Students and Massey technicians behind episode 9 of KickstART which will air in late June. Image credit: Melody Husband.
The 30-minute live show has been produced by students enrolled in a new special topic elective course in TV live production at Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts (CoCA). It was filmed at Massey’s multi camera broadcast studios, inside the historic former Dominion Museum building on the Wellington campus.
The 47 CoCA students enrolled in the Semester 2 course were responsible for the entire project from naming the show, developing the content and show identity, booking the guests and presenting the weekly live production.
KickstART aims to shine a spotlight on local creative talent including authors, filmmakers and emerging musicians. Featured guests have included writers Dame Fiona Kidman and Mandy Hager, actor and comedian Karen O’Leary and film maker and author Duncan Sarkies.
The show goes out every week on Sky Channel 83 until mid-July and is available anytime via Channel 83’s YouTube and Facebook pages. The entire KickstART series has also just been picked up by internet music and lifestyle TV platform Mood.
Filmmaker and Screen Arts Senior Lecturer Gwen Isaac rostered students in different roles throughout the series to enable them to experience every aspect of multi-camera live student production, from scripting, directing, sound and camera.
“It was ambitious to task these students with ten shows across the semester, but they responded well to the challenges and the pressures of live recording. It’s been a huge team effort, and it’s so wonderful they have a real world client and audience through the opportunity given to them by Channel 83.”
Bachelor of Screen Arts (BSA) student Zach Allen says before KickstART he didn’t appreciate that even a small TV show requires a large crew, as well as the resilience required under the pressure of live recording. He’s hopeful another student cohort will have the opportunity to create a completely new television series next year.
“I’m really happy that we’ve pulled this off and made a show. I think it’s a great example of how Massey produces people that work in the industry, while others produce critics.”
Students Zoe Badland, Zach Allen and Adam Gregory on set during their turn at presenting episode 9 of KickstART.
Third-year BSA student Nina Buscke not only contributed to the set production, she took a special interest in sound production. The opportunity to experience all these roles across a semester uncovered a completely new passion for Nina.
“I discovered sound mixing is my favourite. I did it once and thought, that’s for me, now I’m in this room every chance I get."
Fellow student Yolanda Kirschbaum says having a completely new role to learn every week and then execute under live TV conditions, has honed her ability to work under pressure.
“It’s taught me incredibly valuable skills in learning to be calm in stressful situations and think my actions through, and that the stakes are never as high as they seem! I think that this is an extremely applicable skill that would absolutely transfer to the kinds of career I want to pursue in screen arts.”
Bachelor of Screen Arts student Nina Buscke operating the cameras during episode 9 of KickstART.
Programme Director Sky Channel 83 Ian Rawkins approached Massey about playing the series to support the education and training of the next generation of television talent.
“What better way to help than give the students an end goal to work towards. They get to see themselves and their hard work on screen, and it’s really impressive.”
He says KickstART is a key part of the Friday night programming lineup on Channel 83 and has been such a success that it will be repeated, and rolled out to other media outlets this year.
The final three episodes in the 10-week series are playing over the next three Fridays at 10.30pm on Sky’s Face TV (Channel 83), YouTube and Facebook Live.
Watch KickstART episodes on YouTube:
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