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23| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,M ay 17,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! CONNECTED TO YOUR COMMUNITYWATERLOOCHRONICLE.CA local news local sports local happenings ARTS FOCUS Visit waterloochronicle.ca for more coverage Every great filmmaker has to start somewhere, and Brennan Windsor's initial claim to fame is a stop animation film using Legos that won provincial and national awards for safety videos. While he doesn't con- sider himself a "Lego-ma- niac" anymore, calling stop animation the "OCD of filmmaking," Windsor said what really drove the project was his concerns for his friends and class- mates who will soon be out in the work world where pot legalization is the norm. "I have friends, and I know people who are defi- nitely going to be taking advantage of that law when marijuana is legal," said Windsor, who first got into filmmaking as a six year old. "I'm not going to say that this movie was for them, but it came about because I don't want to lose someone I know being high at work and then get- ting into a stupid acci- dent." The 16-year old Grade 11 student at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School scored a first place in an competition spon- sored by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) called It's Your Job, and on May 7 fol- lowed it up by bringing home silver from the na- tional competition. Those efforts were recognized Friday at the local school as the WSIB's Chair Eliza- beth Witmer and Chief Prevention Officer Ron Kelusky honoured the budding filmmaker for his film project called "Safety Rhymes" with a $2,000 prize and a matching do- nation of $2,000 to the school to support its com- munication tech program. "I know the judges were extremely impressed, and I talked to a couple of them," said Witmer, the former long-serving MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo and former deputy pre- mier on Ontario. "I wanted to congratulate you per- sonally on addressing a very important topic. "We simply have to do more and raise the aware- ness of keeping safe in the workplace." The winning video is a humorous romp using Legos and stop animation to demonstrate what hap- pens when someone gets high and puts themselves or their coworkers in dan- gerous situations. The rhyming couplets, set to music, stick in your head, but it comes with a serious message especially with marijuana set to be legal- ized later this summer. "It used stop animation with humour to touch on this year's theme of im- pairment at work as every- one's business," said Witmer, who has been in the position ensuring workers' safety since April of 2012. "It's a chal- lenge today - impairment - but it's also a challenge we're going to see with the legalization of marijua- na." Windsor said he was blown away by the reac- tion to his video that can be seen on YouTube by searching for Safety Rhymes (www.you- tube.com/ watch?time_contin- ue=6&v=u6TZqsK0VPo) and all the accolades that came his way. "When I got the email I was like 'cool I won,'" said Windsor. "But being up here today with (Chair Witmer) and my parents and everyone in the audi- ence supporting me, it's amazing. "This is definitely the field that I'm going to go into and this is part of the reasoning behind it, and lets me know 100 per cent what I need to keep doing." That message was sup- ported by his teacher Richard Sloos, who in his 28 years at the school has seen an increase in inter- est in students getting into digital media and video and filmmaking. He's also had a constant stream of local high tech companies coming into the school and looking to use some of the student expertise the Resurrection Communi- cation Tech program has created. In fact, when he retires from teaching this year he will be doing some of that video work, includ- ing virtual reality, for a lo- cal realty company. "When I started, par- ents would come in and say this is interesting but I don't want my student pursuing this, I want them to be a doctor or lawyer or accountant," said Sloos. "Now that they know this is a billion dollar industry, and parents come in and ask how they can support their students passion for filmmaking." Windsor is one student who will continue to pur- sue that passion. He's al- ready shot his first live ac- tion short film and won first place at a local film festival in addition to his video work. "This is going to be a stepping-stone for me," said Windsor. "I think I and other people are going to look back and say I re- member this video, and I know in the future I'm go- ing to look back on it with nostalgia and overall hap- piness." EDUCATION Student filmmaker honoured for his safety video about working while high A beaming Brennan Windsor accepts his first-place award for a video called Safety Rhymes from Ron Kelusky, Chief Prevention Officer with the Ontario Ministry of Labour. The Grade 11 Resurrection Catholic Secondary School student submitted the video as part of the WSIB's It's your Job competition that warned about the perils of getting high at work. The video also finished second in the national safety competition and earned Windsor and his school each a $2,000 prize. Bob Vrbanac Photo Using rhymes and stop animation, Brennan Wilson uses humour to share a serious message BOB VRBANAC bvrbanac@waterloochronicle.ca