Ben Gallagher - The Arts Learning Area Leader
Arts Spot
12 October 2023

Drama Performance Exams

Term 4 has started off with a bang in the Arts at Sacred Heart. This year performance exams were held at the start of term which featured music and drama students, all presenting work to be assessed by external examiners. The Year 12 Music class is attending a range of venues over the next few weeks, with exams in voice, guitar, and drums.

The Year 12 Drama class travelled to Bendigo on the first day of term, for their Drama Exam. As part of this, the students presented a seven minute ‘solo performance’ which they had researched, written and devised over the last four months. It’s a stressful experience, creating and presenting your own work and the students did a fantastic job.

Huge thanks to Ms Haley Galloway and pre-service teacher, Ms Neneh Hutson, who came on the day and supported the students with last-minute rehearsals and feedback. The Year 12 Media Film Festival was also on last week in the Mary Moloney Theatre at Sacred Heart, where students presented their Year 12 Media School Assessed Task, a short film that the students had written, directed and filmed, which was the result of nearly six months work.

Media Film Festival

It was a packed house last week for the Year 12 Media Film Festival, as family, friends and actors all came to congratulate the students on their fantastic work.

Below are some comments from members of the class about the process they went through to create their film:

"Having to film a video throughout Year 12 for Media was a difficult and scary proposition to begin with, but the class was so engaging and comforting, it really helped in the process of creating the films. It’s interesting to look back at the end of it and see everyone’s personality and interests come through in their own films, too." Kiera Jacks

"It was a challenge to find the time to constantly adapt and work on my film with the workload. But I thoroughly enjoyed creating  a creative piece of work and my final product was something I was very proud of." Dana Murray

"A challenge for me was filming and acting in my film at the same time, as it restricted the camera movements that I was able to do. With the support of my family and classmates, I was able to get help with shooting and produce a film that I am really proud of and allowed me to creatively express myself." Amelia MacDonald

"The biggest excitement of the year in Media was being able to talk to and get feedback from a class of all different creative minds. I always felt the class was pushing me to improve and create new things. I struggled with the editing process, so it was amazing to get new ideas from all the people around me and ultimately learn how to express my ideas in a project I am proud of." Charlotte Godsmark

"The production of my media product was a consuming process that was rewarding. It was a difficult process to go through, due to the learning process undertaken on the way, but the enjoyment of seeing my vision come together from a script to final visuals made the experience feel so amazing." Noah Morris

"I enjoyed the overall production and filming process of my film, as I was able to get ‘out and about’ in a field that I have a lot of interest in. I loved hearing the day to day life of what it is like working in the conservation industry around Barwon Heads. A struggle I encountered, throughout the filming, was large restrictions on what I was able to film, I had to cut out multiple shots including Drone shots, aerial shots and mounted moving shots." Taylor Cole


VCE Art Exhibition

Finally, this week we launch the Sacred Heart VCE Art Exhibition at the Kyneton Auction House.

The 2023 Exhibition, ‘Art From the Edge’, features a range of student works from Year 11 and 12 Art: Creative Practice and Year 11 and 12 Visual Communication and Design.

Students in Art and VCD studied the role of artists and designers in society and developed their individual ‘art practice’ and design skills, communicating ideas using a range of techniques and ultimately developing a folio of works, many of which are in this exhibition.

We’ve called our exhibition ‘Art From the Edge’, as artists and designers often sit at the edge of society, but we rely on them to speak truth about the way our society works, and in the process, hold up a mirror to ourselves.

It’s really been a privilege to see what our talented students can create, so we encourage everyone to come and see their

amazing work at the exhibition, which runs for three weeks.

Huge thanks to Dr Lynda McCord, Ms Kirsten Gibson and Mrs Anne Berend for their amazing efforts, to get our students to this stage!