Havelock North High School teams were winners at the recent regional finals of the ‘HP48Hours’ film competition. Team ‘Squad’ won three prizes -  best school team film, best use of line and best actress, which was awarded to Morgan Pearce (right) -  while team ‘About What’ won the best use of prop prize. These are fantastic achievements, especially when the competition included some industry professionals. 

On Friday at 7pm each team is sent a genre, a line, a prop, a shot and a character name to include in their films. ‘Squad’ was allocated time travel as its genre and it brainstormed, scripted, filmed, edited and finalised its film by 7pm on Sunday. 

Five school teams were entered in the competition. Four teams received nominations for prizes: ‘Squad’ - six nominations; ‘About What’ - six nominations, including best school team and best directors (Charlie Cottrell and Ben MacCallum); ‘Puma Biscuits’ - two nominations, including best school team; ‘The Night Crawlers’ - one for incredibly strange film. The other team was ‘Moral Panic’. All five teams deserve congratulations for their teamwork, commitment, skill, and completion of the films. 

HP48Hours Gisborne City organiser, Tom Patton, said of  Squad's film:

"Squad, the Havelock North High School team, deserve all the praise, with a stand-out performance by lead actress Morgan Pearce (best actress winner).  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them take the best national school team award.  It would take something very special to beat it." - High praise indeed.

The ‘Squad’ comprised of Esther Mackay, director; Morgan Pearce and Ben Barker, actors; Ben Caldwell, editor; Julian Godfrey, Jason Jarrett, and Anneliese Tuarau-Jones, production crew.