MovieFest 2004: It's ON!

New site is at http://moviefest.org.nz

MovieFest 2003 was a great success - so we are doing it again! Look out for more details shortly, but so far we know there will more prizes, more regionalised screenings and a maybe even online streaming of your movies for the viewers choice voting. The WelMac MovieFest sub-committee is in the planning stages for next years event - which promises to be bigger and better! If you want to enter, let us know, and we'll get you registered and let you know details as they become available. If you would like to contribute your ideas, sponsorship or want to be involved in the planning, let us know.
You can add yourself to the MovieFest announce mailing list to keep ahead of the latest news and announcements:

MovieFest 2003 - Awards Ceremony

Sir William Southgate, an internationally recognised Wellington orchestral conductor and composer, opened the MovieFest 2003 awards ceremony with an entertaining and very well recieved presentation.   Using extracts from various films he illustrated how musical scores create/augment both drama and comedy, and enhance audience response to the images portrayed on the screen.  He was followed by noted classical guitarist Jonathon Harper, accompanied by percussionist David Parsons on digital drums, who provided a delightful musical presentation consisting of three original pieces.  Then Scott Houston of Weta Digital, the company providing the special effects for the 'Lord of the Rings' film trilogy, made an interesting and in depth presentation. He revealed some of the techniques used in the productions, such as Gollum and Smegal's facial muscles, the new creatures and technology soon to be seen in the Return of the King, including details of the Massive engine that generated the epic battle scenes in the movies.

The Awards Ceremony commenced at 4.30 pm following the showcasing of the ten finalist movies on Saturday 27th September in Te Papa's Soundings Theatre. Those attending voted for their favourite movie which received a Viewers Choice award comprising of Apple Final Cut Express video editing software.
The event was being covered by camera crews representing several major networks, and recordings of the presentations will be available after the Ceremony. If you would like to order a copy of the recording of the Awards Ceremony, then let us know.

MovieFest 2003 Winners Announced!

An Apple eMac Computer was presented to the winning school and hobbyist as determined by our judges.

After series of marathon viewing and shortlisting sessions, The Wellington Macintosh Society Incorporated (WelMac), in association with our Sponsors, was proud to announce the shortlist of finalists several weeks ago.  Of the overwhelming number of movies entered in MovieFest 2003 over 60 semi-finalists were selected to progress into further judging stages. From these semi-finalists an extended shortlist was created of the best movies in each the the categories, schools and hobbyists. 
The extended shortlists of 7 schools entries and 9 hobbyist entries were narrowed down to 5 finalists in each of the two categories, based on their adherence to the selected MovieFest Topic for 2003 ("The Journey"), their ability to tell a good story, and their degree of technical expertise.

All the finalists are listed on the Movies page

We also now have available the DVD containing footage of the Awards Ceremony - including parts of the excellent Lord of the Rings presentation by Scott Houston and the presentations of awards. The DVD contains copies of all the finalists movies, and we even managed to fit a couple on that didn't quite make it to the finals, but were worthy of merit. If you have sent me a pre-order already then your copy has been reserved, and once receipt of payment is received via email these will be sent to you. To cover costs of production and duplication we have set the price for this excellent record of MovieFest 2003 at $25 (postage included).
A copy can be purchased by direct deposit in WelMacs bank account - more details are available on the Movies Page or email us.

What was MovieFest 2003?

MovieFest 2003 was an event open to video, film and movie makers nation-wide, designed to showcase the creativity of all New Zealand movie makers, be they people at schools, amateurs or home hobbyists. Entries have now closed for 2003 and the winning movies have been awarded with prizes. If you're keen on being part of the next MovieFest, let us know.

Entrants in MovieFest 2003 were asked to produce a short three to five minute digital movie based on a given topic: "The Journey".  A list of finalists was determined from the large number of entries received, and these were shown during the Finalist Screenings. The finalists were judged further by a panel of high profile judges, to determine the best entrants in New Zealand.
The judges were actress Miranda Harcourt, columnist Rosemary McLeod and Scott Houston of Lord of the Rings company, Weta Digital. The three judges selected the winners in each category of MovieFest 2003, which was announced at the MovieFest Awards Ceremony as part of the Digital Solutions Expo in Wellington on Saturday 27th of September.

Finalist Screenings (27th September)

Discussion / Forums / Resources

Need a place to talk about the great movies you just previewed? Go take a look through the forums for the latest info, and check out the resources page, with links to a number of digital video resources.  Also keep and eye on the Announcements: for details of the MovieFest Events