Short on time, big on talent

Brendon Tipene (left), Lachlan Morris and Kyle Duligall, of Havelock North High School, along with friend Chavez Farquahar (absent), won three awards at The Rialto Channel's 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking competition's regional final. Photo / Duncan Brown

Sleep deprived and high on adrenaline, a group of Hawke's Bay students managed to make a movie.

The Rialto Channel's 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking competition motto - write, shoot, cut, survive - kicked into force as Havelock North High's Brendan Tipene, Lachlan Morris, Kyle Duligall and Taikura Rudolf Steiner School student Chavez Farquahar got to work last month.

After being allocated a genre: mistaken identity; line of dialogue: "oh really?" and a name: Harper Harrison, all to be included in the short film - they spent the next 48 hours making it happen.

A text came in at 7pm on Friday night with all the vital details - from that point on they didn't stop.

Working against the clock, they scripted, filmed and edited - forging ahead on a diet of coffee, loud music, copious amounts of food - and not a wink of sleep.

"We came up with a script in the first, it all clicked pretty quickly - it was just a bunch of ideas combined, then we went to Te Mata Peak and started filming the next morning," Morris said.

Farquahar took the lead role, though all four had a keen interest in acting and film-making, having worked on various other short movies since Intermediate.

"There are a couple that we have made in the past, we are pretty good at horrors - and we all take media at school."

The 48-hour project was not only a positive experience but a taste of what it's like to work under pressure for the Year 13 students who hope to study at the New Zealand Film School in Wellington next year.

Their five-minute movie was screened alongside other entries from the Gisborne region - where the best were awarded and finalists sent through to a grand final.

Their creation aptly titled Identity received 11 nominations and came away with honours for Best School Film, Best Artistic Direction and Best Cinematography - earning them a $1400 Canon voucher.

As a close knit group of friends, they pooled the money to buy equipment for an on-going production venture called Wild Bull Films.

Unfortunately it was not picked to screen at the nationals but Morris was hopeful it may be one of five wildcards, personally selected by Peter Jackson.

The competition, now in its 13th year began in 2003 with just 44 teams in Auckland - since then it has seen huge growth with 800 groups entered from throughout New Zealand last year.

It's touted as a serious challenge for anyone from first timers to professional film-makers, meaning competition is fierce.