Film festival draws record numbers

From a record number of Taranaki teams entered in the weekend’s V48 Hours film festival, only one ‘‘crashed and burned’’, according to organiser Bruce Gatward-cook.

Twenty-one teams gathered at New Plymouth Little Theatre on Friday night for the 7pm start of New Zealand’s largest film festival.

Each team was assigned one of 12 possible genres ranging from horror to ‘‘end of the world’’.

A compulsory character, object, editing technique, and script line were also given out.

This year those were Nicky Brick (an unfortunate person), a leaf, a slow-motion shot and the line ‘‘I did that’’.

Teams then had 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short movie between one and seven minutes long.

Those who didn’t hand their film in by the 7pm deadline last night will not compete in the judging stage.

This year Taranaki lost its regional status because it didn’t reach its quota of 30 teams before the competition began.

Taranaki’s filmmakers will now have to head up to Hamilton to compete with films from throughout Waikato.

Mr Gatward-cook said this year had the most entries for the region in the festival’s 10-year history, which has seen more than 4000 films made throughout New Zealand.

‘‘You can just feel the enthusiasm. Everyone I’ve spoken to had a wonderful shoot day,’’ he said.

The one team which didn’t make it, Show Ponies, missed the cut-off time by seconds.

Every year there were a couple of teams which got ‘‘stitched up’’, he said.

‘‘As a rule of thumb anything that could go wrong will go wrong but you’ve got to be prepared.’’

Making a film in such a short time frame was both rewarding and entertaining, he said.

‘‘It’s like being a magician. You’re creating something out of nothing.

‘‘It brings the child out in us and you’re just creating a whole new world.’’

Taranaki’s youngest 48 Hours director, 12-year-old Jack Newsome from Devon Intermediate School, said he had a blast directing his seven-man team The Hot Cowpats.

‘‘I thought it was cool,’’ Jack said.

‘‘Sometimes people get angry with you and you have to just make everyone happy.’’

This was his first time doing anything like this and he enjoyed having full artistic licence.

‘‘You get to say what to do and stuff. You get to make it up.’’

The Hot Cowpats drew the theme fantasy and adventure ‘‘which was probably the best one we could have got’’, Jack said.

The name of The Hot Cowpats’ movie was Busting, and they finished with plenty of time to spare.

Some unofficial screenings will be held in New Plymouth but official judging will happen in Hamilton in a few weeks.