Sydney Youth Challenge 2011

Participant Evaluations

Sydney Participants - July 29 2011
Sydney Participants - August 26 2010 Graph

The second in the 2011 series of NOTHING BEATS THE REAL THING! Copyright and Creativity youth challenges was staged at the Fox studios in Sydney.

130 students from twelve schools had a great day out - participating in this interactive program which challenged students to think about the sort of society they want to live in and to understand the implications of Screen Piracy upon that society. While most students (and teachers!) had at some time been 'pirates' themselves, they realised that there were considerable implications to their actions, and all agreed that it was a fair and proper civics and citizenship strategy to 'just say NO.'

The 'mystery guests' who spoke about their film industry experiences to the students and teachers on the day were Adam Blaiklock and Paul Friedmann, both of the Sydney Flying Fish team. They explored the many aspects involved in getting a film to the screen, and the damage piracy can do to proposed further projects.

A great surprise experience was a tour of the stage lot where one of the houses for The Great Gatsby was being prepared - Nick's cottage. The students enjoyed seeing the house being built, but were disappointed that Leonardo Di Caprio was not one of the stage hands!

The day concluded with students role-playing their strategies to address the moral dilemma of screen piracy. The role-plays were fantastic and showed students clearly understood the ramifications of Screen Piracy and need for innovative strategies to change behavior.