“It was so rewarding to watch the students’ confidence grow and see how they began to problem solve during the process.  It's certainly no easy task to make a film from scratch and to see the students' faces at the community showing and hear the reaction from the audience was just fantastic.  They'd come so far".   Online Dreaming role-model, Ceduna.

Online Dreaming is aimed at 13-16 year olds and gives them an opportunity to explore their creativity in multimedia.  The program focuses on film-making with the young people taking part creating their own films from concept idea, to storyboard, to filming and production. Our film-director role-models work with multiple groups of up to five to coach and teach the finer points of how a film is made and our mentors, recruited from the local community, work closely with each group to develop life skills as part of the process.  The films produced are on the theme of 'where we live' and have ranged from documentary to comedy to even thrillers!

The young people taking part are either at risk of being, or are already disengaged from school and film-making is a perfect vehicle to re-engage creative young people and get them enthusiastic about setting goals and achieving them.  Run in tandem with the normal school calendar, the program also introduces numeracy and literacy skills as well as life skills such as working in a team, communication, leadership and problem solving.

The end result is something the young people can rightly feel proud of and the final films are shown  as a special  "Film Premier Evening" which is a real community event with local organisations and community representatives being involved in the organisation and event delivery.

Outcomes of the program are not just about skills learned, but also the real sense of achievement the young people feel at completing such a challenging project.  Often disengagement from school is as a result of the young people feeling unable to cope and low self-esteem or self-confidence.  The film premier evening proves to them that almost anything is possible and gives them the confidence to re-join their school community.

Online Dreaming programs are currently running across South Australia and in Coonamble NSW and Perth.

Enjoy a taster of the films produced by Online Dreaming participants, Ceduna and Coober Pedy Area Schools.

Mystery Beach - Comedy Disaster... Phil is in danger, but help from the 'professionals' is on the way.
Koonibba Netball - Documentary... the netball team is an important part of the community, past and present.
The Two Headed Dog - Supernatural thriller... myth has it that a two headed dog is roaming the streets.
Survivor 101 - Game Show... who will win the coveted prize of a spoon?!