Oak Park students win workplace safety award

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This article was published 20/10/2020 (1839 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Students at Oak Park High School won a short film award for their movie on workplace safety.

The Safetys, an awards gala created by eight Manitoba safety organizations, held a virtual gala on Oct. 7. The ceremony recognizes businesses and individuals who promote workplace health and safety. Normally, the event would be a huge production, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 10 award winners were recognized on social media and The Safetys’s website.

Of the winners, a group of 11 Oak Park students were given the Norm the Safety contest youth award. They were recognized for their video project, titled Workplace Nightmares. The movie helps young Manitoban workers understand their right to a safe workplace.

James McLellan, teacher for the film company class at Oak Park, said many of the students are excited to be a part of it.

“At this point, there are many students who have had siblings in the program in years past. Having seen what we do here, I think they start to look forward to their opportunity to get in on a production themselves,” McLellan said. “We regularly have students working on scripts to shoot through the summer. There is a real big buy-in when you see alumni like Adam Yarish and Joanna Roberts go out and win awards at the Gimli Film Festival and with the Winnipeg Film Group.”

The class shot it from March 12 to March 20, right when schools were shut down due to the pandemic. The production was in full swing when everything shut down, which lead to a lot of last-minute changes and hectic rescheduling. The two leads were Haley Kutz and Milla Richards, who play a GhostBusters-type janitor service who are called in to deal with a dangerous situation.

With schools shut down, the class struggled to finish the movie before they all went home. Mr. Comeau, another teacher at Oak Park, stepped in on the last day of school to play the film’s mean boss.

Through a lot of last minute planning, shooting and editing, the class finished the movie, which was submitted to The Safetys.

The students were shocked that they won the award.

Nicole Lavallée, one of the student directors for the film, said many of her classmates didn’t even know the movie was finished.

“(We were) surprised, a lot of (us) weren’t even sure if the film had been finished, so hearing that we had won was quite the surprise,” Lavallée said. “With (the COVID-19 pandemic), we weren’t even sure if the film had gotten finished or if the competition was still happening.”

Lavallée added that the new health restrictions present some challenges for her classmates, but they’re doing their best to finish their projects. As a whole, the class has shot three films so far in the 2020/21 school year. They’re currently writing a fourth.

As schools shut down, the shooting got more frantic, and there were maybe five students left on set, finishing the movie.

“I think there was a real feeling of surprise.  I mean, every day the cast and crew got smaller. Half of the crew had no idea at the end if it even got finished. On the last day, the 23rd, there were maybe five students left, covered in PPE and staying 6 feet apart trying to get the last shots,” McLellan said.

The film was made by students Jackson Ali, Charlotte Brandao, Connor Fletcher, Tristan Fredrickson, Rudy Kreutzer, Haley Kutz, Nicole Lavallee, Brennan McDonald, Sydney Morris, Milla Richards, and Ryan Wall.

To view the full list of award winners, visit www.thesafetys.ca