Lara Talks to Eudunda from London

Lara Talks to Eudunda Area School Students from London.

(L-R) Andrew Netting (in the left corner), Lara Hopkins on large screen, Year 12 Students on small screen
with Lara's Parents, Kath & Ted Bowden on the right

Tuesday, December 9th 2003, the Eudunda Area School - Presentation Night was a very special night for the year 12 Students of the EAS, Lara Hopkins, Ted & Kath Bowden and all those who attended the night.

Lara Hopkins (nee Bowden) spoke to the Eudunda Area School Students, specifically the year 12 group, her Mum & Dad - Ted & Kath Bowden, Teachers and parents via Live Video Link from London. All this was achieved with fantastic equipment and support from Lyndon Stoll of Telstra Country Wide, Andrew Netting of Electroboard and Darryl Gravestocks of Murray Computer & Office Shop.

The story started a couple years ago when Multimedia teacher at the Eudunda Area School, Mr Sean Simper thought that it would be great to invite Lara Hopkins to speak at the presentation night. Lara, an ex student of the Eudunda Area School has been very successful in the world of Animation and Sean felt she would be an inspiration to those students about to make their way into the greater world of higher education or employment.

Sean realized that at the time of the year the School held it's presentations (the end of the year) Lara would be far too busy to attend, so when Lyndon Stoll from Telstra Country Wide came to Eudunda to tell us about the benefits of "Broadband" for Eudunda in June this year he approached Lyndon for help. From here, Lyndon enlisted the help of Darryl Gravestocks of Murray Computer & Office Shop and Andrew Netting of Electroboard to make this night a fantastic success.

Mr John Owen (one of Lara's ex teachers) introduced Lara, mentioning the difference in temperature. Lara said it was about 2° in London and was amazed to hear it had been 40° in Eudunda (it was still quite hot in the hall at this time too).

Lara spoke about her great memories of Eudunda, her schooling at Eudunda Area School, leaving in 1986 first for Nuriootpa High School and then University life, where she studied for a Degree in Communication Studies. Mr. Owen reminded Lara of meeting her once at Pizza Hut where she had found work while still at Uni. She spoke about how she first gained employment at Anifex in Adelaide (competing with 400 others for the position). Lara explained that she started off as a Production Assistant (doing lots of low level jobs) and worked her way up the ladder as she gained more experience, to eventually become a Producer there.

All up Lara spent 5 years working in South Australia before making the "Brave" move to Sydney where she found work with Extro Design for 6 months. She then moved to Animal Logic where she took a step back in position to join them. While at Animal Logic Lara worked on such such titles as the Lara Croft commercials and many USA and Japanese advertisements.

In 2001 Lara and her partner moved to Hong Kong, and she soon found work with Saatchi & Saatchi working on adverts for the Asian market. After being in Hong Kong for a year another move saw the pair decide to move to London.

Lara now works for Framestore CFC in London, the largest visual effects house in Europe. As Senior Production Manager she manages about 200 animation artists to produce such works as Harry Potter 3, Thunderbirds (the new movie) and Troy.

Lara imparted some career tips for our students.

The key to your Career, she said is "Find your passion". Think about what you would really like to do, as you will be doing that career for a long time and you need to enjoy it to make it work well.
Find a Mentor
Be Focused on your Career direction, research it, try to be in contact with it and people who work in it
Dedication - an employer needs to trust you will do the work
Work Hard
Have a Sense of Humour - Laugh a lot.
Be Brave in your Choices - take a risk and it will reward you.
You can do anything you want - Aim High.

Lara wished the students well and had a final goodbye to her Mum & Dad and everyone there.

Thanks Lara for sharing your life with us all and we wish you well on your new adventure of parenthood.

Sean then showed a short video of some of the works that Lara was involved in.

Well Done! to all who helped to make this night such a success.

Lara speaks to us on the big screen on the left from London while the screen on the right shows what she was seeing on the local camera, on the left of the picture is the year 12 students.

(L-R) Andrew Netting - Electroboard, Sean Simper - EAS Multimedia Teacher,
Lyndon Stoll - Telstra Country Wide, Darryl Gravestocks - Murray Computer & Office Shop

Some of the equipment that Andrew Netting of Electroboardhad bought to do the presentation.
Darryl said that he had borrowed some of the equipment from Sydney for this display.

Lyndon Stoll of Telstra Country Wide explains some of the finer points of the Technology
to Lara's Parents, Kathy & Ted Bowden as a replay of Lara's talk is shown on the screen.

NOTE: You may wonder why we have not featured the students of the Eudunda Area School with photos and names in this article?
unfortunately - due to privacy issues, we are unable to do so (we wish we could - as it is these young people that the whole night was about).

We can at least wish every one of the year 12 students all the success for their future as they choose their future directions.

Contact details and information about the Eudunda Area School

You are visitor Hit Counter since 15th Dec 03