A selection of some of Estevan's brightest students of industry performed at the annual Skills Canada Competition, with the Comprehensive School celebrating a second-place finish for one of its entrants.
Running from June 4 to 7 at the International Centre in Mississauga, the four local students endured the tests and projects before them as they dealt with strict deadlines and challenges. Representing Saskatchewan were Rebecca Blackburn, hairstyling, Regan MacMurchy, mechanical computer-aided design (CAD), and Kyle Goulet and Vincent Dupuis, TV and video production.
Grade 12 student Blackburn received a silver medal in the hairstyling competition for her collection of inspired designs. It was her second time at the event, having attended last year's, and she stepped up her game on the national stage.
"We had four different tests. When we arrived, we were handed our mannequin dolls," said Blackburn, who noted they had four different styles they were required to create: ladies night, ladies day, a trendy man and a bombage.
They had three hours and 45 minutes to complete the ladies day design, where they had to cut, colour and style the hair. The second test was the ladies night style, in which they had 90 minutes to complete the design.
"We took our ladies day style and brushed it out and had to style it into a night and do ornamentation with it," said Blackburn.
The trendy man event had the competitors cutting and styling for a man that could be worn day to day. They had two hours to complete the bombage, an Elvis Presley inspired do.
Blackburn said as it was her second year in the competition, there were fewer surprises, and she was ready for what the judges were looking for.
"I knew what was going to happen. I knew how strict the judges were and how they would scrutinize you and watch you the entire time and found every little way to take marks off you," she said.
This year was also a qualifier for the WorldSkills competition in Brazil next year.
"The skill level was way higher and certain teams showed up just because it was qualifying year," she said.
It meant post-secondary students were attending the competition as well. To attend the world tournament, competitors must be between 19 and 22 years old. Blackburn didn't qualify, but she still had to deal with the elevated expectations from judges.
"It was way more advanced this year."
Time was her biggest obstacle because she said she wanted to make everything perfect. Sometimes sacrifices would have to be made due to the clock.
MacMurchy placed fifth in the mechanical CAD competition, his first time at Skills Canada.
"It was a really cool experience. There was a lot going on.
"They gave us a drawing or an object or something and we just made a 3D model of the object. If there was more than one piece we had to make a working assembly of it," said MacMurchy.
He said it was a great way for students to learn about the opportunities in the trades and what equipment they are able to use.
"It was a great experience, personally. I got challenged in a way that I just don't get challenged around the school here. I learned a couple of things, some of them the hard way," he added.
He said when preparing for the competition, it was about repetition.
"My coach just handed me some gross looking blueprints or a weird looking object and told me to make a 3D model of it," he said, noting at the competition he completed four projects, each with a three-hour time limit.
Dupuis and Goulet were tasked with creating a short film over the course of the competition and placed eighth.
"We had 12 hours to create a video within the parameters of what we were given," Goulet said about the two-to-four-minute short film they had to put together.
"One of the things I noticed that we had to be really careful with was the lighting, especially because there were a lot of ceiling lights that don't light up well," added Dupuis.
They were judged on all aspects of the film, from camera shots to story points. The teams were given three genres to choose from, and the Goulet-Dupuis team selected to shoot an action-adventure flick.
"We also had to incorporate the line, 'I have a bad feeling about this.' Then you get into the technical stuff. We weren't allowed to do in camera effects, just to make the playing level a little bit more even. They wanted to see if you could make a video where you weren't allowed to cover up your mistakes with special effects," said Goulet.
They also weren't allowed to leave the venue grounds to shoot their material, but he said it still gave them lots of space as they could shoot anything inside or outside as long as they didn't leave the property.
The pair of local filmmakers' short movie involved a character, Goulet, who had to deliver a mysterious black box to another character.
"By the end, he finds out there was nothing in the box. It was all a test to bring him into the company," said Goulet.
Like most competitions at Skills Canada, the short film project left little time to waste. Goulet and Dupuis had to very quickly establish a hero, a villain and a problem that needed solving. They also had limited equipment, given just a camera, tripod and microphone.
"What I found challenging was just getting the right shot the first time," said Dupuis. "As it was a very public space, so there was always someone in your way or you're bumping into each other, so there were a lot of space concerns."
