Top industry talent guide new NZBS project

_{Jono and Ben grab a group photo at the end of an Extravaganza session}

Ara’s New Zealand Broadcasting School (NZBS) final year assignments are taking a different turn this year with the playfully dubbed “Media Extravaganza” devised to stretch the skills of emerging industry professionals.

And, as they honed the new final assessment, students were given the opportunity to hear from some the top names across the New Zealand media industry.

Industry guests included big names across different disciplines including The Hits Radio legends Jono and Ben, Stuff journalist Juliet Speedy, Managing Director of South Pacific Pictures, Andrew Szusterman and Katie Stevenson from One News.

_{South Pacific Picture’s Andrew Szsuterman giving feedback to students}

NZBS tutors said the calibre of the guest speakers was testament to the appeal of the course to industry.

Replacing the traditional TV news module and independent senior level projects for 2024, Department of Creative Industries Senior Academic Staff Member Alice Rae-Flick said the Extravaganza will instead see students collaborate on a multimedia project ‘from conception to execution’.

“We’re seeking to help students navigate the evolving media landscape and equip them with real-world skills needed for a fast-changing industry,” Rae-Flick said.

“For the first time, all streams have merged into a single multimedia entity. While students can still focus on their areas of interest, they’re also challenged to work with different teams and disciplines,” she said.

_{A panel of Journalism experts from Stuff, TVNZ and NZME}

Students were asked to present their ideas for what they wanted their final project to look like with the whole cohort invited to pick and choose what went into the final product.

Rae-Flick said the students’ initial pitches were well thought out, demonstrating an understanding of resourcing, target audiences and available platforms.

“We saw ideas ranging from a radio simulcast which includes a gaming element to a web series that partners with an external sponsor and news programming that includes TV, all determined to attract an audience and gain traction in a competitive environment.”

The Extravaganza will be broadcast live on Freeview channel 200, adding to the pressure of producing multimedia, news and lifestyle content. Within it, students will produce the well-known Metro TV news, and programming for the 2024 NZBS radio station Bassline FM.

Lucie Harper, a student studying for the Bachelor of Broadcasting Communications (Screen Production), said the Extravaganza concept was “super exciting”.

“It’s awesome to be doing something that hasn’t been done before, even with the challenges that come with it. It’s also nice to be working closer with the journalism and radio streams.”

Journalism student, Tobias Macintosh said it was opening student’s’ eyes to what was possible in a media landscape that had looked the same for a long time.

“It's giving us the creative space to push ourselves into new news formats and I know we’re very excited as a journo class to present our outputs this November,” Macintosh said.

_{Presentations in action for the whole cohort}

NZBS Programme Leader and co-creator of the course, Karen Neill, said the project aligned with the fact that media companies deliver content to audiences across different platforms, on air and online.

“We decided what better way to create new, innovative and engaging content for audiences than to let students lead the design,” Neill said. “Industry guests have been involved in the course and inspiring students to think big and challenge traditional norms - we’ve had a great response from them, and they can’t wait to see what the students deliver.”

Six Extravaganza episodes will be live on Channel 200 across two weeks in November with industry guests invited back to see the production go to air.