First timers’ ad a winner
Putaruru College is the winner of the Fair Go Ad Awards secondary schools section.
It is the first time the college has entered the competition and the teacher who led the project, Lanny Joe, said he and the students involved were ‘‘buzzing’’. ‘‘It’s just phenomenal. ‘‘Finally the kids can think: ‘Wow, we’re from Putaruru College’.’’
He said previous winners of the award were ‘‘massive, big, powerhouse schools’’ fully equipped with the latest technology and dedicated media studies departments.
Putaruru College doesn’t have a media studies department and the students were working on Mr Joe’s personal film equipment and one computer in a ‘‘tiny’’ room.
The brief for the ad was: Keep Kiwis in New Zealand, and about nine students guided by Mr Joe, spent about eight weeks creating the 45-second animation.
‘‘A lot of it was their after-school time and we spent some late nights here working,’’ he said.
One of the students came up with a literal interpretation of keeping the kiwi bird in the country. Others helped to create the storyboard and design the characters.
‘‘It’s really quirky and really different,’’ Mr Joe said.
He said the students took to the project and seemed to have a natural knack for film.
‘‘ It’s crazy; something
that’s taken you ages to learn the kids just pick up within a few hours. It’s just the way they are with technology,’’ he said.
The school has also won one of the major prizes in the Students Against Driving Drunk short film competition and has made the finals of the Wintec secondary schools film competition.