Sharon Hao/Staff reporter
The film club teaches students how to create films from start to finish, as well as capturing significant school events. The student leaders are currently Evan Owens, grade 12, and Nate Lawrie, grade 11. The staff sponsors are David Gilbar, Digital literacy and Technology teacher, and Adam Hayes, Social studies and Leadership teacher. Gilbar is the main staff sponsor, while Hayes helps out where there are leadership events.
The club does not have scheduled meetings but has training sessions take place in room 224 to “help people get situated and used to the equipment,” stated Lawrie. The film club is largely outside the timetable and uses that in class time to show people how to use the equipment to have more time at big events where things can be more stressful. So far, they had two training sessions, which is usually to film or edit events.
The film crew has done various things this year, such as live-streaming the fall concert for the music department, filming the drama showcases, and filming and editing the Remembrance Day video. They are planning to film all the drama showcases and musical theatre stuff, the concerts throughout the year, as well as for leadership.
The club started in 2021 and was founded by Yu-Xing Lim and Abigail Lim, both Gleneagle alumni, with “The goal of making events available to the public” as there were no in person audiences due to covid. That year, they started off by filming the musical with two casts, and it was edited and got out to the people in musical theatre then to a website.
Things started to open up last year, and lots of concerts were being live-streamed and filmed such as the jazz gala, the winter concert, and also a TEDx event. It was a ConX leadership event that was filmed with different camera angles and edited in specific ways so it could be classified as a TEDx video and was posted to the TEDx youtube channel.
This year is quite different as there are in-person audiences available, but there are still similarities from last year as they are still filming the same things, such as the concerts and drama showcases. Ed Trovato, Music teacher, likes what the club is doing as there are people that are hours away or cannot come to the school to watch the concert and musical theaters, so “It’s a good way for us to show what our school can do and what our school is doing to those who can’t actually get here.” said Lawrie.
Owens joined the club when he was in grade 10. He saw a poster about the club and chose to sign up right when the club was founded. Last year, Owens started taking the leadership role but the club was still run by Yu-Xing and Abigail. Lawrie also joined from seeing the poster when he was in grade 9, and will still “Try to find people to keep it going once I’m gone.” said Lawrie.
“I think it’s a really great way to make the school events accessible, even though it’s shifted since that we don’t have covid regulations anymore , but it’s really important to have a recorded record of all the events around the school for the future years to look at.” said Owens. “I’m glad we’re doing what we do, and I hope once [Lawrie and Owens] graduate in the next few years, the club continues running.