Newman, Western Australia. Yeah, I’d never heard of it before either. A mining town of 4000 people, founded in the 60s and surrounded by the arid plains of the Pilbara. In July, CuriousWorks spent 2 weeks working with a group of local young people to develop their New Media skills and give them a chance to represent themselves and their town to a global audience.
CuriousWorks were brought to Newman by Country Arts WA as part of the BHP Billiton Iron Ore – Legacy Project. The New Media Workshops were tailored to the interests of the group of young people who attended, and from this two main focus points were developed.
One was the creation of a Newman Community website! Developed by Lee Bell, 20, the website is created to be a hub for the local community to address local issues, inform young people and old, increade awareness of activities, promote local businesses, etc. If you haven’t already checked it out, go there now! Its here: http://newman.allaroundyou.com.au/ This is Lee’s first website and will be developed considerably over the next few months.
Lee working hard, designing the website. Paper first, content is king!
The other focus of the workshops was training up a group of young people to become a filmmaking team! With Peta Lee at the helm, and strong creative input from Izac Armstrong, Anthony Jenssen and other young committed Newmanites, this small group of 10-15 year olds became a formidable production team! The first week was spent creating short pieces and learning the ropes (camera, sound, editing) while the second week focussed on creating larger works. Most notable of these is The Cave Crew, the first episode in a series which takes place in Newman. Watch it!
Find more videos like this on All Around You
The day to day workshops were documented by Lee and the young people and can be checked out here (http://newmanmedia.allaroundyou.com.au/), on yet another site created by Lee.
To see the other video works created by the crew, go here!
CuriousWorks will be returning to Newman in September & October to work with more folks from the area and to ensure that the young people’s skills are at a point where they can create their own videos and websites well into the future! See y’all then.
Newman's film production team with Shakthi & Elias from CuriousWorks. On the "set" of the Cave Crew