Ocea

Sep 5, 2023

Copy ROLLING out the red carpet, Macquarie College students will get to be movie stars with the screening premier of their very own film, for one night only at Glendale's Event Cinemas. After nine months of creating, filming and editing, over 150 students from year 8 to year 12 will feature in a jukebox style musical called Clash of the Cover Bands. The 85 minute story line features 12 well-known songs that the audience can sing along to and follows three bands, in a similar vein to X Factor or Australian Idol, all battling it out for first prize to go to America and win a global competition. Macquarie College year 10 students Chenyu Yan, Caitlin Russell and Ocea Morrow play characters in the bands and say it has been quite the experience of learning lines and recording songs. "Writing the whole script and producing the songs has been really great," Caitlin said. Year 10 Macquarie College students Chenyu Yan, Caitlin Russell and Ocea Morrow are excited to see themselves on the big screen. Picture by Marina Neil "It's been super fun to be able to come to school and do this with my friends," Ocea said. "It's been a lot of fun reading through scripts, memorising lines and organising costumes and props," Chenyu said. With the help of ex student Elliot Swift behind the camera and Macquarie College creative performing arts leader Andrew Scully, the girls said on behalf of all involved, they were grateful and excited to see the polished product. "They've been amazing," Caitlin said. A number of local venues around Newcastle including Triple M studios, Lizotte's and the Civic Playhouse were used as filming locations for the movie. "It helps detail the different journeys that all the different bands went through because you can't have a good reality television show without a journey," Mr Scully said. Year 10 Macquarie College students Chenyu Yan, Caitlin Russell and Ocea Morrow are excited to see themselves on the big screen. Picture by Marina Neil He said the production has been "a real Macquarie College effort". "Everybody involved is either a current student, a teacher or alumni and it's been a really good thing to be able to bring back students to help us out with a few bits and pieces," he said. He said the great thing about producing a feature film over a typical school play was that mistakes could be ironed out and the students could watch themselves back. "All the mistakes get ironed out and deleted before we actually show it so on the night so it'll be fantastic to get a really polished production come out," he said. Caitlin said it was a benefit not having to remember all of the lines like you would in a live performance, because they could do extra takes. "There's definitely more freedom and you feel more comfortable not having an audience in front of you," Chenyu added. Ocea said it felt surreal to be seeing her face on the big cinema screen. "It feels so weird and we also have posters all around the school with our faces on it. I've had people come up to me and say they've seen my face," she said. Mr Scully said he was proud of the students who were involved in the film and gave up many hours of their own time. "Whether it be learning lines, shooting or the production side, a lot of that stuff happens outside of school hours. I'm so proud of this production and it's one of the best things Macquarie has ever done," he said. Clash of the Cover Bands will screen at Glendale's Event Cinema at 7pm on September 6. Tickets are selling fast with some still available for purchase only through Eventbrite.com.au . IN THE NEWS: