The Kents – On Demand!

Netflix, Neon, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, TV1 On Demand – and now The Kents On Demand!

We’d all hoped to be back at school in the final week of term, enjoying the many activities associated with Arts Week, including the annual film night, ‘The Kents’ – but as the term drew to a close, we found ourselves still in lockdown. However, to ensure that our Media Studies students were able to share their work, this year, the best of the videos were shown ‘On Demand!’

The Kents usually sees the Dance Studio transformed into a cinema at the end of term, to screen the best selected work from our Year 12 and Year 13 Media and Digital Technology students, along with those who had entered the Auckland 48 Hour Film Festival earlier in the year. Whilst Lockdown disrupted plans, it didn’t prevent a viewing. Six live action, short films by our Year 13 Media Studies students, whose work had been graded ‘E’ for Excellence for the ‘short film assessment’ module, were selected to be shown, along with this year’s ‘48 Hour Film’ entry, that had earlier reached the national finals.

The videos were made available to fellow senior students in a private screening over the course of four nights, before the release of the finalists’ awards in the final week of term – at the time the live screening should have occurred. 

The films represented almost half a year’s work for the students as they scripted their films and then moved through the pre-production and production phase. Students could choose their genre but there was a clear preference for a paranormal/futuristic theme this year!

To be successful, each group needed to work collaboratively to combine creative ideas with practical application, artistic flair with audience engagement, as well possess the technical and organisational skills to run their own production from concept to broadcast.

Prior to the screening, a team of judges, comprising ex-students and industry professionals, judged the films on cinematography, editing, performance, visual effects and the overall best film. We thank them for their input.

Samuel Everitt, William McMorran and Cameron Hatton were the big winners on the night for their film ‘Poloroids,’ having been awarded ‘Best Film’, Best Cinematography and Best Visual FX. After the earlier screening, viewers were invited to vote for the ‘Audience Choice’ with Lucy Lyons, Lily Bilbrough, Lauren Joyce receiving the award for their film ‘G.O.D.’

We congratulate the Year 13 cohort on creating some fabulous films under the difficult circumstances of this year. Moving ‘The Kents’ online was an excellent way to share and celebrate the hard work and effort of these students in their final year at the College. Well done!

THE KENTS WINNERS 2021

Best Film:                          Polaroids: Samuel Everitt, William McMorran, Cameron Hatton

Audience Choice:              G.O.D: Lucy Lyons, Lily Bilbrough, Lauren Joyce

Best Screenplay:               2035: Toby Davies

Best Cinematography:      Polaroids: Samuel Everitt, William McMorran, Cameron Hatton

Best Editing:                      Earth to Mars:Rachel Black, Yuchen He

Best Visual FX:                  Polaroids:Samuel Everitt, William McMorran, Cameron Hatton

Best Lead Performance:   Lucy Hornell in Abnormal Aotearoa

Best Supporting Role:       Lucas Shaw Harvey in 2035

THE KENTS JUDGES:
Our sincere thank you to the following judges for your professional input to the Awards.

• Hunter Hunwick – Former Saint Kentigern student and winner of multiple KENTS awards in 2019. Hunter is now studying Film and Communications at AUT.
• Shaun Jeffers – Professional photographer with a huge portfolio of work – notably, he is the official photographer for Hobbiton.
• Jacinta Scadden – Actor, author and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Australia.
• Alex Cairns – Freelance film industryprofessionaland photographer.
• Jessica Elsmore - Project manager at RD, also trained and worked in the film industry for a number of years.