A high school teacher in Nanaimo hopes people hear his call for donations of sound and video recording equipment.
Nanaimo District Secondary School’s film, film production and sound and recording courses nurture student creativity and allow pupils to explore post-secondary and employment opportunities, and classes are popular, says teacher Nick Janzen.
Used, but modern, equipment is needed, he said. Money has been provided from the school’s parent advisory council, the school and the school district, but equipment has proved difficult to obtain and expensive. NDSS needs DSLR or mirrorless cameras, Canon lenses, tripods, mics, audio equipment, electric guitars, amps, pedals and other instruments.
“With the film program, we’re building a sound and recording program to support students who are interested in entering the audio engineering or music production field…” said Janzen. “[It] expands the opportunities our students have and lets them explore opportunities they might not have at home.”
Students work on cinematography, sound design, production design, script writing and music production. Janzen said while core subjects are important, so are electives, and they can be a reason why students are movivated to come to school.
“Whether it’s automotive, metalwork, cooking, sewing … they can find something that they have a strength in that they did not know they had a strength in or connect with peers where they have that in common that they wouldn’t necessarily get to interact with otherwise during their day,” the teacher said.
There are many employment opportunities, especially for people with a broad range of skills, he added.
“That’s what we offer in our program is exposure to all the different roles on our production team so students can find, ‘this is the niche for me, I’m an audio engineer, or I am a director,’ and they get to try out those things,” he said.
Outdated equipment is not wanted, according to Janzen, as modern equipment will enable students to be better situated for post-secondary and employment.
“This might be a good opportunity for people who are currently using film equipment, and they’re upgrading their film equipment … make a charitable donation for a tax writeoff,” he said.
For more information, e-mail nick.janzen@sd68.bc.ca.
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