1:30min
Children at Carlton Gardens Primary School in Melbourne star in a short video for the web as part of Optometry Australia’s Children’s Vision Campaign.
The promotional video aims to bring to life the reality that children can feel excluded from day-to-day activities due to vision issues, which are often undetected. It highlights the importance of good vision and the need for children to have their eye sight assessed by an optometrist.
Sixteen children from grades five and six and one child actor participated in the shoot on the last day of term, 27 June.
Filmmaker, writer and director Frank Piripitsi from Peter Frank Creative said the professional video took a full day to shoot.
‘We shot on location with a full 12-person crew, including two cameramen, a producer, sound and lighting, and production crew. We filmed in the classroom and in the hallways, with the kids and with an actor in the role of teacher.
‘The kids were very co-operative in their “job” of playing hangman with the teacher standing at the blackboard as they called out letters,’ Mr Piripitsi said.
Carlton Gardens Primary School principal Tina McDougall said the school had been involved in other media projects, including filming a commercial for the Transport Accident Commission.
‘If Optometry Australia’s promotional video helps create some awareness about eye health, all the better,’ she said.
Optometry Australia campaigns manager Trinity Scarf said the video represented a fresh direction for the organisation to raise awareness of eye health.
‘The video has been designed to appeal to a wide section of the community, via its simple message that children can miss out if they have a vision problem.
‘We will focus on distributing it widely online, and aim to encourage sharing of the content among our members and the public.’
The video will soon be available on the Optometry Australia website and social media platforms.
As part of the Children’s Vision campaign, online parenting site Kidspot is hosting a custom-built Optometry Australia destination page that features content and images relating to children’s eye-health.
Visit the Kidspot website.