Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) has a number of staff, students and graduates involved in the HP48 Hours Film competition Grand Final nominated team, Super furious Ninja Dragon.
A few key members of this team being Matt Inns (Director), James Wilkinson (Cinematographer) and Steven Woller (Producer). New Zealand’s largest guerrilla filmmaking competition, the HP48 has been running for 16 years and hundreds of teams from across New Zealand dedicated the weekend of 11-13 May to creating a short film.
The teams do not find out until the start of the competition which genre they will have to adhere to and all creativity, including writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack must take place within the 48 hour timeframe.
Both first-time filmmakers and experienced directors are welcome to take part, and for the SIT based team, Super Furious Ninja Dragon, it is their third year competing. It is now also the second year running that they have been included as Wild Card nominees in the Grand Final.
The top 15 films from across the country are selected for the Grand Final and there are then three wild card selections made by Sir Peter Jackson. Super Furious Ninja Dragon has now had the honour of being selected for the second year in a row as a Wild Card team.
In 2017, three of the team travelled to Auckland to attend the Grand Final, with team member James Wilkinson taking home the National Award for Best Cinematography. This year the Grand Final will take place tomorrow evening, Saturday 14 July at the Civic Theatre in Auckland. Although the team are unable to travel to Auckland for this year’s finals, they are still immensely proud of their efforts and greatly appreciate their nomination.
Producer Steven Woller explains, “this year we really pushed the limits of what we could do in the time required and I feel like everyone did really amazing work just getting the film completed on time. To be nominated on top of it is testament to the skills of the crew”.
Along with being nominated for the Grand Final, Super Furious Ninja Dragon also has nominations for Best Sound Design (Nick McGrath), Best Production Design (Steven Woller) and Best use of Door Slam (one of the random elements that was a requirement of the films).
A selection of top international film people will be judging the films at the Grand Finals tomorrow evening and will make the final decision on who takes home the grand prize