Digital Technology Students Showcase their talents at St. Mary Film Fest

St. Mary held its annual Film Fest, this year titled Superimposition, at Landmark Cinema on Monday, May 1^st. Mr. Joel Pisani, Business Curriculum Chair is also a media arts and communications technology teacher at St. Mary and diligently works with students to harness their talents in this field.

As guests took their seats almost 200 pieces of digital artwork were on display highlighting design projects, ranging from digital photography, graphic design, and projects using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Over 53 student features were showcased on the big screen providing grade 11 and 12 students an opportunity to present their media arts and communications technology works to their peers, families and DCDSB staff in attendance at the sold out event. 

Mr. Pisani, supported by Ms. Lisa Puccia (St. Mary Arts Curriculum Chair) edited the main film features from 4+ hours of content to over 2 hours running time. The film fest featured original student film work including commercials, movie trailers, animations, documentaries, stop motion videos, music videos and student short films. Many of the short films reflected a cross-curricular approach to film-making being inspired by works of Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe.

“Media arts was amazing, safe space with lots of creativity in the air” – Katarina, grade 12 student

“Media arts is a course I never thought I’d get the opportunity to experience. Taking this course was really the deciding factor when it came to my own future and what I wanted to do after high school. This course allows me to express concepts and ideas through art and gives me the confidence tin sharing those ideas. – Erich, grade 12 student

“In my media arts class, we did a variety of projects, from creating digital arts like designing posters by using adobe illustrator and photoshop, to making film and photo based projects, like short films, photography. Thanks to our teacher, Mr. Pisani, we had access to the best equipment to help us achieve our projects to the best of our abilities. Before entering this class is grade 11, I didn’t know much about filming, photography, or graphic designing. But now I find that this course has helped me find the career path I want to pursue. It has helped me grow my teamwork skills as well. Many of our projects included working with a group and building off of each other’s ideas. The individual projects also helped me make things from scratch and build my own style of art. Our creativity was far from limited” – Linda, grade 12 student