Taupō group's little flick 'Sacrifarce' snags big win

Great Lake Film Society director Joel Corbett and script writer Denise Edmonds discuss the Taupō filmmaking scene. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

Spooky noises, scary masks, fake blood and snacks - it's the perfect scene for a sacrifice.

Except it was a movie called Sacrifarce which won top honours for The Great Lake Film Society at the BOP final of the 48 Hour Film Project.

The Society won best film, Joel Corbett won best director, and the group also won best script and best editing.

It is now an anxious wait for the group as judges pore over the regional winners and select the 10 best five-minute films to go through to the national finals.

As the name would suggest, teams have just 48 hours to write, shoot and edit their films.

Script writer Denise Edmonds says they basically accept the fact there will be no sleep for 48 hours as they put together their entry each year.

It's the second time the group has won the regional final, and they are hoping their enthusiasm and success will help to inspire more filmmakers to set up their own groups.

Corbett says they are not able to prepare much in advance of the contest and are only handed the genre for their movie at the start of the 48 hours. This time, it was 'Comedy of errors'.

The Society got their film in just one minute before the deadline.

Without giving too much away - films are released after judging - Josh says their film is a "cult summoning movie where nothing goes to plan", and it's pretty funny by all accounts.

"When we all get into a room, it spontaneously leads to magic," Corbett says.

The Society has up to 12 people who regularly get involved and is a pretty varied bunch, including teachers, a museum conservator, filmmakers and scientists.

"It's good to have people who can act and move the lights around. We rely hugely on Joel with all his gear and all his experience," Edmonds says.

Corbett is a professional filmmaker.

"It's my bread and butter and I definitely love it."

He says it would be great if more people could get involved, as it's a good break from everyday life.

"The older people get, the less time you have to do these things on the weekend. Our role is to foster a good film community in town."

Denise says they all have families, young kids and partners, but they still get out there and do things in the community, like through the colleges.

"It would be so good to get more groups going in Taupō."

Corbett says they were the only team from Taupō, and there were about 30 teams competing.

"Every year we do quite well, but we are never satisfied about doing something normal - we want to do something out of the box and super entertaining."

To get the film made, they stayed until 2am on Saturday morning getting the story sorted out and figuring out what the characters were to look like, and then it was into the filming.

This year, they filmed in Centre Stage; last year, it was in Nuki's Boxing Gym, and the time before, it was in someone's house.

Just because they won the regional final doesn't mean automatic entry to the national finals, though. Judges shortlist the top 10 to go through.