Respect through celluloid

Two groups of filmmakers from Killara High School have won prizes in the final of the Future Visions 4x5 Young Filmmakers Competition.

Kevin Jochelson and Paul Griffin's film won Best Original Music.

Kevin Jochelson and Paul Griffin's film "Volunteers: Champions, Legends, Heroes" won Best Original Music. Jony Rubenstein and Andrew Stenos' film "Volunteer Now or Never" was Highly Commended and won Best Special Effects.

Their brief: to make a four minute film capturing the work and spirit of their local heroes.

Community stereotypes would suggest most teenagers would turn their noses up at such a blatant display of community goodwill as volunteering but Rubenstein says, "I appreciate people who do volunteering."

Jochelson agrees, "I've done a little bit of volunteering here and there and I'm sure Paul has..." Griffin looks blank for a moment and then says, "Oh, I used to hand out newspapers to old people."

The project is an initiative of the Centre for Volunteering and supported by the NSW Department of Education and Training.

Jochelson and Griffin's film "Volunteers: Champions, Legends, Heroes" focuses on the work of Monika Biemacki who runs a dog rescue service. When trying to come up with a subject Jochelson remembered a segment from A Current Affair. "When I went on the web to try and find her contact details I found out the story was on three years ago. So I thought, 'Well if what she's doing has stayed with me that long, then obviously it means a lot.'"

Jochelson and Griffin had made only two films prior to their entry for Future Visions. Their year 8 English teacher's suggestion they enter a comedy short film competition for high school students was the beginning of what has become a successful filmmaking partnership.

Jochelson and Griffin won Best Film for their entry in the Funny Bones 500 competition. "Now our teacher keeps asking if we're going to enter stuff. But this was our first non-comedy kind of film. It was a whole new trial and error type thing," says Jochelson.

While Killara High School offers no film-specific subjects or clubs, the boys say a group of like-minded film buffs has formed. Many of the skills Jochelson drew upon in his film were learnt at school in multimedia class. "That's where I made the music and animations and I'm allowed to do that work in class."

Rubenstein takes the same multimedia class. Rubenstein and Stenos' film "Volunteer: Now or Never" uses the Star Wars construct of the light saber to illustrate the mental battle of one individual's desire to do good through volunteering and more selfish inclinations. It's an impressive special effect which Rubenstein spent 10 hours on the internet learning to perfect. "Mr Mathews [the multimedia teacher] doesn't tell you how to do anything but he gives you lots of free time and motivation. He gets us all the equipment and then just lets us go for it." In light of Rubenstein and Stenos' prize, clearly it's a successful teaching technique.

The Future Visions project challenged both Killara groups and presented them with obstacles all aspiring filmmakers come up against. Jochelson and Griffin encountered major sound problems. "It was a big problem. Paul was being an optimist when he told me "the picture's a bit pixelated and her [Monika's] voice beeps a bit'. He played it through to me and I just couldn't listen to it so we had to narrate the whole film ourselves", says Jochelson.

As for a career in filmmaking Jochelson says, "We're getting more interested in it and it's kind of going that way. We're kind of come-what-may with it really." Rubenstein is more set on a career in film. "It's definitely something I want to pursue."

The finalists’ films will feature in TV specials to be aired on SBS in coming months. You can watch them at www.futurevisions4x5.com.au.