High school students will celebrate William Shakespeare's birthday this week at The University of Queensland by making three short films featuring his ideas.
The 26 students will edit their three-to-five-minute pieces on Sunday, April 23 – which is believed to be the 442nd anniversary of Shakespeare's birth.
The Cinergy short film workshop, produced by UQ, the Queensland Department of Education and the Arts and the Pacific Film and Television Commission, will run all week.
The winning film will be shown to an international audience of Shakespeare scholars and enthusiasts at the VIII World Shakespeare Congress, to be hosted by UQ in July. It will also feature in the Cine Sparks Film Festival for young people, held, with the Brisbane International Film Festival, in August.
Cinergy workshop coordinator Derek Weeks said the students were being challenged to transform a Shakespearean idea or scene into screenplays and then films.
"It is a fabulous opportunity for high school students to work in an intensive environment in a university context whilst working with professional gear," he said.
Mr Weeks said industry representatives, including acclaimed filmmakers Jennifer Ussi and Michael Noonan, will pass on their expertise in script writing, film and editing techniques.
"It's really important high school students are able to see the various pathways that might lie ahead of them in terms of film production."
The student production teams are from Pine Rivers State High, Balmoral Senior High School and Mountain Creek High School.
Mr Weeks said he was impressed with the calibre of students.
"They are all so radically different. There are leaders here and there are also doers, design people and technical people," he said.
"The light is starting to become really nice for shooting and I think it all makes for a thoroughly romantic experience for them."
Mountain Creek High English teacher Dawn Kirbyshire-Arnold said most of her six students attending the workshop wanted to pursue tertiary studies at UQ.
"I thought what a great opportunity and what a great prize, to be actually working with professionals and making film," she said.
"It’s a great opportunity for them to find out how a university works and the type and level of work people are doing at the university – as well as the breadth of knowledge and the kinds of people they could be working with."
Pine Rivers State High School student Laura Johnston, 17, said the workshop gave her a chance to use UQ’s equipment, which was not available in her school.
"It's really important because I really want to get into this area when I leave school," Ms Johnston said.
"I really want to come here. It`s my big aim for the end of the year."
Mountain Creek High School student Rachel Joan Kramer, 14, said the workshop had helped her understand the sorts of skills she would gain in the university’s journalism and media degrees.
"From what I see now, it looks like real quality," she said.
"It's all the contacts that you make here in this workshop and the people that you meet. It`s just so great learning about what goes on behind the scenes."
UQ Executive Dean of Arts Professor Richard Fotheringham said he was delighted the workshop gave prospective students an opportunity to complete their films in the university setting.
"We know that this week at UQ will inspire the students to achieve excellence in their final exams and give them a real advantage in their future studies," he said.
"A number of the Grade 12 students are currently deciding on their university preferences and UQ is topping the list for many of them," he said.
"They will be applying for UQ courses including Communication and Cultural Studies, Journalism, Drama, Film and Television Studies and Creative Writing.
"The students we have on board for this project are highly gifted and we look forward to welcoming many of them to UQ next year."
Professor Fotheringham, who is also convenor of the Congress, said up to 1000 international and Australian delegates are expected to attend.
"The fact that the winning film will be screened at the VIII World Shakespeare Congress in July to an audience of international Shakespeare scholars and industry professionals is a real incentive for the students to create the highest quality work possible and excel beyond expectation."
Other workshops available as part of World Shakespeare Congress 2006 include actor/director master classes with theatre professionals, workshops for young people facilitated by Shakespeare’s Globe and Stage Fight Directors Association Project – Elizabethan fight techniques.
For more information on the VIII World Shakespeare Congress go to: www.shakespeare2006.net
Media: For further information, contact VIII World Shakespeare Congress Senior Program Manager Melissa Western (telephone 07 3365 1125, melissa.western@uq.edu.au), or Fiona Kennedy at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 1088, mobile 0413 380 012)
