NZ On Screen is clearly looking for a fight. To mark the 120th anniversary of the first public film screening in New Zealand, the industry body has compiled a list of the top ten Kiwi films ever made. Let the arguing commence.
Browsing: film
Wonder what the future will look like? Hyper-Reality, a short film, takes a look into the crystal ball to reveal a world in which technology envelopes every aspect of human life.
Auckland’s Karangahape Road, known to locals simply as K road and formerly the hub of the city of sails’ seedy underbelly, has long been a subject of curiosity and ten short films soon to be released will tell stories inspired by one of New Zealand’s most famous locations.
As mobile phone technology has improved, there have been quite a few films and ads (like Bentley and Apple) made on them. But Land Rover and Y&R New York have taken it a step further recently with its 5 x 5 film project.
Misplaced golf balls, unbalanced dominos, a fraction of a hair’s width short of hitting the basket – all the pitfalls of creating a Rube Goldberg Machine. They’re whimsical contraptions designed to complete the simplest tasks in the most complicated way possible, and one Kiwi’s made art out of it.
Wellington or Wellywood as it is affectionately (or scathingly) known remains the film capital of New Zealand, while Auckland is the TV capital, according to information released by Statistics NZ on the screen industry revenue from last year.
When Apple first contacted the producers of ‘Sunday’, an independent film set in post-earthquake Christchurch, made by a group of New Zealanders and Australians, the producers weren’t surprised. What they’re doing is a world first in film distribution, and an experiment in tackling Internet piracy. As of 7 December, ‘Sunday’ will be the first independent film to be launched over five different distribution platforms at the same time.
Only a few days after picking up a few lions at Cannes, Saatchi & Saatchi’s creative director Corey Chalmers found himself among the winners at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Pitted against over 300 entrants from across the world, Chalmers’ film ‘Whisker’, which tells the story of man trying to win a beard-growing competition, walked away with the prestigious Future Filmmaker Award. The film was a collaborative effort, in the sense that it was written by Chalmers and then directed and produced by Steve Saussey and Yoland Dewey of Stuff and Nonsense Ltd.
Two of New Zealand’s four shortlisted entries picked up gongs in the film category at Cannes, with Clemenger BBDO’s ‘Mistakes’ winning a gold lion and DDB’s ‘Be the Artist’ winning a bronze.
Four Kiwi entries have been shortlisted for awards in the Cannes Film category, with DDB, Clemenger and Saatchi & Saatchi all in with a chance to pick up some silverware at the ceremony.
As traditional boundaries around production and advertising start to blur, some of the more progressive companies are doing much more than just filming pretty pictures. Motion Sickness Studio, which kicked into gear in Dunedin around 18 months ago, could be placed in that category. And now it’s moved north to try and get a slice of the content creation market in Auckland. Co-founder Sam Stuchbury sits down for a chat.
Flying Fish director Joe Lonie’s 12 minute film Honk If You’re Horny won big at the annual Show Me Shorts Film Festival, taking out best director, best film and best actor for veteran Andy Anderson’s “gripping, humorous” performance as a lascivious taxi driver telling a filthy story. And, with this festival being New Zealand’s only Academy Award-accredited film event, it means the film is eligible to enter the 2015 Oscar awards in the short film category.
Every year for the past eleven years, teams of furious filmmakers—some amateur, some professional—from around New Zealand have given up two days of their lives to partake in the Rialto Channel 48 Hours, “New Zealand’s largest guerrilla filmmaking competition”. 44 teams took part in 2004 and more than 800 took part this year. And a team with some strong connections to the world of marcomms were named as grand champions.
Video content is still something of a teacher’s pet in the world of marketing and, in an age of sharing, the best of it lives on online. So drink in the ads and brand-funded video deemed to be the world’s best: the main winners from the Film and Film Craft categories at Cannes.
DraftFCB’s having a brilliant Cannes Lions, DDB’s doing better than expected and took out one of the biggest awards on the roster, and usual top performer Colenso BBDO hasn’t had much to write home about. Now DDB’s in line for three more awards after the release of the Film shortlist.
Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia has teamed up with upcoming Super Man movie Man of Steel (out here in New Zealand 27 June) to coat tail on its coolness – and boy is it cool.
Film duo Campbell Hooper and Joel Kefali (aka Special Problems) permiered their short film Echoes at Cannes last month to some of the biggest names in the global film industry.
Coat-tailing on the success of The Hobbit trilogy is paying off for Tourism New Zealand and it says it’s a strategy that will feature heavily in the organisation’s three-year plan for marketing the country to the rest of the world.
Creative folk are always coming up with ideas and finding ways to execute them during the day and then going home and doing the same thing at night, whether it’s a business, an app, a film or some other diversion. Saatchi & Saatchi’s digital creative director Nathan Cooper is certainly in that category, and, with the help of a few industry friends, he has just released his first short film about “a perilous journey across the gulf of booze-induced amnesia” called The Beer Scooter.
New Zealand band The Naked and Famous uses Reddit to promote new live concert film. What started as a promotion quickly grew into a question and answer session with fans and newcomers alike.
Adam Strange was killed in a shark attack as he swam off Muriwai beach last night, and tributes are flowing for a great father and husband and a talented artist and TVC director. Updated with trust account details.
Kiwi directing duo Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, collectively known as Mark & Louis, have picked up a Grand Prix at the Berlin International Film Festival for their feature Shopping. And, in more good news for The Sweet Shop gang, it has also been named as one of Creativity magazine’s stand-out production companies of 2012.
String Theory’s last brilliant viral effort for the Good Books charity, Metamorphosis, recently took gold and bronze at the London International Awards, and it could have another winner on its hands, as Havana Heat, the next innuendo-heavy, bodice-ripping Mills and Boon-themed instalment has just been released. And, coincidentally, it’s been created by The Mill of London, which won production company of the year at the same awards.
“But I had that idea.” Spend any time in an agency creative department and you’ll hear that a lot. It’s usually true. In fact, if I think back a decade to adschool (and communications theory before that) there’s a well-founded, pointy-headed theory that there are only seven creative territories. And, just like the seven musical notes, true creativity is about the song you choose to write. So what better place to explore that theory than through the winners of this year’s Film Lions? I spotted six of the seven core thoughts—same old ideas, incredible craft. Or, to mis-quote Edison, one percent inspiration, 99 percent execution.
he means of distribution might be changing, but there’s still no better way to convey emotion and tell stories than with video content, whether it be a traditional TVC, a short film or an interactive music video. So herewith, all the gold winners from the film and film craft categories at Cannes.
From 15,000 entries, two of Media Design School’s student short films—Dr Grordborts Presents: The Deadliest Game and Das Tub—have made it into the top 50 for the YouTube Your Film Festival and now the school is calling on Kiwis to help boost the films into the top ten. If that happens, the films will screen at the 2012 Venice Film Festival and a grand jury including director Ridley Scott will decide on the overall winner.
Despite continuing media fragmentation and the rise of digital, TV remains the undoubted glamourpuss of advertising. And the boffins on the Film jury at Cannes, an awards ceremony widely regarded as the gold standard for the creative industries, chose what they deemed to be the best TV ads in the world recently. So here they are, in all their glory.
They used to be called the Qantas Film and Television Awards, but after Qantas grounded all its flights (metaphorically speaking) last year for this and the Media Awards, the name of the screen industry’s night of nights has now been changed to the Aotearoa Film & Television Awards (AFTAs) and Aviso Design has created a new logo that ThinkTV chief executive Rick Friesen says better reflects the nature of the awards.
We left the best until last, but Kiwi agencies picked up three Lions on the last night at Cannes, with Colenso taking home five of the six local Lions won in this year’s festival of creativity.
After last year’s big haul for the Kiwi agencies at Cannes, 2011 is looking decidedly average. But there’s still a chance for some late glory after DDB and Colenso picked up two nominations each in the film category.