Moving Image - Dream Ride

Moving Image: Camera

The Camera Team: Zara Balanco, Skye del Hoyo Collado, Cy Feather, Jude Goodall, Leo Pan, Apo Quail, Alexa Rubenstein, Eliza Scott, Zach Steuerwald, Isa Yap 

Year 12 Interns: Summer Douar, Lily Nicotra 

Teachers: Chloe Angel, Michael McLennan

Industry Guest: Peter Coleman  

Our five short films investigate the concept of movement - mechanical, human and temporal. Through dance, light play, and kinetic exploration, we visit some of the well-known rides and locations of Luna Park and experience the excitement they ignite.

Our team was tasked with capturing the park’s unique spirit through the years, working collaboratively to find and capture moments of nostalgia and modernity, with a hint of promise of what could be. While we have learned so many skills along the way – interview filming, greenscreen, rear projection, SimTravel, shooting on location, using GoPros - throughout this process we have learned that filmmaking is about listening and feeling as much as it is about seeing.

These short films are an invitation to feel Luna Park’s pulse and experience the humanity that powers the machine. 

Moving Image: Editing

The Team: Keona Beltram, Ludo Galiere, Rory Hamilton, Emma King-Li, Riki Petersen, Charlie Peterson, Sasha Sirr, Luke Sultan 

Teachers: Shane Miller, Michael McLennan

Editing is where the magic of collaboration becomes visible. As the editorial team behind SMILE, our job was to take the fragments—the footage, the interviews, the soundscapes, the moments—and find the rhythm that connects them. In many ways, we’ve been the thread between departments, weaving together the artistry of animation, the emotion of performance, the detail of costume, and the echoes of history into a single immersive experience. 

We didn’t just cut the video—we listened. We listened to the ideas behind the work, the stories behind the faces, and the intentions behind each creative choice. Our edit suite became a meeting point of voices and visions, where individual expressions were shaped into collective meaning. SMILE is the result of many moving parts, and we are proud to have helped bring them into harmony.   

Digital Art & Animation

The team: Xayden Bruns, Peta Coleman, Sienna Gortan, Light Hennig, Rhyder Irwin-D’Amico, Lynx Devillierre, Camille Ong, Robin Ottley, Alyssa Page, Melia Ross  

Graduate Interns: Cooper Bartholomew, Edie Farrer-Matson  

Teachers: Chris Drew, Felicity Saber-Hoese, Michael McLennan, Wendy Wang  

The Year 11 animation team presents a vibrant homage to Luna Park through over 40 diverse hand drawn animations, 3D and art assets spliced into four of the five films, Coney Island, Rotor, Big Dipper and Mirror Maze. We dived into the archives of Coney Island art, channeling 1930s rubber-hose cartoon aesthetics, Arthur Barton’s murals, and the spirit of original circus performers. Inspired by Luna Park’s current showgirls and the Bradfield fashion team, we translated textile ideas into dynamic, maximalist expression, to create animated characters that move with no limits.  

14 animators, using traditional and meticulously hand-drawn inked cels and digital techniques, crafted a menagerie of characters: retro elephants, creepy jesters, futuristic clowns, and morphing figures. From psychedelic 3D tunnels to shaky-framed fun, diverse drawing styles merged into a chaotic, colourful celebration of Luna Park’s enduring energy, a project we truly enjoyed creating together. This work was significantly shaped by the invaluable mentorship of Bradfield graduates Edie and Cooper, whose guidance and feedback were instrumental.

Yr 12 IDT - Animation and Digital Art

The Digital Art team: Marx, Jai Coleman, Jared Ambor, Vee Pratley, Leah Lambert, Charlie Teague, Lachlan Fisk 

Teachers: Felicity Saber-Hoese, Michael McLennan, Chris Drew  

Graduate Interns: Cooper Bartholomew, Edie Farrar-Matson  

The Year 12 digital art team brought crucial expertise to the Luna Park project, supporting the Year 11 cohort with advanced skills as part of their internal work placement hours for the IDT course. As veterans in 3D animation, rendering, and compositing, they focused on elevating key elements, meticulously refining the 3D Mirror Maze and Big Dipper rollercoaster tunnels to enhance their immersive and unsettling atmospheres.   

They also contributed to the development of Arthur Barton-inspired rig animations. It was from this class that all of the charcoal animations in ‘Dream Ride’ were produced, courtesy of Jai Coleman. This vital work, bolstering the project’s overall polish and scope, was significantly shaped by the invaluable mentorship of Cooper and Edie, whose guidance and feedback were instrumental.