Young film-makers have the opportunity to learn and hone their craft with school holiday workshops on offer in Tauranga.
The workshops are aimed at helping participants create a 3-minute silent movie for entry into this year’s New Zealand leg of the International Youth Silent Film Festival (IYSFF) – the second year the contest has been run in this country.
Each of the four days focuses on a separate skill – writing and storyboarding, pre-filming preparation, filming and editing – and will be tutored by a specialist, including long-time film director Anton Steel, and Tanya Horo, an actor, singer and writer.
The workshops will be held in Baycourt Theatre in central Tauranga on July 17, 19, 20 and 21 from 9am to 4pm each day. The cost for students is $42 a day or $148 for 4 days, with tickets available from www.ticketek.co.nz.
Those intending to enter the IYSFF NZ regional contest must have been 20 or younger on April 15 this year. They need to make 3-minute family-suitable silent films which can be live action or animated, colour or black and white but must use one of 10 genre soundtracks available from the website, www.makesilentfilm.com/rules. Entries close on October 1.
A red carpet prizegiving at Baycourt on November 22 will include festival founder JP Palanuk and soundtrack composer Nathan Avakian from the US. Baycourt has a 1926 Mighty Wurlitzer organ that Nathan plays live while the finalists’ movies screen.
The winning movies go forward to the international final in Portland, Oregon in June 2018. Last year’s winners were from the New Zealand Broadcasting School in Christchurch, while Liam Davison, then 10, made history as the contest’s youngest-ever entrant – ‘Trouble in the West’, made with older siblings Jack and Emily, placed third equal for the Katikati area youngster.
Entry details and soundtracks from www.makesilentfilm.com/rules
