Taupō anti-bullying film an excellent adventure for Oscar and friends

Titled Oscar's Excellent Adventure, the short film is a fun, light-hearted look at the serious issue of bullying and cyber bullying.

Niki Wright of Anamata Cafe says the movie came about because Anamata Cafe is expanding its youth development services and the movie was a cool opportunity to create something by young people around a really current topic.

"It was trying to showcase from a young person's perspective how they might navigate through situations where they're being bullied and options they might have, the experiences of trying different options and the different emotions that they might feel.

"It's supporting young people to develop skills to navigate bullying and mental health and our role in Anamata Cafe is to provide opportunities that facilitate young people to develop those skills."

Anamata Cafe put a call out on social media, through schools and through the community for young people interested in working on the film project and wound up with a group of nine students aged between 12 and 17 who were keen to be involved.

The group worked together to come up with the concept and Joel brought in screenwriter Denise Edmonds who helped the group pull together something appropriate for the screen.

"They did two workshops of around five hours each," says Niki. "The first one was around developing the script and the second one was filming, costume, makeup and they went to the Spa Park and the rugby league fields next to the hockey turf."

Everybody in the group had a role in the film and Taupō Intermediate student Oscar McDougall, 13, who attends Act 2 drama school, was chosen as the lead character, who finds himself being bullied. Oscar has had quite a lot of acting experience but says acting for film was quite different to acting for stage.

"On stage you tend to have to say exactly the words you've been given but here you can really improvise, really get into your character which I loved.

"It [film-making] definitely takes a little bit longer than I would have thought but it was worth it and the end result was incredible and Joel and the whole crew, it was such a great experience."

Oscar says at the start he only knew a couple of the other students but through the progress of the project, they all connected really well together and had an amazing time. The topic of bullying was something that resonated with everyone so it wasn't hard to come up with a concept for the film.

"There were a couple of young people that went seriously deep and it's such a massive problem."

The movie was made over a week in August and then Joel took the film away and edited it into the final cut. He says that the process of film-making taught the young people valuable new skills.

"They learned not just film-making but increased their self-confidence, interpersonal skills, communication skills and made some new friends."

Niki says because the young people were super-excited about seeing the finished version, Anamata Cafe held a small screening for them and their families, swore them to secrecy after and asked for their thoughts.

"The feedback was really positive and there's quite a huge appetite for more around filmmaking and acting and the arts."

The group making the movie decided it would be timely to release it this week as it is Mental Health Week and bullying is a key contributor to young people's mental health.

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Anamata Cafe clinical leader Maree Ginger says her staff regularly hear of students having problems with bullying including cyber bullying, which can make a young person feel there is nowhere safe they can retreat to.

Niki says Anamata Cafe has seen a real need for services that enable young people to cope with bullying situations and help them move forward so it would like to see the Oscar's Excellent Adventure go out wider. It has approached schools in Taupō, Tūrangi, Rotorua, Reporoa, Tokoroa and hopes it can also be showcased nationwide through the national network of 11 youth one-stop shops that it is a part of.

"We've approached a number of schools and they are really excited and receptive to being able to showcase something made by young people for young people."

Oscar says while he hasn't been a victim of bullying himself, he does know people who have.

"They are so sad and put themselves down."

He says his message to other young people is that bullying is a really hard thing to get through.

"Think twice about what you are saying to people: is it really nice, is it really needed and how does it affect them?"