Bohol Study Tour

WIL stories: Bohol Island study tour | RMIT University

(Transcript with notations)

VISUAL: WIL stories: Bohol Island study tour. This study tour took place in the Philippines in February 2015. The Media and Communication students were focused on contributing to local community development by producing video and photographs.

VISUAL: Tell us about the Bohol study tour.

VISUAL: Master of Media program manager Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: The one that we ran at the start of the year was to Bohol, which is an island in the Philippines...

VISUAL: Video by Georgie Davies shows a beach on Bohol Island, dancers on a lawn twirling umbrellas.

Jenny Weight: ... where we worked with a variety of clients to make projects that they needed to be made.

VISUAL: a small boat being lifted from the water onto the beach.  Video by Matthew Masyuko shows a pristine beach with small boats, view of a mountain range, a river with house boats, a church.

Jenny Weight: ...The students that went to the Philippines worked on video documentary projects and photography...

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: ...so it really is a negotiation between me as the executive producer if you like and the client bearing in mind the skills and interests of the students and making that fit in terms of a range of project work.

VISUAL: What are the benefits of this study tour?

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: Our reasons for thinking they’re great clients is that they’ve got great stories to tell, they’ve got strong VISUAL material because we do so much video but they’re also worthy.

VISUAL: video by Matthew Masyuko young girls and boys practicing for a choir, video by Louis Bergemann, night dance performance.

Jenny Weight: ... That’s the sort of opportunity we try to find. It’s a win win situation. For the client they’re usually too poor to pay for professional media production and for our students...

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: ... they get a real world professional experience they can put on their CV.

VISUAL: Why are study tours like this important?

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: I think a lot of us feel that we’ve got to find high profile destinations and maybe big business partners.

VISUAL: video by Matthew Masyuko roof of church damaged by typhoon, kids at a community learning centre, aerial shot of buildings demolished by typhoon.

Jenny Weight: ... but high profile destinations like New York and big businesses like CNN - they don’t need us. Communities often do not have the resources to pay for professional work but they have a lot of good stories to tell and they have a lot of need to get their message out there.

VISUAL: video by Georgie Davies, three people on a small boat on the ocean, young men playing basketball in a field, young boy rolling a tyre along a road, 2 school girls walking in a park, close up of Bohol island woman smiling, video by Matthew Masyuko, footage of choir singing, 

Jenny Weight: ... From our perspective the students work on professional projects that wouldn’t otherwise get made and I think it’s really easy to convince students that these are valuable projects.

VISUAL: How did this experience build career-readiness?

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: Our students are in situations...

VISUAL: video by Georgie Davies, RMIT students on site on Bohol island with a guide, students on a boat filming, local woman in a courtyard, children smiling, local man climbing a palm tree.

Jenny Weight: ... where they haven’t got everything that they’re used to. They’re possibly working in situations where they’re really uncomfortable...

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight:... so they have to be really adaptable and they have to be really flexible.

VISUAL: video by Georgie Davies, students swimming in the ocean, local farmer ploughing a field, local cutting a coconut, Bohol students looking a mobile devices and taking a ‘selfie’, RMIT student with local children.

Jenny Weight:... Another thing that they learn are skills in cross cultural communication. Usually our students are not from the same cultural background as our clients and they have to learn to communicate respectfully with our clients. These are really important skills for todays’ employees.

VISUAL: How has this experience changed the way you run WIL?

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: We’re not a long way into having done this for many years or anything like that

VISUAL: video by Georgie Davies, Bohol Island fishing boat and fisherman pulling up net, the ocean looking towards the sunset, RMIT students and Jenny Weight on a boat.

Jenny Weight: ...but we’ve now got a sense of what the workload is and what the planning is for it, what’s involved in running them.

VISUAL: Jenny Weight speaking to the camera.

Jenny Weight: From my perspective the Philippines experience is an extremely valuable learning experience for our students and that’s why I’m pushing ahead with less mainstream destinations.

VISUAL: RMIT students with Bohol Island children waving to the camera, fade to black.

VISUAL: RMIT University logo and website www.rmit.edu.au. This video features the song “Acoustic Breeze” by Ben Sound, available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.  

End of video

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