Music video up for top award

Kaitao Middle School media pupils Jahrelle Savage (left), 12, and Reef Allen, 13, are working on this year's video entry. Photo / Ben Fraser

A group of talented Rotorua school pupils have wowed international judges at the 2015 Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) awards.

Kaitao Middle School has been announced as the only New Zealand finalist for the Best Primary School Film Production category for its original music video, The Traveller.

Only three New Zealand schools are finalists across all primary and secondary categories.

Kaitao Middle School is up against three other productions - one from Lithgow High School in New South Wales and two from Filmbites Youth Film School in Western Australia.

The production of the music video was largely led by 13-year-olds Stacey James and Darelle Taia-King, but a number of pupils were involved.

The Traveller follows the journey of a girl from the future who seeks to escape the temporal prison she finds herself trapped in. It placed first in the 2014 Movie and Digital Excellence (MADE) awards for the Year 7 and 8 music video category.

Teacher Peter Boot said he was pleasantly surprised when he found out they were finalists.

"It was a bit of a last-minute entry, to be honest. We had done so well at the MADE awards so when we saw these awards we decided to enter on a whim.

"We kind of forgot about it until we got the call and were told we had made it to the top four. We were pretty surprised to say the least, but it was great news and we are hoping to get sponsorship to travel to Melbourne for the big awards evening next month."

Mr Boot said the music video was a project the students did each year specifically for the MADE awards. He said they would now take the ATOM awards into consideration when creating the film.

"At the end of the day, making these music videos is a bit of fun and a chance to be creative outside the school curriculum. The students enjoy the experience they get from it and often go on to do media-rich subjects at high school."

Mr Boot said this year's students, who were in the middle of making their own music video, had learned a lot from The Traveller.-Winners will be announced at the ATOM student awards evening on October 28 in Melbourne.