Barton Peveril Sixth Form College Media Students have been awarded the Watch Out for the Youth prize at the DVMISSION Film Festival.
The DVMISSION: The 48 Hour Film Challenge is known to be a film festival where creative filmmakers can display their films that were made in the preceding 48-hour period. The film-competition celebrated its 18th birthday with all at the awarded members.
For the challenge to begin, teams are provided a genre, title and a line of dialogue at 5pm on the 3rd of March which then allows teams to begin their 48-hour film making, each team is then expected to return on the 5th of March at 4pm with a complete film. The following weekend, on the 11th March, all teams gathered together to celebrate the culmination of the films created.
The students who attended the competition as a team, also known as: House of Cards:
Writer and Director of the 2-minute film, Nat Beverley-Smith and Ryan Hope, Rebecca Serecut as Director of Photography, Jess Wallace as Assistant Cinematographer and supporting directing, Frey Clinton in Writing, and Actors, Jaden Cooper, Sophie Pescops and Emily Hamilton.
Nat formerly of Fareham Academy reflects on his experience:
Personally, I have watched this particular competition from the sidelines for many years, and finally felt I was in a position to meet the challenge. There’s something really wonderful about the community that this network has built that I wanted to be a part of. Their competition wasn’t about who had the nicest camera, or the highest quality special effects; it was about telling a story, and having fun along the way.
The students were provided with the film genre, Space Opera and their title must include Chronicles with their required line of dialogue as ‘Don’t lean on me man, you can’t afford the ticket’. With the proposed obstacles, Team House of Cards created The Vaporwave Chronicles.
Clinton and Pescops, former students of The Henry Cort Community College also speak on their experience:
I learnt the importance of coming up with the whole story of the film before coming up with a script, it made it so much easier and I really enjoyed it as it’s something I’ve never done before and I did it with really cool people who share the same passions and interests.
It was amazing to see all the other teams and the wide variety of their work, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of filming and being able to see it come together while we worked as a team. I would most definitely be up for taking on this challenge again and would recommend it to anyone since it provides you with a great sense of reward, and I really hope this is something I can take part in once more next year!
Rebecca Serecut, formerly of Testwood School exclaims:
What I enjoyed most about the experience was seeing an idea we had just come up with the night before, come to life so quickly; no waiting, we were on it the next morning and I loved that!
Former student of St George Catholic College says:
I have learnt that there is so much more to a film than what meets the eye. As an actor this gives me a massive sense of appreciation for all the creativity that goes into a film and not just what we see on screen. Something that I would take away from this is that it is incredibly beneficial to challenge yourself and take risks no matter what role you take on in a project. I am insanely proud of all of us and hope that we all get to do something like this again!
Students, Freya Clinton, Ryan Hope, Rebecca Serecut, Jess Wallace and Nat Beverley-Smith plan to pursue media production careers after further education and hope to re-enter the competition as a team in future years.
Former students from Fareham Academy:
Jaden Cooper says:
My favourite part of the experience was the awards night where we watched everyone’s amazing attempts at the challenge and saw how they interpreted the genre selection and the compulsory line. When we were nominated for the award I couldn’t believe it but to see that we had won I was speechless, for such a great selection of mini films competing and us winning an award seemed unrealistic!
Ryan Hope says:
The recording process may have been hard, but when it came to the awards night, and seeing our film on the screen with hundreds of people watching, it made the whole experience feel really rewarding.
Judges’ comments on House of Cards film:
Took us on a journey, had some energy to it, played into the idea of being a space opera.
Teacher of Media Studies, Laura Barbey responds to the students’ success:
We are incredibly proud of a supremely talented group of young people who put together a brilliant short film in only 48 hours. Their win is testament to their ability to bring their individual talents together to work as a unit for a common goal, an achievement like this is simply not possible without teamwork as well as talent. Congratulations to the team.
