Climate change wrap

COURTENAY Gardens primary students are saving the world one film at a time.
A group of five Year 6 students recently had their film ‘Sustainability’ take top honours at the Future Shots: Sustainability Film Challenge, organised by the State Government.
Along with taking the Best Film award, the school also received the Best Film by a School award.
Originally part of a project in the Year 6 multimedia program, the group of five students including Brittany, Jade, Sheridan, Tanisha and Vandhana, decided to make a short film to encourage students to live environmentally sustainable lifestyles.
The competition required entrants to shoot a three-minute short film, mini-documentary or news report in response to the question: ‘Sustainability – What’s It All About?’
In the period of one day, students took three hours to shoot the film and spent the remainder of class time editing the project.
“I could tell there was something special about this particular movie,” media teacher Scott Balliet said. “They really put in a lot of effort and you could tell that their communication skills were really coming out while making this film.”
The Cranbourne North school was selected from more than 90 schools across Victoria for two of the 10 major prizes. Last Tuesday night the students accepted their awards at a gala event held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation Square, which was attended by the Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings.
“Courtenay Gardens Primary School is to be congratulated for its passion and skill in creating a well-researched short film that describes what sustainability means to them,” Mr Jennings said.
Many of the entrant films discussed themes such as protecting natural resources, preventing climate change and using resources widely. Some entrants went to extreme lengths to create animations and even clay-mations to improve their chances of winning.
The winning films, including ‘Sustainability’ can be viewed at www.futureshots.com.au.