The premise for the year 12 vocational media day was "What does the Transporter Bridge mean to you?" The finished short documentaries were completed with sole lead from Mr Mckeown and Mr Wilson-Stonestreet.
The premise for the year 12 vocational media day was "What does the Transporter Bridge mean to you?" The finished short documentaries were completed with sole lead from Mr Mckeown and Mr Wilson-Stonestreet.
On the day ten Key Stage 5 students filmed on and around the location of the bridge, recording the thoughts and opinions of members of the public, and taking care to implement previous lessons on storyboarding as well as the codes and conventions of documentaries. This particular group were currently being taught the documentary module of their As media studies, which meant that the technical and practical aspects of the day put flesh to the bones of the concepts and theories their were studying.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Students decided to take shots from different view points of the bridge in order to accentuate the exploration of the multiple perspectives they were likely to encounter within their interviews with the general public. Moreover, they intended to show the bridge from unique perspectives as they themselves were exploring what the bridge meant to them, as previously it was felt that the bridge did not hold great meaning for them personally. All students were conscious that just by filming their short documentaries the meaning of the bridge would be re-represented and expanded upon.
Once filming was completed the students were able to access the media suite at Macmillan Academy and with careful guidance and learning support from Mr Mckeown, these students were able to utilise the professional editing software of Avid to amalgamate their vox pops and shots of the day.
The end results are impressive and clearly show the benefits of a vocational day as well as the technology available to Macmillan students. Thanks to the access we were granted on the day of filming, most students were able to absorb the history of the bridge as well as eliciting a glimpse of the ingenuity and workmanship that the North East produced during its industrial hay day. Regardless of what the bridge meant to these students at the beginning of this task by the end I have no doubt that most will look at the bridge not just with new eyes, but with renewed pride.