Work experience this year took place on both sides of the camera for high school students.
In June, two senior Nechako Valley Secondary students each received a $500 bursary for their video filming and editing work on Nechako Lakes school district’s career programs over the past school year.
Just like the subjects of the filming, Project Reel provided students with real life experience in the type of work they are interested in, explained Darren Carpenter, School District No. 91’s career and trades programs coordinator.
“[Work experience is] not all just jumping on machines,” Carpenter said.
Featuring programs such as the annual release of Nechako White sturgeon larvae as well as Projects Firefighter, Heavy Duty, Health, and Agriculture, the one to two-minute short videos would be used for the school district’s internal marketing for parents and program coordinators. The videos are also published on NVSS’s student YouTube channel VikesForever.
While the school district commissioned for a promotional video on the Junior Initial Attack several years ago, this project allowed the district to capitalize on in-house student skills.
“They take raw footage and add their creative spin on things,“ Carpenter said. “If we didn’t have the quality, they wouldn’t get the bursary.
“We hope to carry on with this next year.”
Going into Grade 12 in September, media arts students Kaleb Haslam and Will Moutray were approached for their ability to work independently and outside of school work.
Though Haslam is not new to video editing, the project allowed him to expand his knowledge of techniques and improve his efficiency.
“The last project was done a lot quicker than the first one,” he said. “I learned tricks to do it faster for the same quality, after so much practice.”
For Moutray, his passion lies in recording footage rather than editing.
The project was also an opportunity for second-hand learning, as he explored careers along with his filming subjects.