Pompallier Catholic College year 13 student D'Artagnan Gould. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Pompallier Catholic College year 13 student D'Artagnan Gould. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Draped in a superman costume, a Pompallier Catholic College student has won a grand prize of many laughs and $3000 in a road safety short film competition.
Northland Road Safety Trust (NRST) in partnership with Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD) introduced the "Drive in the Moment" road safety initiative to secondary schools in Whangārei and Kaipara. It has been designed to help drivers reduce their smartphone use behind the wheel.
The purpose of the
competition is to encourage young drivers to engage with the website/toolkit, develop a plan that will work for them, and put away the phone while driving.
The total prize pool was set at $5000, where the first place received $3000, the second $1500, and the third $500.
Whangārei Rotary Club had put up their hand to sponsor first place, while Northland Road Safety Trust funded the rest.
Pompallier Catholic College Year 13 student D'Artagnan Gould, 17, submitted a four-minute video titled "Superhero" which was selected the best by a panel of three judges.
In the video, Gould could be seen wearing a Superman costume who thought he was invincible but faced a tragic end. Filled with comic timings, wit, and a strong message, the video was made with the help of his mates Blair Oxenham and Sean Clarke.
Gould said the goal was to give the video a homemade VHS kind of feel, so he felt the better option was to improvise on set rather than relying heavily on a script.
"We weren't short on time filming the video, so we preferred to spend extra time trying different ideas, and seeing what worked and what didn't. This meant a lot of footage was cut out during editing."
D'Artagnan Gould won the first prize at Northland Road Safety Trust's short film competition. Photo / Michael Cunningham
American superhero film Shazam! was the inspiration behind this video, said Gould.
The young director said working on the project helped him to become more aware of the dangers of distracted driving.
In the last couple of years, Gould had worked with others to write, direct, and edit weekly episodes of Marist Marvels and Friends, and showed them at every school assembly for Pompallier.
"They are a series of episodes designed to share good messages. The videos are all heavily reliant on a script due to the short turnaround timeframes.
"Since this project was mostly improvised, it brought a completely different style of filmmaking to the table.
Scene from the award-winning film by Pompallier College student D'Artagnan Gould. Photo / supplied
"In the editing process, rather than relying on a script to guide me through the edit, I just had to work with what I had and let the footage lead me.
"This kind of skill has actually helped during this lockdown, as I organised a video with the other head students of Whangārei, where we'd share messages to students in lockdown. This wasn't done using a script, which meant that I had to use the skills gained from the film competition to put together the footage and make it work."
Anwen Davies of Tauraroa Area School came second and Pompallier Catholic College's Blair Oxenham and Sean Clarke's separate videos shared the third prize.
