ACMI.
In Q1 2023 we conducted interviews with our youth arts partners. Below is a summary of ACMI’s programs as told through the interview with Christine Evely, Ellen Molloy and Garry Westmore.
Who are ACMI?
ACMI is a museum of screen culture, focussing on film, TV, videogames and art
Located in the heart of Melbourne's Fed Square, ACMI (formerly Australian Centre for the Moving Image) celebrates the wonder and power of the world’s most democratic artform – fostering the next generation of makers, players and watchers.
ACMI’s vibrant calendar of exhibitions, screenings, commissions, festivals, and industry and education programs explore the stories, technologies and artists that create our shared screen culture.
Source: https://www.acmi.net.au/about/
Programs and how they work?
Film It
“This intensive filmmaking workshop introduces production elements such as storyboarding, cinematography and editing by placing students in creative filmmaking roles. Working collaboratively to interpret a screenplay, students will explore concepts of narrative, genre and visual storytelling.
Students will:
understand the different phases of film production and the creative roles involved
consider tropes, codes, and conventions of different genres
produce a storyboard and shot list from a script
film and edit their films with support from ACMI staff”
Whole day workshop from 10am to 2:30pm
Source: https://www.acmi.net.au/education/school-program-and-resources/film-it-workshop/
Ellen Molloy (Education Producer)
The students arrive on site hopefully before 10, so we can get them into the studio. They then have a talk to introduce them to the subject of filmmaking.
Then the teams work together. We've actually developed it in such a way now that we hand them a script and now their team has to take that same script and to develop it in their individual way.
So then they work on the script. They pull apart that, they storyboard. Then we give them a tutorial with the cameras, so they're using the professional camera equipment. Then they take all of that, go out onto the square [Fed Square], and in their teams have to be in front and behind the camera, so they’re swapping the roles and playing the characters in their film as well as filming it.
Then we bring them back into the studio. They get a lunch break while we transfer all the footage off the cameras onto the laptops. And then they use Final Cut Pro, which is a bit more professional than what they might use at home or at school, editing software. And then we take them through a rough edit and then a fine edit and then we screen their work with a reflection at the end.
Garry's capped it at 28 students. Because if we go above 30, it becomes problematic, that's to do with the equipment that we have to use. We have six cameras now, so can afford to have six groups of five. But yesterday when we ran a similar workshop, we had 23 students, so 23 students is probably around the normal amount of kids for that workshop. So we'll end up with four groups and then we have two staff normally supporting that workshop. We rely on the teacher that comes with the group to support the production as well, and yesterday they came with four teachers, so that was a bit of a luxury. Just once we're out on the square, just kind of following, tracking where they are and being able to support them on location is the tricky part of the workshop for us.
For us, that workshop clearly links in with critical thinking and problem solving, all those 21st century skills, but we probably don't really recognise that. The teachers would clearly recognize it once they're in the classroom… because it's all about teamwork.
A comment from Wednesday was that we've designed the program that the four groups go out and when they come back in to edit, we actually put the same footage on two laptops. So then we have eight groups. So we have 8 films as the final edit. The teacher was talking to the other teacher, I was eavesdropping, and they were like, ‘this is a great idea because normally one student always takes the lead on the edit and this allows like everyone to have a go at editing', and so I stepped in and said ‘actually, that's exactly why we designed it like that’. Then gave them a run down. At these moments where certain students would normally step up and take the lead, we've designed the program so that more students can have access to having a lead, if that makes sense.
Christine Evely (Head of Education)
I think adaptability is another one that really crops up in that program because the kids have to move very fast throughout the day and they've got to adapt to the different requirements of what it is that they're creating. So they're thinking on their feet quite a lot and having to sort of swap the roles that they're in at various times during the day as well. So it's a great program that one.
Garry Westmore (Education Producer)
Usually we get a lot of year 9 and 10 media classes for most schools, year 9 is the earliest that they can choose media as an elective. So it really appeals to those classes because it's kind of a bit of a crash course I guess in filmmaking.
Occasionally they [schools] just book it just for a fun thing to do as a regional school might be coming to the city, but you know, nine times out of ten it's a media class, so it doesn't really matter too much how far into their studies they are, I guess. We find that if they're coming later in the year or later in their studies it's just kind of reaffirming that stuff that they’ve been learning and that they can apply it to even greater effects.
Christine Evely
Yeah, I think it [a micro-cred] would be quite appealing to them [schools]. There's probably another group of kids that come in less often as Garry says. But you know, there's a lot of kids that have a city experience or an offsite experience in year 9 or 10. Sometimes they just go to the exhibition and have a visit in the exhibition. But some schools prefer to actually have the kids engage in a workshop or a talk.
Work Experience
ACMI has a small number of work experience placements for Year 10 students each year.
This program gives successful applicants the opportunity to gain experience working in the arts and culture industry.
They offer placement dates in Term 2 for the weeks of 5–9 June, 13–16 June, and 19–23 June.
As part of the program, students will spend a working week onsite at ACMI, engaging with various ACMI teams members and departments, whilst embarking on a filmmaking task.
There’s no formal accreditation beyond student’s writing their experience on their CVs at the end of the program
Source: https://www.acmi.net.au/about/careers/work-experience/
Ellen Molloy
So I've just read all 87 applications for our work experience program this year. We take on these year 10 students for one week. So that we can go through a couple of students we offer one week. They come on site, but obviously we didn't have them over lockdown.
Garry formulated an excellent program for them. When they arrived on site, they did an induction process and then essentially he gave them a project, a work based project to work on. So he set them the task of making a small short film or documentary about ACMI, or the Story of the Moving Image, the exhibition, and then at the end of the week they present their work to Garry and the rest of the education team, and myself. And then we put those productions up onto the ACMI Education YouTube channel so that they actually have a life outside of the program. And we also send them up to the CEO and who watches them. I think Seb fed back on some of them last year. They work with the media studio team, which is the team that does all the video production, that works closely with us to support our workshops.
But this model has been really good. In the past they came in and they sat with us and then followed us around and then they went into the workshop with other year nine kids and thought it was a bit weird. Or they came into the primary school programs, but I think Garry's made a really amazing model, where they're actually tasked like you would be in a workplace and it has an outcome. You can see that other students last year, especially this year they're sitting there live on the ACMI website to watch those productions. So I think this year will be really interesting to see that followed up. See if they get excited.
Christine Evely
There's a lot of potential in terms of they do have a relationship with one or two key team members who would be able to say what skill sets they've developed and what character qualities they're exhibiting, those types of things. That would be much, much easier than the one day program.
Volunteer Program
ACMI’s volunteer programs: Many young people who are looking to re-skill for the workforce volunteer their time at ACMI. ACMI has a structured volunteer program. Giving volunteers the opportunity to receive microcreds could be valuable as they look for work.
Christine Evely
The other thing that struck me is we have a huge number of volunteers who work at ACMI. Some of them are older people who've left work and probably microcreds aren't relevant, but quite a few of them are very young people who are either at uni and they've got some spare time and they want to volunteer or they're people who maybe haven't been employed for a while and they're wanting to build a skill set so that they can get back into the workforce. Microcreds I think would be really valuable for both of those cohorts. You know, and it might be something that could be added to the volunteer program. We have a very defined volunteer program that has a lot of training in it and maybe the microcreds could be built into something like that.
The 21st century skills and capabilities that young people develop
Film It
Adaptability
In workshops adapting to new places and learning environments, thrown into a film production program, thinking on their feet etc.
Christine Evely: “Adaptability is another one that really crops up in that program because the kids have to move very fast throughout the day and they've got to adapt to the different requirements of what it is that they're creating. So they're thinking on their feet quite a lot and having to sort of swap the roles that they're in at various times during the day as well.”
Critical thinking and Problem Solving
Choosing film location, managing filming in difficult locations, camera angles/levels etc.
Civic literacy
How the students frame their shots (e.g. respecting members of the public’s right to privacy when filming in public locations)
Christine Evely: “There’s even I think a little bit of civic literacy in there in that they have to be very thoughtful about how they do frame their shots. You know, we do talk to them about other people being out on the square and the rights of other people and aspects of privacy and not filming people without permission and so forth.”
Social and cultural awareness
Collaboration
Students work together in teams in most of their programs
Communication
Curiosity
They are given a list of potential topics for their work experience project and need to choose which topic they’d like to pursue
Initiative
Running interviews with staff members
Creativity
Mapping of shots, game design etc.
Garry Westmore: “So that creativity of mapping out all the shots they need to get and how to frame them. And some kids came back some really, you know really stunning it's… The exhibition itself it's really easy to shoot to make it look good. But they've sort of got to use their their trained eyes I guess and creative lenses to film that.”
Social capability
Working with adults and other staff members
Persistence
ICT
Work Experience
Curiosity
Initiative
Garry Westmore: “Curiosity: So they’re given a pretty open-ended task. We will give them a list of potential topics, so it's not just make a documentary about ACMI, it's: do you wanna focus on the exhibition, or a particular part of the exhibition, or a section of the exhibition? We also have a media preservation lab. So there's a list of topics, so it comes with a bit of curiosity and initiative to pick a topic.”
Collaboration
Garry Westmore: “Collaboration because they're working in pairs. They've got to decide on a on a topic to explore together. Then they work with myself. We talk through their chosen topic and where they might like to take it.”
Literacy and Communication
Garry Westmore: “Then they're doing research. They're producing a voiceover script. So that comes with obviously your literacy and communication skills again.”
Creativity
Garry Westmore: “I can’t remember if we storyboarded it last time or encouraged them that they could go through and start taking pictures, photos, to try and visually map out their shots. And then obviously once they've got a camera tutorial and they're usually used to the equipment but not our equipment. So that creativity of mapping out all the shots they need to get and how to frame them. And some kids came back with some really, really stunning… The exhibition itself it's really easy to shoot to make it look good. But they've sort of got to use their trained eyes and creative lenses to film that.”
Social Capability
Christine Evely: “There is also a little bit of meeting other people, other professionals at ACMI and learning to negotiate some sort of relationship with those people to help them to get the skills they need from those people. So it might, if they're in the digital preservation lab, then they need to find out a little bit about what that lab does and who the people are and what are they allowed to film and what are they not allowed to film, that type of thing. And if they're working with the media studio people, it will be about skills development. What skills do we need? How can we get them? So there's quite a lot in terms of that social capability in working with other adults that they've not met before and having to adapt to different ways of working with people”
Persistence
Garry Westmore: “It's one thing I want to try and do this year, for them to film an interview with an ACMI staff member. So depending on what topic they choose, I would help them facilitate an interview as well. So I think a lot of persistence, initiative, those character qualities.”