The recent Oscars and BAFTAs in the UK both had a touch of Riverview and Wauchope about them in their nominations. 

Newcastle University–based media producer/director Adam Khamis (OR96) was part of the team led by Rodney Burke that received the BAFTA nomination for Best Special Visual Effects and the Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects for their work on the 2024 blockbuster Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Adam, who was raised in Wauchope on the New South Wales North Coast hinterland, attended Riverview as a boarder in the 1990s. Around that time, the cutting-edge TV studio was added in the basement of the Wallace Wing for media studies. Under Mrs Wedesweiler's tutelage, students were introduced to the latest methods for recording and editing with VHS tapes. 

Asked whether this inspired him to become a media producer, Adam says he was actually a "late bloomer" when it came to media and that, much as he would have loved to study the art at school, the closest he got was General Studies under the legendary debating master, English teacher, and college organist Glen Spencer King. Looking back on Speech Day 1996, Adam doesn't appear on the General Studies honours list; instead, it was David Weir who took the prize for Media Studies — which just goes to show that school results are not always predictive. 

As fellow 1996 boarder Michael Coffey used to point out after long days gazing out the window of his GPS-guided tractor: "See — Mr Turner was wrong when he used to tell me in history class that I'd never make a living staring out the window." 

Congratulations, Adam Khamis. 

Photo: Adam (right) in Mr McCarthy's maths class, 1996

 — Theo Clark (OR96)