Kids' film to premiere in Masterton

END RESULT: Tina Rae Carter in Regent 3 cinema in Masterton, checking out an animated film created by children on her holiday programme.

An Aratoi school holiday programme's film created by 18 children will have its "world premiere" at Regent Cinema in Masterton next week.

Tutor Tina Rae Carter said the film, The Time Machine, was created during the July holidays in a programme called Junk Puppet Cinema.

The children created their own puppets and got to pick their characters and write the script for the film.

In the film, the "junk puppets", voiced by the children, live in a messy junk yard.

One of the puppets has a time machine and takes them back to 1840 to see what used to be at the junk site. Inspired by the native bush and wandering huia, the puppets return to their own time, clean up the junkyard and plant native trees.

Creating the props and puppets took 12 hours over three days, while filming took six hours. The film runs for 13 minutes.

Carter, who called in to the cinema on Wednesday to watch a check screening, said she is "stoked" with the end result.

She said there was a lot of excitment among the children about making a real film. "The kids took it and ran with it."

Her team involved David Clark, editor; Stephanie Fourie, a fine arts student and Lizzie Murray, who assisted with the workshop.

The screening includes a three-minute animated stop-motion "teaser" trailer called Bully of the Day.

The Time Machine will screen at Regent 3 in Masterton on September 23, 4.30pm for drinks and nibbles, 5pm screening.