Isaac is a “Special community volunteer”. His mother approached us early on to have Isaac volunteer at Mediazone. After University consent Isaac joined the Mediazone team for the production of Graduation week. His contribution was invaluable. At the age of 15 he is on a tremendous learning curve that shows no sign of slowing down, much less going anywhere but up! It was our pleasure to have him as part of the team & encourage his efforts!
From Isaac‘s mother: This experience at the UNI helps him in a few ways:
It helps him to grow as a personality, interact with others…since he is the only child, this is important to me as a mom.
Helps him mature and learn responsibilities…he has always known what hard work is because of our situation, so he isn’t afraid to work hard! A quality, I think, found in too few young ones today!
The African proverb that says ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ is something I truly believe, and as his mom, i still have some say in who is in the village!
Cameras, lighting and sound… I have been watching him do all that stuff at our house for a few years now, so yeah, it’s totally awesome for him to play with the big boys with the expensive toys! Thanks for all you do at Mediazone and allowing us this experience.
Sincerely,
Sarah
Graduation week – through the eyes of Isaac, 15 year old community volunteer
DATE: Graduation Week / Monday, 25 June 2012 – Friday, 29 June 2012
NOTES: Highlights from my 5day activity log
My experience at the Mediazone was very exciting! Throughout the week I was working as Production Assistant, Floor Manager, Technician, Shadow and gofer! If someone needed cables tidying up, I was the man for the job. I gaffer taped the gaffer tape to my jeans for convenience if anyone needed it!
On the “Big Day” I would have to say everyone felt stressed, but excited at the same time, I know I was! This event was to be broadcasted live on the internet. Many TV stations also appeared. A photographer who kept getting in our way also arrived…
Rehearsals went well, almost everything was moving like clockwork, except for some students who were being clever and driving John crazy… The students weren’t walking straight on the red carpet and nobody was smiling…
Moments to remember:
I had a nice chat with John and Andreas – one of the camera men- about cameras and computers etc. I really enjoyed that. I learned about all new professional equipment I had never heard of before -which made my equipment checklist about a hundred times more expensive!
It was funny during the ceremony with the various patches of the audience cheering for different students -even air horns were going off! The infamous hat-throw got everyone standing and cheering! We waited for a few minutes before finally getting into the audience and getting ‘shots’ of students and parents hugging and kissing etc. I was ‘shadowing’ one of the camera men. The name is self-explanatory. I was following him to make sure everything was going OK. I would direct him to a potential shot that he could get. For instance someone was running to hug someone, so I said “Quick look over there!” And he turned around and got a great shot or someone hugging one of the students. This happened many times with various situations. After a while of doing that we decided we had enough footage, well the cameras memory decided that for us, but it was a success!
Thank you:
I very much appreciate everything J.I, E. S and the rest of the crew did for me.
I can’t wait to go again next year as I left with a smile on my face may I add 🙂
Thanks.
-Isaac K.
Isaac Katekkou, Sarah S., J.I. , L.P.
