Blink brings people together
When Wintec Media Arts alumnus and writer-director Paige Larianova approached producer Chris Williams with the idea of a short film, he jumped at the opportunity.
The two Hamiltonians envisaged a team of 25 working on the zero-budget project, but since then the crew has grown to over 70, equalling a sum even greater than its parts.
The members come from Hamilton, the greater Waikato, Auckland and there are five cast and crew members from the United States.
‘‘The thing I really liked was, to her, it was all about taking everyone on a journey,’’ Williams said.
Blink, written by Larianova, is set in the confines of an underground club scene, with the for- mer dairy factory at Matangi providing for many of the scenes.
It centres on a battle in a broad sense, involving a male and a female character, with others in the club placing wagers on who will win.
Another character also plays a big role in the story, too, and Larianova particularly likes her as she is ‘‘the dark horse’’.
Williams said the idea of the film was originally intended as a showreel to get future funding, being a project with no budget.
But Larianova, who had also founded the Waikato Film Hub to bring local aspiring filmmakers together, had a wealth of connections that enabled Blink to become much bigger.
‘‘There’s lots of little pockets of filmmakers around the Waikato, so it’s sort of trying to get people to come together to show people that we need more funding and with the film industry down here there’s an economy for it,’’ Larianova said.
The resulting cast and crew was also very diverse.
With over $20,000 of equipment having been loaned to the crew by Wintec, and much other paraphernalia brought along by crew members and local businesses, Blink is set to be a highly polished film.