48hour film stars

This year's V48Hour Film Competition marks the 10th anniversary of the competition. Past winners tell Nicola Russell about the fast- forward world of frenetic film-making.

TAIKA WAITITI, Heinous Crime, 2004, Slade in Full, 2006

I won the festival in 2004 with an entry called Heinous Crime. It annoyed a lot of people because I shot it in about four hours, edited in camera, and the entire crew was my girlfriend and I.

We didn't take the competition seriously and that wasn't really appreciated by the more "professional" teams.

I took part in the very first year of the festival. Our group had about 20 people, our first mistake. The second was going an hour out of Auckland to a friend's mansion, spending our production budget on booze and discussing story ideas until Sunday.

The best experience for me was making Slade in Full, for which I won a wildcard award. I did the entire thing by myself: camera, acting, editing, and music.

I started with a beard and progressively shaved bits off for different characters. My favourite memory is tying string from the camera to my leg so it would pan with me when I walked. You never have that amount of fun and freedom in any other filmmaking environment.

I don't think the festival made me a better film-maker but I think it is really good for creativity. You need to embrace the chance to take risks and make huge mistakes. It's one of the only times, as a film-maker, that you'll get to screw things up and not get fired or have your career ended. I'm glad we have the festival; I think it's a great tool for people who want to let loose for the weekend.

I think it's important to enjoy it for what it is. People take it too seriously, they're hell-bent on winning a stupid iMac and it really f----s with the good vibes.

I'm still waiting for that 2004 iMac to boot. Apart from that I'm now writing cutting edge scripts.

ANDREW LUMSDEN (TE RADAR), The Journey, 2004

The Journey was ostensibly a morality tale about two reprobates who during the course of a burglary find a video and watch it. This video sandwiched in the centre of the film, is the "real film", a religious exhortation by Jesse McCloud instructing his followers on how to join him on The Journey, beyond life as they know it.

When we cut back to the burglars watching the video they have mixed themselves a drink with ice cubes which are revealed in The Journey as a suicide mixture. They open their mouths and the ice cubes fall out, splunk splunk into their drinks. Fade to black. Sombre score. Roll credits.

It was my first and only entry in to the competition so it was nice to leave on a high. Probably the weirdest thing was that nothing went wrong. We kept to schedule, there were no fights or accidents and we had a good night's sleep before editing on the Sunday.

One of the prizes was a single ticket to LA. I used it in November 2004, to fly to a town called Pahrump in Nevada to film The Battle for Pahrump, about the US presidential race through the eyes of residents of a small swing state. I went back in 2008 and hope to go back again in November this year so the fortunes of the town and the characters can be seen played out over three elections and eight turbulent years. That will be the best result from the win. Since the film festival I've made a lot of TV, touring my history show Eating the Dog and sadly making no more films. I really should do another.

JARROD HOLT, Brown Peril, 2006 and Only Son, 2010

Brown Peril was the first film the downlowconcept, which is me, Ryan Hutchings and Nigel McCulloch, ever made. Nigel played badminton at some hall and his mum owned a video store, and we worked a story around that.

For Only Son (the first 48 Hour film to score at the Qantas Film and Television Awards) we asked the factory next door if we could film there for the weekend.

The most important thing for us is having a fun weekend, keeping it easy rather than busting a gut running round Auckland trying to get a sunset shot or making a cat look at the camera. That would be a great shot though, a cat staring down the barrel of the lens with the sun setting behind it. A classic.

We knew one actor, Josh Thomson, and he was keen, so we thought we'd have a crack. We've done it every year since 2006 except for 2011 when we were far too busy working on an internal communications video for the factory next door to us.

We like to have a small crew. It's usually just Nigel, Ryan and I, who write and direct together, our editor Glynis and somebody on the camera. We learnt pretty quickly to adapt on the day, because things invariably go wrong. Being nice to people who help you is the number one rule.

I'd hate to imagine what the future of New Zealand film- making would be if Ant Timpson hadn't created this event. It allows people to try things out, fail and succeed in equal measure, and watch their film on a big screen. It's incredible how resourceful New Zealand film-makers can be without a budget in 48 hours.

All those skills you learn in the competition affect the work you do in the future.

We now produce 7 Days and we've just finished our first scripted comedy series for TV3 - Hounds - based around the world of the greyhounds.

JARED KAHI, Lease, 2007

Lease by Lense Flare was about three musical flatmates forced to search for a fourth when the rent is raised. We entered the previous year with way too much confidence and completely bombed. This time our only goal was to have fun. We had no budget and some pretty lo-fi gear, but the V48 hour planets aligned.

Musical is one of the most feared genres, but for a team of mostly musicians, we were stoked. We sat down with an idea and a guitar and Lease wrote itself. We were content at having our film shown at the Civic regionals so when it was chosen as a Peter Jackson's wildcard finalist, and went on to win, it took us completely by surprise.

Making a film from scratch in 48 hours is not easy, but being forced into a corner teaches you to trust your ideas. Winning proved to us that we could be "film-makers".

Inevitably, there are always dramas putting the film to tape or exporting a quicktime file in the eleventh hour. Technical issues always find a way to trip you up, no matter how prepared you are. Then we always make the final frenzied dash for the finish line. Arriving at the venue is utter chaos with cars double parking up on the footpath, people leaping out of the car and sprinting towards the door. Every year some poor team sits on their laptop metres away from the finish line cursing at their slow- rendering film as the final seconds fall off the clock.

We poured all our prize money into buying an edit suite and have since worked on commercial jobs, music videos and our own short films.

V48 Hours launches careers and seeks out raw film-making talent. It gives anyone who loves film and fooling around with a camera a chance to see their film on the big screen. No amount of flash gear or money can guarantee a good story, and the varied panel of industry judges won't be fooled by bells and whistles.

PARRY JONES,

Charlotte, 2009

Charlotte was a line animation about a lonely widower who yearns for his late wife. My father, Morgan Jones, provided the voiceover that created a sad, nostalgic tone at a zero-fee rate.

I worked at Taylormade Media and every year crews would enter the V48Hours. I looked on in restrained envy and then in 2009 took the plunge and came out with a gold tooth.

I drew almost non-stop with a chinagraph on acetate for 21 hours. I think I suffered irreversible side effects. It was great being part of a small team and knowing so many other film- makers from around New Zealand were all in the same basket and by 7pm Sunday - basket cases.

Since the festival I have been doing stop-frame for Pickled Possum Productions, cartooning, carving. I am currently animating a short film for Short Film Otago. It's an essential event for NZ filmmakers young and old and nothing compares to the outpouring of unbridled creativity.

TIM BATT. The Child Jumpers, 2011

Our short, The Child Jumpers was a story about a new fad called Chumping - competitively jumping over kids in public places. The genre was Fad Movie but basically, it was a buddy film and we tried to make the movie equal parts sweet and funny.

I have competed four times before but last year joined the Grand Cheval team for the first time as an actor. When I've competed previously, it's been incredibly stressful, down to the wire (once missing deadline by minutes). Technology has failed, friendships have been tested and tears have been shed.

But last year everyone had their specific role sorted and I learned the importance of roles and trust. Everyone must know what their job is and the rest of the team has to believe in them.

Personally, I don't consider myself a film-maker but everyone, from Oscar-winning directors to high school teams, compete in this competition and the spirit of friendly competition and mutual love of the craft, combined with the time constraints bring out the fantastic shorts we see each year.

The festival takes away the mystique of film-making. It's low stakes - one weekend and a single entry fee so, worst case scenario, you've had a fun weekend, not lost a studio millions of dollars.

I now work full time at Radio Hauraki as Matt's producer on The Matt Heath Drive Show and I am a stand-up comedian. It's my first comedy festival show this year - Smokers, Jokers and Midnight Tokers.

Registration closes on May 10. Shoot weekend is May 18-20.

The grand final at the Civic Theatre, Auckland, is June 30.

More information: www.v48hours.co.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News