3 Weeks Left For Young Filmmakers to Cut!

With three weeks to go until the deadline for the Cut! National Secondary Schools Short Video Competition, teenagers around the country are shooting scenes, tightening edits, animating models, and dreaming up titles as they finish their creations.

Even those who haven’t yet started shouldn’t despair - last year’s ‘Best Director’ winning video by Michael van Beek (Christ’s College) was created with just a week to go, and appropriately titled ‘Last Minute Movie’.

40 registrations have been received so far for Cut!, which aims to support and encourage young people to get involved in filmmaking. The winning video receives an iMac computer for the team’s school, with other prizes including Ricoh cameras, scholarships to Wintec’s Media Arts programme, Elsevier book vouchers, and editing software. This year will also feature a ‘Best Hamilton Film’ prize courtesy of Hamilton City Council, and a ‘Top School’ prize.

Cut! Co-ordinator Dawn Tuffery said she was particularly looking forward to seeing all the videos come in and watching them for the first time. “Last year we were blown away by the rise in standard, with the finalists featuring a mixture of intricate production design, slickness, sophistication, originality and outrageous self-reflexive comedy. It’s an exciting unknown – what talent will emerge in Cut! ‘09?”

Cut! challenges students to create a 4 – 6 minute video, which can feature any type of genre or story. More information and resources are available on the Cut! website www.wintec.ac.nz/cut. Entries to Cut! should be posted by September 25th, and finalists will be announced October 3rd. The free Awards Screening will take place at Wintec’s Gallagher Hub on October 18th.