The six-and-a-half-minute short Baby Bird was filmed in Cathay Cinemas.
A group of aspiring Northland film-makers will see their work on the big screen after shooting a short film inside a cinema.
The film, created by M’Lago Morris alongside a team of young creatives from Kerikeri and Whangārei, will play before the feature film between May 16 and 20.
The project brought together six young people, aged 15-19, including former Kerikeri High students, a home-schooled student, Morris’ wife and friends from Northland and Auckland.
The film, Baby Bird, is a satirical take on 1990s romantic comedies, blending awkward humour, mistimed romance and comedy-of-errors storytelling. It was filmed inside Cathay Cinemas in Kerikeri.
Morris said the idea came together quickly.
“It sparked from a joke about making a short film about two girls fighting over a really awkward guy. Within minutes we had a rough idea of how the whole film would look.”
After writing the screenplay, they approached Cathay Cinemas owner Ross Churchouse for permission to film there.
“I had this whole pitch ready and before I could even present all of it, he jumped on the bandwagon and said we could do it before he had even asked what it was about,” Morris said.
He said the process started in February, with editing taking most of their time.
“It’s crazy going from trying to visualise it beforehand, writing a script, shooting it on the day, and then seeing how incredibly different it is when you actually get it in the editing software.”
Morris said they have submitted the short film to festivals in the United States, Poland, Australia as well as the Māoriland Film Festival, Show Me Shorts and the New Zealand Youth Film Festival.
Morris will continue studying film at Duke University and aims to one day head to Hollywood, where he hopes to continue carrying Kiwi humour and stories into future projects.
Churchouse said supporting local film-makers was an easy decision.
“I have always been an advocate for New Zealand film-makers and want to encourage more young film-makers into our industry by giving them the opportunity to create, learn and see their work on the big screen.”
He admitted that he agreed to the project before Morris got a chance to take it out of the folder.
Churchouse said he was impressed by the final product.
“I have seen many films like this over the last 26 odd years in the industry including as a judge for the 48hour film festival.
“The level of professionalism, editing etc is on par with anything else I’ve seen as far as a first short film goes. Yes it’s a little rough around the edges but this is a genuinely entertaining short film with some funny moments, drama, action and all in just six and a half minutes.”
The film was shot in about six hours with support from local film-maker Harley Alexander, of Creative Cavalry Productions, who assisted with equipment, sound recording and guidance.
Alexander is an award-winning film-maker with more than 25 years’ experience and said he was impressed by the young team and that Morris showed strong potential.
“He is very talented both as an actor and a film-maker. I think they did a remarkable job on it.”
He helped mentor the team through the process, including adapting the screenplay into a format suited for cinema.
“My background is in television and video and I was very lucky to have some amazing mentors when I was starting out my career…. I’ve also been mentoring and teaching kids around the Far North in schools how to produce films as well.
“So I’ve kind of known what they need to know and what’s helpful for them in order to create some great little videos and films that they’re producing.”
Alexander said he was impressed with the final product and believed it would do well in the festivals Morris has entered it into.
“It’s beautifully shot. He’s done a lovely job of cinematography. Also the other thing that was impressive was the young actors involved, they did a really fine job of bringing the story to life.
“I mean it’s a very simple story. It’s not complicated but it was well done.”
The film premieres on Saturday, 5.45pm at Cathay Cinemas Kerikeri and will be showing before The Devil Wears Prada 2.