Deadline looms for Make My Movie competition

Make My Movie entries are flooding in. Photo / Ant Timpson

The deadline for the close of the Make My Movie competition is looming, but entries are still flooding in.

Organisers of the homegrown film competition, which will see a budding filmmaker given $100,000 to make their dream movie, have been swamped with more than 670 entries.

The deadline is midnight tonight, and entrants are asked to submit a poster and script idea for their movie here.

The best one will be chosen by a panel including industry experts, with the public's opinion represented via social media, and filmmakers will be given money and support to make their film.

Event organiser Ant Timpson recently returned from the Fantastic Fest in Texas and spoke to filmmakers about working within small budgets.

"The one overriding thing that everyone came back to was that true talent can overcome any budget limitations," he said.

"It was super encouraging to talk to folks who have just completed phenomenal films for under $100,000. Some were genre and some weren't but all had big dollops of imagination and ingenuity on display."

Common themes had emerged among Make My Movie entrants.

These include the 'workers in space' movie, the 'government conspiracy' movie and the 'guy who wakes up and doesn't know who he is' movie.

Zombies, road trips and 'good guys forced to rob banks' were also common themes, Timpson said.

Once the competition closes tonight, a final 12 will be revealed on November 10 with voting open until November 30. The top two will be revealed on December 8, with both asked to write scripts.

The winner will be announced on January 26, with shooting and editing happening after that. The premiere is set for April.

Make My Movie is a collaboration between Ant Timpson, nzherald.co.nz, the Film Commission and NZ On Air.

Watch the third Make My Movie behind-the-scenes webisode here:

- Herald online