Two Okotoks students are headed to Skills Canada nationals.
Foothills Composite High School students Christofer Kapiniak and Hogan Holditch took silver at the Skills Canada Alberta competition when they collaborated to create a short film on a topic given to them on the day of the competition.
“It felt really good, I felt like my art is being seen now by the school,” Kapiniak said.
“It means a lot because it shows we put a lot of effort into making this video the best we possibly could, using the opportunity we had to show something that was technically hard and also emotionally draining on us.”
The topic for their video was “Something is lost, why is it important?”
“We kind of took the approach that we lost the ability to communicate with a typical high school experience,” Holditch said.
“We kind of did that through using the idea of how phones have taken a big part of our life.”
As Holditch stands at the cusp of graduating, the award was a culmination in years of learning in the New Media and Video Game Design and Development program at the Composite.
“I’ve been in this program since Grade 10, it was always the place to be in the school, everyone wanted to be here and we’ve always had good representation at Skills Canada, Alberta and Nationals,” Holditch said.
“So being able to represent the school and the program in that way, I believe more people are going to be recognized, hopefully the program gets more funding and continues to grow in the future.”
A crucial part of that program was instruction by their teacher, Benjamin Stevens, who aside from teaching credentials had a long track record of commercial media production.
Kapiniak came into the program following in the footsteps of his older sister, Chantel, and said he benefited from Stevens’ instruction and honest constructive criticism.
“He really gave a lot of freedom to his students, not just the freedom to create, but he also makes sure he criticizes you on the parts you could do better,” Kapiniak said.
“He's criticized us to the point where we can actually see flaws in our own videos and come out knowing what makes a video good, how to frame shots and how to use equipment properly.”
That freedom also comes with the responsibilities.
“He's really taught us how to care for the equipment and care for the room specifically, since it is a student-led program,” Kapiniak added.
Their teacher was proud the students had met his high expectations.
“We get good students here, that’s what it comes down to: motivated kids who are interested in learning,” Stevens said. “We have a well-equipped media lab here, that helps us facilitate the excellence and passions that the kids are bringing.
“With that we’re able to drive them forward, and with teachers who have experience in industry, we can help nudge them into the real world skills that will be useful once they graduate and maybe give them an edge.”
Kapiniak has his sights set on video game design.
“Game design has been that hard setting path because I find it super challenging, and it’s kind of a different way of learning,” said Kapiniak.
Holditch hopes to become a network engineer, already obtaining CompTIA Network+ certification, a staple of the information technology industry.
Also claiming bronze medals were Brett Harrison for carpentry, Justin Watkins for joinery and James Jewer for electronics — the latter being a newer category for Skills Canada.
The Skills Canada National Competition takes place May 24 to 28 and more information can be found at skillsalberta.com.
