Mother’s Day sets the scene for silent film competition entry

Daisy Cooper’s silent film has been selected as one of the best in the New Zealand final of the International Youth Silent Film Festival. She is home schooled with Pikowai’s Malachi Steel (right) who also has a film in the final, and Jack Turner who was a cameraman for Daisy and an actor for Malachi.

Broken eggs, learning to ride a farm bike and working with an animal were all challenges in the making of Mother’s Day Surprise.

The three-minute silent film was written and directed by Pongakawa 14-year-old Daisy Cooper, who is one of the 16 young film-makers selected for the New Zealand final of the International Youth Silent Film Festival (IYSFF).

She was helped by three other students who are collectively home-schooled. They also jointly worked on fellow student Malachi Steel’s submission, Mum’s Star, another finalist. The students’ parents take it in turns to teach them.

Malachi’s father is former Film Bay of Plenty chief executive Anton Steel and it was Anton who told the students about the competition, and loaned them a camera to use.

“We thought, why not use his expertise to do a school project,” says Daisy’s mum, Jo.

It was Daisy’s first experience of film-making.

“He showed it to us and said it would be cool to enter, so we did,” she says.

The start point was selecting the score that would soundtrack the film.

“We listened to all of them and we chose which one was our favourite - we both [Daisy and Malachi] used the same one.

“We had to decide what sounded happy, what sounded sad and what could happen at those times.”

Daisy’s lead character - played by home-school student Harry Turner - wakes to find it’s Mother’s Day - and decides to treat his mum to breakfast.

Things don’t go smoothly and he ends up with broken eggs in his hair and being chased by a dog, the Steel family’s Zoe.

Despite the trials of getting breakfast ready, the story does have a happy ending for Mum, played by Jo.

Both Harry and Zoe are finalists in the best actor category at the awards.

Among the challenges was finding ways to keep the eggshell in Harry’s hair, and shooting the motorbike scene with Harry riding an unfamiliar machine.

“It was also hard doing the egg-cracking scene because we didn’t have too many eggs,” says Daisy.

The film was made on the farm where the students are home-schooled and Jack had the honour of being cameraman.

Jack and Harry were away at the start of the process.

“[Daisy and Malachi] ended up with the responsibility of writing and when [Harry and Jack] came back it was time to get into the costumes and props and working out what was going to happen, so they all collaborated in terms of making the film,” says Jo.

Daisy says it was a surprise to be named as a finalist.

“I never really thought that I was going to be one of them. [When I found out] I was excited and how I’m excited to see if we are going to win anything.”

All the movies will be screened at the awards night at Baycourt Theatre in Tauranga on November 2.

The annual IYSFF competition challenges Kiwi film-makers under 23 to create a three-minute silent film set to one of 10 musical scores specifically composed for the festival.

This unique fusion of music and visuals takes viewers on an unforgettable journey, relieving film-makers from the pressure of recording dialogue and audio.

Finalists are all competing for a cash prize pool of $3000 awarded to the top three films.

There are also six “best of” category awards up for grabs.

Organisers have also introduced the new Kōhungahunga – Fledgling Filmmaker Award, which celebrates the artistry of filmmakers aged 12 and under.

The top two films, along with the new Kōhungahunga – Fledgling Filmmaker winner, will all automatically represent New Zealand at the annual IYSFF Global Awards in Portland, Oregon, USA, scheduled for June 2024.

“Experiencing the NZ Awards for the first time live in 2022 helped cement for me what an incredible opportunity this competition provides for young Kiwi creatives. The IYSFF is an important date in our annual programme, and we’re delighted to continue our support into its eighth year and beyond,” said Baycourt manager Reena Snook.

Since its debut at Baycourt in 2016, five Kiwi films have received international acclaim at the Global Awards.

“We cannot wait to share our filmmakers’ incredible stories and creativity with everyone. It will be a night of pure excitement, so don’t miss this opportunity to witness the next generation of film-making talent in New Zealand.”