Big break for intern at Weta

A talented young Hawke's Bay student has been hand-picked for an internship at famous Wellington studio Weta Workshop.

Film great Sir Richard Taylor made the career-making offer after he saw media coverage of 20-year-old EIT Video and Electronic Media student Rosemary Reid's short film.

Rosemary scripted, directed, edited and made the props and models for Dorps Held, which is Dutch for Village Hero, about a true story set in World War II.

Filmed in Napier, Rosemary said she chose the low-budget option of making her own models of buildings to compensate for the lack of an authentic WWII Holland set.

"It took me about six months to make the models," she said. "They are basically just foam board and card, but it was worth it because he saw them and said 'I think you should come down for some work experience.'

"It's actually quite a surreal thing because normally that doesn't happen to just anybody. It's just luck, really."

Rosemary said the film centred around a Dutch boy rescued from punishment at the hands of his employer, a Nazi soldier, by a brave housekeeper.

The film screened at Reading Cinemas in Napier last week.

Last Monday Rosemary started the two-week internship she said could make or break her film career.

"I'm thinking it will mostly be about model making but, if there is anything that they want me to do then that's cool, that's great.

"Ideally, I would get offered a job but just the opportunity and hopefully making some contacts would be great."