Mooloolaba State School's movie stars in Tokyo
20 July 2009
Mooloolaba State School's Danette Flick, Joel Williamson and Mikayla Leslie with KWN judge Jane St Vincent Welch at the awards ceremony in Tokyo.
Mooloolaba State School has confirmed its reputation as a mini-Hollywood on the Sunshine Coast by taking out top honours in a prestigious international filmmaking competition.
Competing against students from more than 600 primary and secondary schools around the world, a group of Mooloolaba State School students were awarded the Kids Witness News (KWN) Global Contest 2009 Global Ecology Award.
Their film, Planet Earth, is a five-minute drama about a team of doctors fighting to save the earth from the effects of global warming.
Judged by a panel of international filmmaking, education and journalism experts, Plant Earth was conceived, scripted, filmed and edited by the students.
Mooloolaba State School Year 7 students Mikayla Leslie and Joel Williamson flew to Tokyo for the awards ceremony, along with teacher and KWN coordinator Danette Flick.
Ms Flick said she was extremely proud of her students for their efforts and hard work.
'The students have demonstrated such high levels of foresight, planning, cooperation and environmental awareness in this project,' she said.
'They came up with the concept of the doctors working to save the planet, wrote the script, designed the sets and props and then filmed and edited it to produce the final movie.
Mooloolaba State School's win in Tokyo followed their success in the KWN national and state awards last year.
Ms Flick said the reason the competition was so successful was that it combined the students' passions with storytelling, drama and technology.
'The level of environmental awareness in students is growing rapidly, and when given the opportunity to express themselves using technology, they jump at the chance,' she said.
'Once the students picked a topic and concept, their enthusiasm was contagious.'
Ms Flick said the students had also learnt a lot about teamwork and cooperation.
'Apart from the enormous confidence boost that comes with being awarded a global prize, the students have also learnt a lot about deadlines, cooperation, delegation and responsibility.'
Ms Flick said it wasn't only the students who benefited from the competition.
'Helping the students undertake this competition and seeing their enthusiasm, dedication and maturity shine was very rewarding for all the teachers involved,' she said.
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