Click here to order your copy of the full documentary  and resource DVD ‘Moogy’s Yuki’ now in our online shop.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Please watch this space for updates. The plan is to exhibit the canoe along with the DVD at the OurMob exhibition at the Adelaide Festival Centre and in Millicent and Mt. Gambier. The Age and local WIN TV already ran stories about the project and we envisage to present the final documentary to NITV and ABC for broadcast.

Check out also our News section for updates on media coverage.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The challenge this session was to shoot and edit a documentary for the South East Natural Resource Management Board, including traditional cultural knowledge of the caring for rivergum trees, making a traditional Ngarrindjeri canoe and shield out of bark, let by Ngarrindjeri Elder Major Sumner. After a great introduction day with over 20 participants, we focused on documentation techniques and educational narrative. Each team member conducted interviews and was part of the canoe-making shoot.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Camp Coorong, SA, May 2010

CHALLENGE: Change Media ran the fifth production workshop with the Ngarrindjeri Media Team to continue their training in film narratives, interview techniques, editing and train-the-trainer methodology. The workshop focused on the editing of the Murrundi Ruwe Pangari Ringbalin ceremonies, shooting of pick-up and and production of training tutorials.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association; Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Currently in Post Production.
Available end of July, 2010

OUTCOMES: The training covered editing of multi-camera footage, shooting pick-ups on location, conducting interviews and creating peer-training video manuals. New team members entered the team and participated in a peer-training introduction to camera and editing basics. The shooting of pick-ups for the Murrundi documentary took place at the Murray River barrages and in Meningie.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Please watch this space for updates.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The team’s challenge for this session was to continue the edit of the ambitious river ceremony and water crisis documentary. They also had to train new members and create bite-sized, hands-on peer-learning tutorials, to share their skills and demonstrate their acquired skills. As a direct result of our collaboration, one of the participants has now commenced a part time position as media officer for the RUWE Ngarrindjeri Resource Corporation to document their Caring For Country processes. Her role as media officer will also support her to continue to train with Change Media over the coming years.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

May 5th, 2010: I Am A Rocket wins third place as favourite Australian child-made short

This weekend Little Big Shots Film Festival screened all the Australian films in this year’s festival to their official jury of 10 kids and they voted I Am A Rocket in third place as their favourite Australian child-made short.
Congratulations to Abby and the Change Media team at D’faces of Youth Arts Whyalla!

Some of the comments from the jurors (aged from 8-13) included:
“Unique, with a very positive message.”
“Very imaginative.”
Little Big Shot Film Festival is officially launching the festival at ACMI in Melbourne on Sunday June 6, 2010, and they will present a special Little Big Shots award to present to the Change Media team.

April 21th, 2010: Change Media interview for Le Monde

Change Media executive producer, Carl Kuddell, was yesterday interviewed by Marie-Morgane Le Moel, a journalist for widely-read french newspaper Le Monde, to comment on the ongoing Change Media collaboration with the Ngarrindjeri nation. She especially was interested in the production of  Nukkan.Kungun.Yunnan – Ngarrindjeri’s Being Heard, the environmental issues in the Coorong and the potential of the Change Media training program for the communities to take control of their stories and record traditional culture and knowledge. Find the link to the article here.

April 19th, 2010: On the Move selected for the Dungog Film Festival 2010

Fantastic news for the community media team at Dungog in the Upper Hunter – their film, On the Move, made during a Change Media workshop in April 2009, has been selected to screen as part of the world’s biggest film festival of Australian films, the Dungog Film Festival. The festival is an important event in the international and Australian festival circuit, a great success for this quirky and uplifting film. Congratulations to the team in Dungog!

Wentworth NSW to Meningie SA, April 2010

CHALLENGE: Change Media ran the fourth production workshop with the newly formed Ngarrindjeri Media Team to continue their training in film narratives, interview techniques, editing and train-the-trainer methodology. The workshop documented some of the Murrundi Ruwe Pangari Ringbalin ceremonies, from Wentworth, NSW, down the Murray River to Meningie and the Coorong in South Australia.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association; Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Currently in Production.
Available end of July, 2010

OUTCOMES: The training covered shooting on location, conducting interviews and documenting night performances following the Murrundi dancers during the 3 ceremonies in Wentworth, where the Darling and the Murray meet in South West NSW, to Murray Bridge, SA and Meningie at the Mouth of the River Murray. The team also created additional content for the prototype Change Media Indigenous digital media training resource, to be delivered July 2010.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Please watch this space for updates.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The team’s challenge for this session was to conduct night shoots, documenting the Murrundi Ruwe Pangari Ringbalin river spirit ceremonies, and produce a follow up documentary on last years success Nukkan.Kungun.Yunnan. Their final film includes traditional cultural knowledge of the environment and caring for the river and lake system; the additional editing workshop will focus on documentation techniques, final narrative, editing and delivery.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Coorong SA, February 2010

CHALLENGE: The Change Media Team conducted the third production workshop with the newly formed Ngarrindjeri Media Team to continue their training in film narratives, interview techniques, editing and media management.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association; Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Currently in Production.
Available in July, 2010

OUTCOMES: The training covered an introduction to educational narratives, editing and file management and intermediate interview and shooting techniques. The team created content for the prototype Change Media Indigenous digital media training resource, to be delivered July 2010.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Please watch this space for updates.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The challenge this session was to shoot a promotional video for the Camp Coorong Cultural Centre, and edit a video documentation of the Camp Coorong Bushwalk, including traditional cultural knowledge of the environment, wildlife and plants and their healing properties, in Ngarrindjeri language and English; focusing on documentation techniques, educational narrative, data visualization. Each team member conducted several shoots, interviews and part of the edit and also kep working on their individual film projects.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Coorong SA, December 2009

CHALLENGE: The Change Media Team conducted the second production workshop with the newly formed Ngarrindjeri Media Team to continue their training in film narratives, interview techniques, editing and media management.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA;  Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association; Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Currently in Production.
Available in August, 2010

OUTCOMES: The training covered an introduction to film narratives, editing and file management and basic interview techniques. The team created content for the prototype Change Media Indigenous digital media training resource, to be delivered July 2010.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Please watch this space for updates.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The challenge this session was to shoot indoor and outdoor interviews, with elders and community members;  focusing on research techniques, interview questions, making the interviewee comfortable, checking lighting, framing and sound. Each team member conducted several interviews for their films.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Renmark SA, November 2009


CHALLENGE: The Hero Project worked with 12 participants from the Riverland Youth Theatre to explore innovative ways to incorporate digital media into their creative programs.

PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Country Arts SA; Riverland Youth Theatre RYT; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Riverland Youth Theatre films

Greenies have feelings too!
Hard to Swallow
Tree Change

OUTCOMES: We tailored the workshop to suit a range of skill levels and experience, our aim to share as much digital media knowledge as possible in a 1-day session: with one group we focused on comedy and satire, another expressed an emotional journey with objects and the third team wanted to tell a real documentary story – the Herculean challenge was to convert each concept into film, script, understand film narratives and angles, act, and learn how to shoot an edit-in-camera video we will all watch at the end of the day!
All participants achieved basic camera, audio and screen language skills.
We also explored innovative ways to incorporate digital media into the school curriculum.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:: The group watched their films with appreciation at the end of a fantastic day workshop. Riverland Youth Theatre screened them at their annual general meeting Dec 2009.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:

Working with regional youth, arts and theatre practitioners was an exciting challenge for our team. The diverse team of young and not-so-young artists came up with a range of fantastic ideas for their edit-in-camera films: how does it feel to make a tree change, the politics of politics and bullying from the perspective of gym balls…
It was amazing to watch their films at the end of the day, shot in only a few hours.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Coorong SA, November 2009

This image gallery requires Flash

To view this gallery, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player.

Download the free Flash Player now!

CHALLENGE: The Change Media Team conducted the first production workshop with the newly formed Ngarrindjeri Media Team to develop a long-term strategy to establish a sustainable Media Hub and train them as producers & trainers.

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association; Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Currently in Production.
Available in July, 2010

OUTCOMES: Over several meetings prior to the first production workshop the team developed plans for the long-term collaboration. During this workshop the team identified key areas where media would be useful in their community and then produced content for their films and the prototype Change Media Indigenous digital media training resource, to be delivered July 2010.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:: Please watch this space for updates.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:

The participants started shooting on three stories from the 6 main film concepts they identified: a promotional/ educational clip about the cultural activities at Camp Coorong; documentation of traditional arts practices, (canoe making, feather flowers, weaving); a documentary about the Ngarrindjeri ANZAC’s; a documentary about Caring for Country, including sustainable water management; and training videos about how to podcast and use digital media to promote activities and engage young people.

The training covered an introduction to the new Ngarrindjeri Media Centre’s HDV camera, sound equipment, tripod and iMac computer.

The challenge this session was to cover a real life event as a 2-camera shoot with radio-mics (hand-held) during a cultural bush-walk with a large group of primary School students, hosted by Ngarrindjeri elder, Tom Trevorrow.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Whyalla SA, June 2009

CHALLENGE: D’faces of youth arts requested a professional development session to support them set up their youth media centre. They were also keen to produce a documentary about Port Lowly, but due to a last minute change in program, the Hero Project team tailored a workshop with a group of young people from D’faces and its HYPER Program to make a series of short films.

PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnerships Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; D’faces of  Youth Arts Whyalla and its HYPER program through the Attorney General’s Office SA;  SA Youth Arts Board; Middleback Theatre; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: I Am A Rocket

nolink

Watch also:
Word War 3
Josh Burns
the Failtaculars

OUTCOME: This workshop provided technical support and professional advise about making media in communities. D’faces are successfully using their new computer and camera gear to continue to make videos.

The anti-future awards: Change Media Film Challenge; Create a short film about your future you!
Through a series of brainstorming and hands-on sessions the teams produced 4 hilarious films: Abby follows her family tradition sky-high, soon-to-be hairdressers face it off, two jaded rock stars mop up their success and a bunch of understated super heroes are in search for their necessary nemesis…
The message: Don’t let anyone get in your way to do what you want with your life!

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

2010 I Am A Rocket wins third prize for Best Child-produced Film and screens at the international Little Big Shots Film Festival for Young People.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The Change Media team provided a 1-day debriefing and professional development session on media strategies to deal with the impact of political community art and the restrictions sponsorship may impose on arts funding in general. Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Warooka SA, April 2009

CHALLENGE: Warooka CPC-7 are developing a fantastic digital literacy program, and want the school to keep up with their 21st Century students, (who are surrounded by technology at home and see this as part of everyday life).

The Hero Project were called in to work with 26 students from Warooka CPC – 7, Curramulka Primary and Yorketown Area School to explore innovative ways to incorporate digital media into the school curriculum.

PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Department of Education and Children Services; Warooka CPC – 7 School; Curramulka Primary School; Yorketown Area School; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: WURRAMOOKA NEWS

nolink
Click on the image above or the link to watch - Wurramooka News.

If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Wurramooka News: Keeping Warooka in the loop, live from our studios at Warooka CPC – 7 School. Stay tuned for today’s headlines: Locals tell us why they want a Media Centre. On the spot reports about the Easter tourist invasion. Why home grown food is great! Weather, sports and school updates. And some tips on how to make your own films!

OUTCOMES: To incorporate as many of the students ideas as possible, the team decided to produce a news show. The Hero Project tailored the workshops to suit a range of skill levels: focusing on motion graphics, green screen work and compositing for the students we had previously mentored. Introducing basic camera and editing skills for the Curramulka Primary students – and the Yorketown High School students were asked to delve deeper into screen narratives and production management. It is a rewarding collaboration when there are computers with teams editing, creating music, animations, designing name plates, while others are out filming on-location, scripting the news items and preparing cue sheets and props for the performers sitting at the news desk.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:
DECS State Award  for Innovation in Digital Media at the New Media Awards Screenings 2009.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
Apple Australia is using the film as a showcase example for innovation in the classroom.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Gloucester NSW, April 2009

CHALLENGE: Arts Upper Hunter invited the Hero Project to run a workshop titled ‘Portraits of Place’, to work with locals to create a film about Gloucester. 20 participants from all walks of life decided very quickly they wanted to explore the potential impact of coal mining on their community and environment.

PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Arts NSW; Arts Upper Hunter Inc; Gloucester City Council Youth Centre; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: What’s yours, is Mine..d

nolink
Click on the image above or the link to watch - Whats Yours Is Mine…d.

If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Join Eric Ingot as he shows Gloucester their future. With reassuring confidence and panache he identifies the multitude of benefits to enjoy from an open cut mine. “ At Envira-Coal, we dig the future! “

OUTCOMES: The Gloucester team met for the first time at the Council’s youth centre. Within an hour, they had identified their story – the looming open pit coal mine, that is threatening to destroy their beautiful environment. Their biggest challenge: how to make a community film that depicts a possible threat, raises awareness and educates without scaring your audience? They created a satirical pro-mining advertisement, applying spin doctor messages to sell-up potential problems as benefits!  The diverse team, aged 14-65, learnt how to script and pace a comedic narrative, storyboard and film on multiple locations. 8 laptops formed a mobile edit unit, with every team producing a different chapter of the story, plus music, titles and GFX.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

AWARD WINNER at the International Foster Short Film competition 2009 – congratulations! Forster International Film Festival

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: Their 5min film attracted over 600 hits and many comments on YouTube within the first week of upload by one of the youth team members.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Dungog NSW, April 2009

CHALLENGE: Arts Upper Hunter invited the Hero Project to run a workshop titled ‘Portraits of Place’, to work with locals to create a film about Dungog. In their first film workshop together, 12 Dungog locals explored a seemingly quirky topic, yet controversial expose of the hidden tensions in their town.

PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Arts NSW; Arts Upper Hunter Inc; Dungog Shire Council; Country Womens Association; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: On The Move

nolink
Click on the image above or the link to watch -On The Move.

If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

At first glance the country town of Dungog in NSW feels like any other quiet, small rural town. Driving down the main street, past the monument one would never suspect that the community is divided. The problem is the local icon in the middle of the main street. Is it a monument or an obelisk? A round about or a traffic hazard? And more importantly should it be moved?

OUTCOMES: Dungog locals explored how they could make a film that would portray their town and life AND do justice to all of their creative visions?! This resulted in several intense brainstorming sessions, teams conducting a series of interviews and a fabulous factory style editing suite as everyone crafted the final film. And finally it all revolved around the monument in the main street!

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

May 2010 ABC Online features On the Move and runs a story about the project.

March 2010 Great news for our Dungog team: Selected to screen as part of the world’s biggest film festival of Australian films, the Dungog Film Festival 2010

2009 Finalist in the Wollombi Short Film Festival 2009. Congratulations to the community media team in Dungog!

2009 Second place in the state-wide “My town is special coz’” competition run by the Department of State and Regional Development NSW.  www.artsupperhunter.com.au/files/newsletters/October_Artsbark.pdf

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: After much heated debate and a story development process, the group formed a fantastic creative team…
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Coorong SA, January 2009

CHALLENGE: The Change Media team were invited to work with the community at Camp Coorong to explore how they could use digital media for social change. 20 Ngarrindjeri community members from Raukkan and Meningie participated in the workshop.

The youth participants had an ambitious vision: they wanted to make a hard-hitting documentary about the water problem AND interview their elders in only four and a half days. To make things even more challenging, a professional TV crew came down from Canberra to document the Change Media process with the Ngarrindjeri team for ABC TV’s Message Stick, at the same time…

PARTNERS: Indigenous Cultural Support DEWHA; Indigenous Coordination Centre SA; Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Ngarrindjeri Land & Progress Association; Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Contracting; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: NUKKAN.KUNGUN.YUNNAN

nolink

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Nukkan. Kungun. Yunnan – Ngarrindjeri Being Heard.

If your device can’t play this clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Buy your copy of the full documentary DVD with extended Elders interviews here.

This powerful 22 minute documentary presents the real impact the water crisis is having on the Coorong and its people. Driven by Ngarrindjeri youth it examines the effects on Ngarrindjeri culture as well as the damage for all Australians. The question is, what will we do to change it?

OUTCOMES: The Change Media team worked with the community to identify key issues and stories and trained the participants in digital media skills from scripting, storyboards, video and sound recording to editing.

The team conducted over 15 interviews with Ngarrindjeri Elders and youth to create an informative, emotionally charged documentary. After they recorded the interviews with their elders, the team weren’t keen to edit their stories and potentially loose important information or be disrespectful. We demonstrated how to use their footage to create a film and interview assembly clips to produce a multi-layered DVD: with a short, media friendly 5min trailer, a 22-min documentary and a sub menu with the entire interviews with their elders. During the workshop the 22 min rough cut was screened to over 40 community members and elders. One of the participants gained part time employment as a media officer for Caring For Country, at RUWE Ngarrindjeri Resource Corporation, as a direct outcome of the Change Media program.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

2010 The project has been selected to screen at the national Communities in Control conference in Melbourne, as part of Change Media’s Kookaburra Award for Best Community Project 2010.

2010 The film has been invited to screen at the International Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York in June 2010.

2010 National Indigenous TV Australia broadcast the 22-min version of the film February 2010.

2009 On Nov 16th, Ngarrindjeri elder and community leader Tom Trevorrow was awarded the Special MyHero Award at the International MyHero Film Festival in LA.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Cherry Gardens SA, November 2008

CHALLENGE: Horse SA commissioned the Hero Project team to work with a group of teenage girls to produce a film about horse and land care. During the workshop the youth team met the challenge head on: in only 3 days they created Horse TV!

PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnerships Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy Communities; Horse SA; Horse Owners of the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges; the Melbourne Water Corporation; the Evironmental Protection Agency; the Adelaide & Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Horse TV

nolink

Welcome to Horse TV: This series of funny TV ads and soap spoofs raises awareness about environmental issues around horse ownership and addresses 5 key messages:
Healthy Pastures all year round spells healthy horses
Cheap Cheap Cheap: reduce dust and mud, horses hate cheap pastures
Purer Trough: safe, clean, easy water for your horse that doesn’t impact on creeks and waterways
Silver Service – A Ladies Companion to Classy Compost: Horse manure management 101
Horse CSI: Control your weeds before it is too late…

OUTCOMES: The workshop focused on training teenage girls and in the brainstorming session they decided to create a series of TV Advert spoofs as an upbeat way to share land care messages for horse owners. During the workshop the young filmmakers learnt all basic skills required for video production, including scripting, story-boarding, camera + sound work, acting, directing, editing and music production.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

The final film was screened 4 day after the workshop to over 50 people in the Cherry Gardens community hall.

The film was distributed online through the Australian Pony Club to over 10.000 members.

Horse SA have presented it at several conferences.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Regional Arts Australia conference: Art at the Heart, Sept 2008

CHALLENGE: During the RAA’s (Regional Arts Australia) most recent bi-annual conference in Alice Springs, the Hero Project was invited to present its community empowerment work in a 1 hour conference presentation. We also were selected to run a 2-hour edit-in-camera workshop, introducing regional art workers and artists to our unique model.

PARTNERS: Regional Arts Australia; the Australia Council for the Arts; Arts SA ; CAAMA; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia; DECS

Film: Art at the Heart edit-in-camera films

Alice – The Journey

All Consuming Art

Remote Directing

Snapshots

OUTCOMES: We had a record number of participants: over 100 people attended our presentation and 40 people participated in the hands-on workshop on the second day. The 4 teams producing 4 great films. Feedback from the participants and audience was that it was one of the best presentations at RAA that year…

Above you find  links to the films made during the Saturday 2-hour  workshop at ‘Art at the Heart’ at CAAMA. 
(We found the ‘lost film’, yah) and couldn’t resist making some tiny-weeny changes to support your edit-in-camera film ideas (as we understood them), we hope you like our input… Again big thanks to CAAMA for supporting the workshop and offering their great space.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Whyalla SA, May 2008

CHALLENGE: D’Faces commissioned the Hero Project team to run a holiday program. The Hero Project extended the workshop as part of their commitment to produce the Document Your World finalist films. 20 young people, aged 10-19, from Whyalla and surrounding communities were involved in this project.

PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts; Arts SA; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; Dfaces of youth arts Whyalla; Australian International Documentary Conference; Australian Childrens Television Foundation; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Artists not Aliens

nolink

Follow three aliens on their journey to find out if there is artistic life in Whyalla, a sports-mad steel town in South Australia. Whyalla has more sports facilities than you can count on your fingers and toes, but only a few places to do some art…

OUTCOMES: At the beginning of the workshop James presented the initial idea he pitched to a large audience of professional film makers and broadcasters at the Document Your World competition, hosted by the Australian International Documentary Conference in February 2007. The group were excited about the idea, and had a great team of actors and crew to make this ambitious film work.
The Hero Project trained all of the participants in digital media skills to script, storyboard, film, record sound, and part- edit their film during the 5- day workshop. The group split up into teams to make it to all of their desired locations and apportioned roles and tasks according to age and ability – a fantastic team effort. Take a look for yourself, it is sometimes hard to grasp that they managed to have the same actor appear multiple times in the same scene…

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

2008 2nd prize in the national ReelLife Film Festival 2008 in Sydney.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The Hero team delivered D’Faces newly purchased media equipment, so both D’faces staff and youth members needed to be trained in Final Cut, camera work, computer file management, while they created their film.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Quorn SA, January 2008

CHALLENGE: The Hero Project team worked with 6 students at the Quorn Area School, supported by the Southern Flinders Ranges Health Service, the Quorn Area School, the local council and the Quorn Caravan Park, as a direct result of the 2007 Document Your World competition.

PARTNERS: Arts SA; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; Southern Flinders Ranges Health Service Inc; Quorn Caravan Park; Tallstoreez Productionz, Apple Australia

Film: Every Drop Counts

nolink

OUTCOMES: To create a short documentary that addresses environmental concerns arising from the ongoing drought in north SA.
The participants identified a number of relevant interviewees, great locations and found fantastic archival footage about a flood. This was the final production in a series of 4 workshops with the Quorn community; as a result the local school has taken up digital media as part of their curriculum and the community has a great team of young documentarians and upcoming journalists.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:
The film screened at the Screen Australia outback touring program in Quorn.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: Their films screened as part of the Screen Australia outback touring program at the Quorn caravan park, to an audience of over 200. Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Karoonda SA, Aug 2007

CHALLENGE: The Karoonda community commissioned the Hero Project team to work with a group of local youth to produce a documentary about the impact of drink driving on small rural towns.

PARTNERS: Arts SA Health Promotion Through the Arts; Country Arts SA; Karoonda Area School; Murray Mallee Community Education Network Inc; Mallee Health Service Inc; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Click here to buy the Underage Drinking DVD.

Film: 9 Steps to Become a Successful Underage Drinker

nolink
Click on the image above or the link to watch - 9 Steps to Become a Successful Underage Drinker.

If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

A fabulous discussion starter about underage drinking: ‘9 Steps to Become a Successful Underage Drinker’ is a comedic take on ‘how-to­’ videos and drug education with a high impact ending that will have your students talking for days. Goose bumps guaranteed!

OUTCOMES: Initially the group discussed interviewing the local police officer and locals to create a documentary about the issue. When the Hero Project team asked if they would watch this film, they admitted they find ‘educational’ videos boring. So their task was to make a film they would watch. After lengthy debate from the young people and adults in the room, the Hero mentors suggested the team work with a satirical reversal to get the message across. They brainstormed all the stories ‘everyone shares about their youthful exploits’, and so the conversation began… The team drafted the 9 steps in the first session and then shot them over several sessions working with the Hero mentors. It was fantastic to work with the youth team and the Karoonda community, who all pitched in to support the project, from offering locations, making props and acting in the film.

Using humour and a satirical reversal this film drives a serious punch and comes with an urgently needed resource pack to support teachers and youth workers to tackle the issues of underage drinking.­

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Pinnaroo, Mallee region SA, June 2007 to May 2008

CHALLENGE: Kade Richardson and Sam Long were finalists at the 2007 Document Your World competition, hosted by the Australian International Documentary Conference. They were 1 of 5 Australian youth teams who pitched their film ideas in front of a large audience, to a panel of broadcasters. ABC were on the panel and commissioned this mini-series for JTV. Over the following 6 months the Hero Project team conducted a series of master classes with the ‘Oo in Pinnaroo’ team to produce 10 kooky episodes about life in Pinnaroo.

Pinnaroo Surfer
‘I don’t reckon you can see Pinnaroo in one day, unless you’re driving through.’ Kade shares his wisdom about bush life, local landmarks and stuff.

Buy the complete Pinnaroo Surfer series on DVD here.

PARTNERS: Arts SA Health Promotion through the Arts; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; Tallstoreez Productionz; ABC TV; Mallee Health Service Inc; Australian International Documentary Conference; Australian Childrens Television Foundation; Apple Australia

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:
2010 Lahore International Children’s Festival, Pakistan

2009 ABC TV broadcast Pinnaroo Surfer series (Jan – Feb)

2008 Little Big Shot Film Festival for Young People, extensive Australian tour and world-wide

2008 Art At The Heart Regional Arts Australia conference, Alice Springs

2007 MyHero International Film Festival Los Angeles USA – 3rd Prize, High School Category

2007 Come Out Youth Film Festival at the Mercury Cinema in Adelaide

2006 Pinnaroo Surfer forms part of the award winning Directing the Hero Within DVD resource

10-part ABC TV series: Pinnaroo Surfer

nolink

1. My Watering Hole Watch
Kade grabs his swag and heads to The Woolshed, the best country pub in town. It’s super real, like a giant scrapbook full of Pinnaroo landmarks, bush nostalgia and a mechanical bull.

2. High Noon Watch
‘This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.’ Or is it? In the name of Country and Western, Kade and Tommie settle a score, Pinnaroo style.

3. Big Things Watch
Sometimes ‘Big Things’ reflect what a town’s biggest passion can be, but does size matter? Kade travels the Mallee region to size up the local ‘Big Things’.

4. Camping’s the best! Watch
Kade packs his swag, tent and all the survival skills his Dad has taught him and heads into the Pinnaroo scrub. When he forgets the matches he uses his bush ingenuity to save the trip.

5. In Competition Watch
This year Kade wants to win the blue ribbon at Pinnaroo’s most prestigious and oldest Show event, the ‘Best Polished Boot’.

6. Painting a Masterpiece Watch
Art isn’t just for snobs, it’s heaps cool. Kade tries everything to win a prize at the Pinnaroo Show and his ‘Best Decorated Biscuit’ entry is in a class of its own.

7. Heavyweight Champion Watch
‘Move over Rocky Balboa, I’ve got you licked.’ Kade trains to become the champion speed ice-cream eater at the Pinnaroo Show.

8. The Fish Whisperer Watch
‘If you want to catch a fish you need to think like a fish’. Kade enjoys the Zen of fishing and has found the secret Pinnaroo spot everyone is raving about.

9. Thinking Man Watch
‘I like to call myself a thinker, that can think.’ Kade travels through time to a magic billabong to practice the art of deep thought.

10. Football Legend Watch
‘You need to be in the right frame of mind if you want to become a legend, like Ben Cousins.’ Kade is arguably the best player on his team, if not second best.

Pinnaroo Surfer – the original Watch
Kade loves the Beach Boys, surfing’s the best. Pinnaroo might be 300 km from the ocean, but that doesn’t stop him surfing.

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Come Out Festival Adelaide, May 2007

CHALLENGE: The Hero Project team worked with 10 participants from regional and remote SA to run a documentary master class during the Come Out 2007 Festival. Come Out commissioned the youth crew to document a range of festival activities and events. The regional youth also took part in an open 1-day session with over 30 Adelaide school students.

PARTNERS: Arts SA Health Promotion Through The Arts; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; Australian Festival for Young People; SA Youth Arts Board; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Cooking Up A Storm

nolink

OUTCOMES: The diverse youth team created an engaging promo about the multitude of events during the Australian Festival for Young People, aka Come Out 2007. The team discovered what it is like to work to a client brief: guaranteed to be a challenging production – and the team handled it very well. It involved brainstorming the overarching theme, devising interview questions, securing interviews and permission to film performances, production managing multiple locations and promoting efficient teamwork to shoot and produce on the go.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

2007 The film screened at Come Out Youth Film Festival at the Mercury Cinema in Adelaide.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Clare SA, April 2007


CHALLENGE: The Hero Project mentored students from 5 area schools in the Lower Mid North region during 2x 1-day edit-in-camera workshops.

PARTNERS: Lower North Health – Community Health Promotion; Snowtown Area School, Blyth Area School, Clare High School, Burra Area School, Riverton High School, Tallstoreez Productionz

Film: Barrels Of Snowtown

nolink

See Also:
Danny’s Legacy – Play
G’day Mate – Play
Supernatural in the Mid North – Play

OUTCOMES: The films screened as part of the Eat My Shorts festival during National Youth Week.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Coding Cultures conference
Sydney, March 2007

CHALLENGE: The Hero Project was invited to present its community empowerment at the Coding Cultures Symposium 2007 in Campbelltown.

Campbelltown Arts Centre in partnership with d/Lux/MediaArts, presented Coding Cultures from Monday 5 – Friday 9 March 2007. Coding Cultures explored the opportunities that new information technologies including mobile phones, the internet and other on-line spaces, are providing for communities. Coding Cultures was a week long program of international residencies, free Concept Development Labs and a one day Symposium at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

PARTNERS: DLux; Tallstoreez Productionz; Campbelltown City Council

Outcomes

Our presentation at the Symposium was well received, bringing participants up to speed and networked into the latest in community based media practices and cultures. We also managed during the conference to connect the Hero Project to Jamaican artists Mervin Jarman [the Container Project] and Canadian artists Camille Turner, with the aim to collaborate on future projects.

Big thanks to the fabulous Francesca da Rimini and our friends at Dlux for setting this up! Find out more about Coding Cultures and its handbook here:

http://www.dlux.org.au/codingcultures/handbook.html

Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Document Your World at AIDC, Feb 2007


CHALLENGE: The Hero Project team worked with 15 youth finalist from the national Document Your World competition, hosted by the Australian International Documentary Conference in February 2007.
The Hero Project mentored the youth teams to prepare their film proposals as a public pitch. This first ever youth-documentary competition saw entries from across Australia, vying for the change to pitch in front of a panel of commissioning editors from ABC and SBS, IDFA’s Director, the Australian Children’s TV Foundation and executives from the media industry. The events MC was Steve Cannane, from Triple J’s Hack.

PARTNERS: Arts SA Health Promotion for the Arts; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; Australian International Documentary Conference; Australian Children’s Television Foundation; ABC TV; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Document Your World presentations

nolink

Watch - Introduction
Watch - LOL Pitch
Watch - Legends of Quorn Pitch
Watch - In Our Shoes Pitch
Watch - Oo in Pinnaroo Pitch
Watch - Artists Not Aliens Pitch
Watch - Q&A + Thankyou
Watch - Youth Team Podcasts

OUTCOMES: The 5 finalist teams from Whyalla, Quorn, Murray Bridge, Pinnaroo and Adelaide prepared a 5-minute verbal pitch and a 2-minute video trailer for their documentary proposals – in 2 days they prepared, wrote, test-pitched, shot and edited the most amazing public presentations – feedback from the panel and audience was that it was the best presentations at AIDC that year…

The participants delivered very compelling presentations. In front of over 100 experts and a high-caliber panel from ABC, SBS, Tallstoreez and ACTF, they held their own. Stories included: LoL: Cyberbullying, the Oo in Pinnaroo, Life in Quorn, Artists not Aliens and Nunga Media.

The winner was ‘LoL’, a documentary about cyberbullying; the team won a development purse of $5000 from ABC jtv, to develop a half-hour documentary proposal.
The runner-up was ‘Oo in Pinnaroo’; who were approached by ABC to produce a 10-part mini-series, mentored by the Hero Project.

The teams also produced a series of short clips during the conference for AIDC, interviewing documentary makers and broadcasters about film making and key points of the conference. The clips were shown on huge screens on the same day  they were shot. It was fabulous to see the 15 Document Your World heroes mingling with the pro-crowd and gleaning valuable intel.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:

2007 Australian International Documentary Conference, Document Your World event

2008 Every Drop Counts, (Quorn team) screened at the Flinders Film Festival.

2008 Artists not Aliens, (Whyalla team) 2nd prize in the national ReelLife Film Festival, Sydney.

2009 Pinnaroo Surfer series (Oo in Pinnaroo team) screened on ABC TV
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Port Lincoln SA, January 2007

CHALLENGE: The Hero Project team were commissioned by the Community House in Port Lincoln to engage young people in their activities. The 10 youth participants agreed to make a promotional video to get more people to engage with the community house, as long as it involved fish…

PARTNERS: Arts SA Health Promotion Through The Arts; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; Community House Port Lincoln; Tallstoreez Productionz; Apple Australia

Film: Pilchard Ninjas

nolink

A 3-min fish-slapping comedy extravaganza, that doubles as a quirky advert for the Community House /social centre in Port Lincoln.

OUTCOMES: The team created an engaging promo-clip about the community center – but really most of young people came to the social centre to make a fun film – so they worked on combining the two! They identified they wanted to create something Python-esque and that the fish factories are a big issue in town [renown for its tuna]…During the workshop the young filmmakers learnt all basic skills required for video production, including scripting, story-boarding, camera + sound work, acting, directing, editing and music production.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS :
The film screened at Come Out 2007 Youth Film Fest at the Mercury Cinema in Adelaide.
Read the rest of this page and add your comments »

Murray Bridge SA, October 2006


CHALLENGE: The Hero Project team worked with 14 students at the Murray Bridge Council offices. The local council, through its youth service commissioned the team to document the commemoration of the 1956 Floods.

PARTNERS: Arts SA Health Promotion Through The Arts; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; the Rural City of Murray Bridge; Tallstoreez Productionz

Film: Flood of 56

nolink

OUTCOMES: The youth team created an engaging documentary about the 1956 flood. But how do you do that without a budget and without boring your peers to tears? They imagined how it felt if the river flooded the town for over 12 months – and created an unusual eyewitness report with fun re-enactments …

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: The film screened at Come Out 2007 Youth Film Fest at the Mercury Cinema in Adelaide.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: The participants interviewed a fabulous eye witness, who helped to bring the memories to life.

Quorn SA, October 2006

CHALLENGE: The Hero Project team worked with 16 students at the Quorn Area School, supported by the Southern Flinders Ranges Health Service, the Quorn Area School, the local council and the Quorn Caravan Park.

PARTNERS: Arts SA Health Promotion Through The Arts; Country Arts SA Regional Arts Fund; Southern Flinders Ranges Health Service Inc; Quorn Caravan Park; Tallstoreez Productionz

Film: Working Quorn

nolink

OUTCOMES: To create a series of short documentaries that address possible future careers in a remote town like Quorn. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? To whom could you speak to get advise?
The participants identified a fabulous set of characters, the most amazing locations and learned a lot about their local professions: from hairdressing, being a postie, to farming, camel riding and meat processing. The locals came up trumps, especially the Quorn butcher, who proved to be comedic talent, just stay away from his knives…

SCREENINGS & AWARDS:
The film screened at Come Out 2007 Youth Film Festival at the Mercury Cinema in Adelaide.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: Their films screened as part of the Screen Australia outback touring program at the Quorn caravan park, to an audience of over 200.