St Stanislaus College Bathurst, is well known for its rugby prowess and College spirit and it is these two elements that initially influenced a cohort of students to help create a new program. Photo Media uses media to showcase school life to their family, friends and the central west community at large - especially followers of rugby. Those students wrote this story.
Year 10 Stannies students Charles Patterson, Joshua Borland and Mitch Wilson tell us the story
During our junior years as new students to the college, we all had a passion and motivation for taking pictures and videos. We put forward the idea that we should start a Club where we could share our photography.
So, we gathered five people that were really interested in doing photography and videography and we joined an existing after-school club called Stannies Art and Design Association (SADA) which is more about art but we made it work into photography at the time.
We were then able to take photos at the College swimming carnival but we did not get to put a PowerPoint slideshow or video together.
Later in the term, we had our athletics carnival and we were encouraged to put a photo slideshow together for this event. Later in that year we had a new art teacher, Miss Marissa Lico and during this time she launched a new club called Photo Media that focused more on the video side and we learned a lot more about the behind the scenes of short films and also how to make one. Then in our last term of that year, we made a film that then got shown at our major awards day known as Speech Day and the feedback was nothing but positive.
We thought more about what would be of interest to our fellow students and knew that rugby would be a great subject. About a year and half ago, we began our Stannies Facebook Live Streaming which broadcasts the College rugby season. This meant that more people could get involved to expand our repertoire of skills and stand out against other schools.
This co-curricular activity adds to Stannies school life in a positive way as it expands the creative opportunities of the school, making new pathways for interested students. Previously, photography and filmmaking were not always a consistent or strong point of the College and received minimal to no funding, but now it is becoming popular with events taking place such as the Stannies Facebook Live Streaming which allows many students (even parents/others at home) to get involved in the Stannies Community.
Apart from rugby games (where we also run a pretty entertaining commentary), we have also broadcast College Mass, special occasions, visiting staff and students from other schools and most recently a video to promote the College musical, a musical production we do each year with students from Mackillop College, Bathurst.
This year we are traveling to the Sydney Royal Easter Show to follow our Stannies Ag Team as they compete in the Steggles Meat Bird Competition. As the students of the Media Group at Stannies, we are so happy to participate in the Show as it is an awesome opportunity. We would love to gain more experience, meet professional Media people and learn a thing or two as something to take into our next photographic and video production.
