Mercury Bay Area School

The search is on to find our filmmakers of the future. Some of the most world famous
directors started their careers making short films with home equipment. At the age of 8
Speilberg wrote and directed a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight for his
scout merit badge - at the age of 10 Coppola began making movies with his father's 8mm
movie camera. So now it's your turn to see where your talent can take you.

Let your imagination go wild and show us what you can do inspired by these titles of old NZ movies.
Make your own 4-6 minute film and be in to win some great prizes.  Entries close 25th June. 

Prizes: 1st $100 Paper Plus voucher, 2nd $50 Paper Plus voucher 

If you need gear to make your film please make an appointment to see Mrs McDougall.

Choose from these titles for your film:

Guidelines for MBAS Shorts

•  The competition is open to any production team of students who are currently enrolled at Mercury Bay Area School.
• The submitted video may be no longer than 6 minutes, and no shorter than 4 minutes.
• You must choose the title of your film from the list below. These are all titles of previous NZ films. You will interpret your title as you see fit, and base your movie around that. Please do NOT “remake” the original film.
• The submitted video should fit within the categories of mini-documentary, mini-drama/fiction or experimental/animation. It may be in Te Reo. Ads and music videos are not eligible.
• Each video must be the work of the students only (although the assistance of the supervising teacher at various stages of the production is permitted and expected.) Actors within the production may be any age.
• If music is used on the video, it must be original music or you must have written permission from the artist. (See Mrs McDougall for more information)
• It is the responsibility of the entrant to ensure DVDs submitted are playable on a standard home DVD player. We suggest testing them on several players to make sure, as discs that do not play will not be judged. A data disc containing video files such as QuickTime will not be acceptable as a primary entry disk, due to potential codec difficulties, but may be included as backup.
• No videos that are “objectionable” will be considered. According to law, a video is rated objectionable if it “describes, depicts, expresses, or otherwise deals with matters such as sex, horror, crime cruelty, or violence in such a manner that the availability of the publication is likely to be injurious to the public good”. (see Mrs McDougall if you are unsure)
• These guidelines have largely been taken from the “Cut!” competition run by Wintec. Cut! is a national competition for secondary school filmmakers.  Students are challenged to create a 4 – 6 minute short film on any topic. Entry is free and there is a great collection of prizes to be won. This competition usually closes in September so the idea of this competition is to inspire you to enter Cut!