Short Film Competition

Reported by ELC

    The Short Film Competition was introduced in 2015 to provide an opportunity for students to explore their creativity through digital filmmaking, to create a platform for students to pick up valuable skills and knowledge in visual design and production and to build team spirit among students. It is the second time this competition has been held and this year we received an encouraging response especially from the senior levels. Students were guided through in preparing their short films by their respective English teachers before the videos were shortlisted for the finals. 

This year’s competition is said to be notably tougher than previous year, as one of the requirements needed participants to include positive messages in their short film, inspired by a published story/novel or be based on one of the 7 habits of Highly Effective People stated below:

1. Be proactive

2. Begin with the end in mind

3. Put first things first  

4. Think win-win   

5. Seek first to understand then to be understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the saw

    It was indeed a challenging task for all students to get their short films completed. Some faced problems in editing, recording and using the most sophisticated devices in getting their creative work done. This competition has created opportunities for students to have practical experience in key areas such as video shooting techniques, editing skills, audio inserting and credits and finally producing a quality video. 

    There were many interesting and creative videos produced. The quality of the competition this year was noticeably better than previous year. However, only 6 best entries were chosen from a total of 23. It was definitely a difficult decision for the judges as they were truly amazed with such talents and creativity that our students have in short filmmaking. The judging criteria are based on 6 elements which are storytelling, use of language, creativity and originality, actor’s performances or voice-overs, technical execution and overall impression. The participants had really put in a lot of effort as well as used some effective techniques in creating their videos. 

Below are the 6 Best entries of the Short Film Competition for the year 2016:

Congratulations to all winners and participants of this year’s Short Film Competition. For those who did not win any prizes, do not be discouraged, you can still try next year! The prizes for this year’s competition were sponsored by Cambridge University Press. Each winner was presented with a certificate and a Cambridge dictionary.

Travis Ching Jia Yea, Bryan Chan Zhing Huey, Heng Khai Je, Tan Xun, Ng Mu Yun 

(Winners of The Best Entry, “Perfect Crime” from S3 Manchester)

Short film may sound like an easy task, as it's just a five-minute long video. But contrary to that belief, it is actually more challenging when there is a time constraint and you have so much to tell. This time, we wanted to try something different, to bring back the classics, that is why we chose "Film Noir" as our theme. We are so used to watching movies with stunning effects, we tend to forget how it all started. Yes, it is quite a challenge to act without speech, as viewers focus more on our actions and expressions, but we still rose to the challenge. As for equipment, we worked with a one lens camera set up of a Canon 6D paired with a 24-70 lens. For lighting, we used a bicycle lamp as an alternative to strobes to manipulate the scene. This helped us to recreate the high contrast look of a "Film Noir" genre (a style of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace).

Chan Ying Ting, Heong Min Hui, Sam Ee May, Tong Xiang Lin

 (Winners of the Best Entry, “Jasmine” from S1 Ottawa)

Making a short film, from scriptwriting to filming and lastly editing, took a lot of our time. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience. It was an exciting journey because to us this was not just a project but we wanted to do this short film to motivate and influence people. We really hope that everyone will get the message that we want to deliver. Lastly, we would like to thank everyone for appreciating our work.