Making up part of the HSC curriculum, the Farming in the 21st Century video series was aimed at teaching students about technology in agriculture. The secondary use of the videos was to play on the Creamery exhibition TV screens in Belgenny where many school excursions take place. Our shoot focused on the Robotic Dairy Farm in Camden, highlighting how technology was used here in contrast to traditional dairy farms.
NSW Department of Education
NSW Department of Primary Industries
Documentary
Camden Robotic Dairy Darm
Belgenny Farm
Milkshake Brings all the Cows to the Yard
We shot this at the Camden Robotic Dairy farm in conjunction with the NSW Department of Education and NSW Department of Primary Industries, through the Belgenny Farm Trust. We had two days to shoot, which meant walking through the whole process with Kendra Kerrisk on the first day and working out how to tell the story.
We then conducted our interview with Kendra in the very smelly feed area for the cattle, the one with all the hay in the background. The flies and nearby flight school made things interesting for the talent and sound recordist, but we got there in the end.
We were able to spend another day getting some pick-up shots using a slider and a Letus Helix Jr, which really upped the production value and allowed us to get closer to the robotics of the dairy, highlighting the technology used in dairy farming.
This is a very complex system but we made it clear and easy to understand with our shot choices and edit considerations.
“I have worked with Ashleigh since 2012 to produce 13 different series of educational videos comprising 132 individual videos suitable for secondary school students. One of the series received over 275,000 hits between 2013 and 2019. This is an extraordinary number and reflects the quality of these videos, resulting in their use by industry as well as school teachers.
I really enjoy working with Ashleigh because he really engages with the content of the videos. He has an extremely professional approach to his work and openly discusses his ideas in a friendly and positive way. He provides creative guidance without being too overbearing or dogmatic. He is very thorough and always pays attention to detail throughout the production process.”
