Dolphin’s First Night at the Oscars

On Friday 13^th May 2011, we hosted our very first Dolphin Oscars, complete with red carpet, golden balloons and Oscar statuettes. Young film-makers from Year 7 had made their debut documentaries on an aspect of Dolphin School. And Friday evening was the night for the screening of their documentaries followed by a special award ceremony.

Over the past few weeks, the students had explored the idea of the documentary, watched a variety of documentaries, including the very early Mitchell and Kenyon films dating from 1902, selected a subject for their own documentaries, drawn storyboards, filmed and edited them. It was a very demanding project for all involved and the students themselves say that they now have huge respect for individuals working in the film industry!

There were six documentaries altogether exploring the following subjects: the Nursery, drama, sport and the house system. Along the way whole documentaries were lost and had to be completely re-filmed, memory sticks did not do what they should, credits disappeared suddenly and the school alarm was set off inadvertently one night whilst searching desperately for a missing disk! It was a steep learning curve. But we made it and hit the deadline of Friday 13^th - perhaps Judy will select a different date next year! And the movies received their world premiere in front of family, friends, staff and the local press.

Matt Allwright kindly agreed to judge the final documentaries and present the awards on the night. Before presenting the awards he told the students how impressed with their efforts he was, especially when considering the limited resources they had, especially the tiny flip cameras! But of course, Matt continued, there are probably even times when George Lucas puts his hand on his chin and wishes he’d done things differently so he shared some top tips for next time.

1. Consider who your audience is and tell them something new about the subject

2. Approach the subject in a way that makes it exciting and fresh

3. Work out what your story might be, and then hope you might be wrong – avoid the predictable

4. Don’t get too bogged down by the technology

5. Enjoy it!

The climax of the evening was when the Dolphin Oscars were awarded to the following film-makers and their documentaries:

Best Soundtrack - First Years at Dolphin -Aiyana, Natalya, Alisha & Olivia

Best Use of Graphics – It’s all about Nursery - Leo, Charlie & Will

Best Presentational Style – A Day in the Life of Nursery – Joe, Henry & Marcus

Best Interview - To Be or not to Be? - Luca, Tom, Joe & Kieran

Best opening sequence - The Dolphin Houses - Cara, Clare & Camille

Best Action Sequence - Sport at Dolphin - Hal, Louis & Max

Speeches of thanks were given by the winners as they hugged their Oscars and were photographed by the Press. Well done, Year 7 (and their teachers), who knows maybe next time you will be accepting an Oscar in Hollywood?

Judy Seall

To view photos of the Oscars, log in to the Image Gallery.

Click here to view the videos themselves.