Auckland Title for Film Makers

Making a film usually entails weeks of planning, shooting, editing and reviewing, so having a mere 48 hours – a single weekend - to script, shoot, add sound and edit a film in a competition setting, certainly put the pressure on a group of twelve of our College Media students. Taking on the task, they walked away from ‘48Hours’ – ‘New Zealand’s largest ‘guerrilla’ filmmaking competition’ - with the ‘Best Auckland School Team’ title.  The team has now secured a place in the National final taking place at the Civic towards the end of May!

All creativity for developing the film, that is, the writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack, must occur within the 48Hour window beginning Friday evening at 7pm and ending Sunday at 7pm. Heading into the competition, none of the filmmakers know what genre (such as thriller/romance/noir) they will be shooting until the start of the weekend and, to add to the mayhem, they are also required to include some obligatory ‘random elements’ that change each year. In previous years, they have included lines of dialogue, props, characters and special camera moves. This year they were required to include: a reflection, a confidant and a box.

Our team hunkered down over the allocated 48 hours to create a film entitled ‘Operation: Snuffles,’ a heist film about a boy who concocts a plan to steal his dad’s car keys in order to deliver a present to his ‘crush!’ They used a variety of skillful camera work and visual effects to make the film authentic, but one of the most valuable skills they honed over the weekend was the ability to communicate well whilst working under immense pressure. In this ‘pressure cooker style’ situation, they also further developed their production and post-production filmmaking skills. 

One of the highlights of the competition is being able to see the finished film on a big screen with an appreciative audience. Firstly screened as heats, the best films were then selected by judges to compete in the regional city finals where our team secured the Auckland title. The best films selected by the judges, along with Peter Jackson's selected ‘Wildcards,’ now go on to compete in the upcoming National Grand Final, which will be held at the Civic Theatre on the 22nd May.

Well done to all the students who were involved - getting into the National Final is a huge achievement and something each of you can be proud of!

Team members: William McMorran, Samuel Everitt, Darcy Woolford, Jack Taylor, Travis Allan, Harry Fowler, Lucy Horsnell, Regina Tao, Patrick Stanley, Cameron Hatton, Michael Booth, Archie Freeland.