Over 48 hours, starting on 5 March, nine filmmakers in two teams competed in a time sensitive competition for the creation of short films. Student Journalist Finn Kerby-Pinguet reports.
The 48 Hour Film Competition is an event run by the Vista Foundation for film enthusiasts, cinematographers, writers, directors, and anyone wishing to take on the challenge of making a whole short film in two days’ time.
On 5 March, at 6:30pm, eight students wait in anticipation around the Room 36 projector, anxious to learn what their film’s genre would be. Teams were assigned a number, and the live stream announced what the genre was for their number. Themes ranged from science fiction, to musicals, to romance and comedy.
Time is of course one of the greatest challenges, and the whole writing, cinematographing, filming, and editing process is a massive effort to finish in time, but the organizers like to make things interesting with compulsory character tropes, shot types, lines and props.
Not only was creativity and originality in genres promoted, but the organizers of the competition challenged the writing and production skills of students by giving them technical elements and story aspects that must be placed in the film. This year, these included a heartbeat sound effect, either an anti-hero or an unlikely hero, and a close reaction shot.
Nine Nayland students participated: Tyler Curtis, Eli Beaglehole, Otis Agnew, Joel Batchelar, Finn Kerby-Pinguet, Aaliyah O’Connor, Ciara Mclellan, Thora Moffat and Emmogen Brown. All seemed to enjoy the event, and hope to undertake the challenge again next year. Thank you very much to Ms. Vedder and Ms. Ferguson for all their support.
By Student journalist Finn Kerby-Pinguet
