Big screen, big dreams

What do you get when you team a robbery, a murder, a gang of teenage thugs and a very tight deadline? Calida Smylie reports.
Slightly awkward at first against the stark white backdrop of her mother's spare room wall, Claris Jacobs quickly warms back into her role as Investigator Stephanie for our camera.
The 17-year-old gives an excellent "Sherlock Holmes on the scent of a scandal" impression.
The Year 12 Western Springs student is a member of the Pickle Thugs, a group of 10 teenagers which won the best editing, best cinematography, and "Best Damn Teen Team" awards at the Auckland final of the V48 hour film challenge.
The challenge began when festival organisers allocated Pickle Thugs the genre of crime to start creative juices working. The group's first obstacle was coming up with a thrilling plotline quickly - as filming started early the next morning. They concocted Nearest and Dearest, a murder mystery drama with a caustic twist at the end.
The short film was directed and edited by St Kentigern student Calvin Sang, whose talents Claris can't praise highly enough. "He's amazing. He's so inspirational. Calvin is totally the reason we did well."
Calvin even held auditions within the group to quell debate on who would get each part.
The smooth professionalism of the group is clear - it beat around 270 other teams to be selected for the Auckland finals - but mortifying moments belie typical teenage angst.
"It's pretty tough when you're doing a take in front of all your friends and they're laughing at you," admits Claris. "I was really embarrassed at first."
By far the best part of the challenge for the group was handing in the finished product. "You get the most awesome feeling as you hand it in at the finish line," says Claris.
This isn't the first time the Pickle Thugs have entered the V48 hour film challenge. "When we ran up, the judges remembered us from previous years, and they just said, 'Oh, not you lot again'."
Most of the group attended Michael Park School together, a Rudolf Steiner primary school in Ellerslie, and first entered the competition when they were 11. That's six years of honing their film-making skills.
The persistence is paying off. This is their first year in the Auckland finals, although they have won the Best Damn Teen Team award before.
Disappointingly, the team didn't make it to the grand final, but Claris cheerfully contends she's just happy to get so far. "This is the best we've done so we're obviously getting better - next year we'll go even further."
And there will "definitely, definitely" be an entry from the illustrious Pickle Thugs next year. Claris says the friends are drawn together to compete in the film challenge every year because it's their only chance to have a good catch-up.
"We're such good friends. That's the bond that keeps us coming back but, because we all go to different high schools, this is our only social situation we have together."
This sometimes makes focusing on making a film a little tricky. "There's always so much news to catch up on that we stay up all night gossiping. We really don't get much sleep the whole 48 hours."
Claris credits the "incredible team spirit" of the group with keeping them going. This along with immense amounts of adrenalin. "I was so tired afterwards, I just collapsed."
Their intense 48 hour effort was justly rewarded.
"When we found out we won those three awards it was exhilarating. We all stood up and screamed and screamed."
The team earned more accolades when it heard Claris had been nominated for best actress for her role as the good cop. While she didn't win, she sees it as a hopeful sign for the future.
The teen is keeping her options open, and is considering applying to London's prestigious RADA acting school. "I love the film industry. I love the costume design, editing, directing and creative writing elements of it - but acting best of all."
Claris realised at the young age of 11 how exciting it was to be an actor - during the auditions Calvin put his friends through for the first 48 hour film challenge they entered.
Now, Claris - who counts Anna Paquin and the Flight of the Conchords as her main inspirations - focuses on a possible future in acting. As well as taking acting at school for NCEA, she attends drama classes at TAPAC performing arts school and has participated in the Auckland Theatre Company's summer school programme.
Claris believes when the Pickle Thugs first started out, they were the only young group involved in the 48 hour film challenge. Now, a number of high school students are involved. "We started the trend," states Claris proudly.
To continue this fruitful tradition, the Pickle Thugs will participate in the challenge for as long as they can.
"Obviously it will get harder to meet up when we're all at university in a few years time, but I'll definitely fly back for a weekend- even from London- to do the film challenge if I can!"
Cut to the chase

V48 hour film challenge is New Zealand's biggest film festival.
Competitors have just one weekend to write, film, and edit a short film (1-7 minutes). Teams must include any required random element such as a line of dialogue or prop, and stick to the genre allocated.
The teams do not know what genre they will get until the start of the competition.
This year's competition was held from 7pm Friday May 20 until 7pm Sunday May 22.
The New Zealand-wide grand final is being held at the Civic on July 2.