Mums and Dads were highest on the thank you lists from the participants for TROP JNR this year and the audience was certainly filled with siblings and adults rooting for their films.
TROP JR is part of TROPFEST and has been running side by side since 2008. Modelled on the world’s largest short film festival, TROPFEST, TROP JR is a short filmmaking competition and a free, outdoor festival for kids aged 15 years and younger. Each year there is a ‘signature item’ which needs to be included. This year was it was ‘mask’.
TROPFEST moved from Centennial Park to Parramatta Park this year but the weather was not co-operating. To keep the kids safe in the extreme heat, the organizers moved events to a cinema and everyone I spoke to was incredibly relieved to be settled into the air con. Some of the tiniest supporters may have missed having a run in wide open spaces but the rest of us settled back to see these remarkable young filmmakers’ work.
But TROP JR is also competition with skilled and experienced judges headed by Justine Clarke (Red Dog: True Blue, TV’s Playschool) along with Angourie Rice (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Jasper Jones, The Nice Guys), Hunter Page-Lochard (Bran Nue Dae, The Sapphires, Cleverman), Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Karan Brar (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Pacific Rim: Uprising), and Yianni Rowlands (last year’s winner of Trop Jr).
Justine Clark when announcing the winners told the young people “Your star is shining bright!”
The winner was PUPILS: Dir. Nick Ward (NSW). On receiving his award, Ward asked his teacher to join him on the stage and he acknowledged the mentorship in his bio.
PUPILS is about peer pressure to ignore bullying at school but is a morality tale for all ages. It has a lovely black and white feel and this combined with a slow motion effect certainly gives it a unique look. The camera work is excellent also, especially in the chase section where, despite the action, the focus is perfectly held. The close-ups of the blinded students, the pan across angry faces and the use of cutaways told the story well whilst ramping up the emotional content.
Second place getter was THE LEMONADE STAND: Dir. Jordan Blanch (VIC). Jordan made it to the shortlist last year. This was such a clever concept.
Two boys sell lemonade for the price of a story, a story they turn into a minute of film. The stories within are very well filmed. Explosive action with quick cuts and blurred movement. I especially loved the use of evocative lighting, a squeaky floorboard for tension and a mysterious heartbeat which slots into a door knock. It’s a clever script that includes an aside to the audience which is comic and endearing. The film’s depiction of sensitive young men was also another highlight for me.
Third place went to DROPPING THE MASK: Dir. Niamh Kerridge (NSW). This is such a sweet film. All stop action but only partly Claymation, the film has drawn backgrounds and actual props like a wool blanket, complete with blanket stitch edge.
A man is obviously grieving and his world view has narrowed to make him feel bitter and lonely. Kerridge uses perfect placed, spare sound effects to show his isolation. A glass dropped, a kicked over bucket, bad guitar playing. All single and poignant sounds, yet she uses silence too over the very cleverly spun travel sequence.
As well, the figures are really well crafted: the puppy is endearing from his first time on screen with his cute face and waggy tail. I especially loved the effect of the blue water moving as the character rowed. Kerridge is 13 and writes in her bio of wanting to give her characters heart and this film certainly touched mine. Can you tell this was my favourite?!
And it was hard to pick a favourite. I do not envy the Jury one little bit. When speaking at the announcement of winners, Clarke said that she was “personally excited about the future of filmmaking in Australia” based on what she was seeing. I agree. Every film was engaging, entertaining and technically top notch.
THINK TWICE: Dir. Carolin Oelschlägel (GERMANY) received the prize for best female actor this year. The character is a conflicted young woman who is participating in something dodgy. There is real mystery set up in the first third of the film where all seems normal. In the second third we go back and see what really happened. The film is distinguished by its use of cutaways and the use of a high contrast, almost black and white, colour range for some sequences contrasting with a night colour change for the character’s change of heart.
A terrific colour palette was also used for the film which garnered the best actor award for auteur Ben Obermoser . ABOUT TIME: Dir. Ben Obermoser (VIC) looks for all the world like a silent film. Manipulated to be shown in a format much less than 24 frames per second, this film has the jerkiness and colour to beautifully reflect its inspiration. One of the hosts mentioned Charlie Chaplin but , for me, the content and effects were more Keatonesque. Great camera work all the way through especially in the focus work for writing and laptop screen close-ups and I loved the climbing piano audio as the boy climbs the tree.
ALMOST ABDUCTED: Dir. Oliver Topp (NSW) Clever use of night time colour choices here and the special effects were awesome! The flying toast a highlight for everyone there including the event hosts apparently. He also had a very strong command of the blur for the lights and clock. The ominous use of the lights with the addition of some haze was evocative and really inspired imagery. Actually there were lots of witty and fun images to tell this story of a boy who nearly got taken by aliens.
BUDDIES NOT BULLIES: Dir. Sienna Morison (NSW). This film has such wonderful detail in the Claymation settings and also in the anti-bully theme. The little characters are very well created: smooth and with tiny movements that say so much. A turn away, a blue tear on a purple face and the technical achievement with the soccer ball is fantastic. It also has very cleverly scripted sound effects that add so much to the pathos. The bullies boom and the bullied tinkle. Morision has put in her bio that she wants to educate young people and this story of friendship and empathy is a great way to do that.
CAR CONVERSATIONS: Dir. Oliver Stone (NSW) STONE has quite some audience support, a huge cheer for this 11 year old who has a very impressive bio. Was that his mum acting with a kid whose mother has fashioned him an embarrassing costume and insists on driving him to the party. Really well scripted, it is a clever, character filled insight into a young mind as the dashcam captures the awkward conversations where the child is more grown-up than the Mum.
DEADLINE DEMON: Dir. Sebastien Skubala, Violet Alfred Keenan, Georgia Carr, Matilda Alfred Keenan, Louise O’Loughlin (SA) certainly appears like a labour of love for these young artists. Their bios show a long term commitment to the arts and the co-operative filmmaking shows in the cohesiveness of the Blair Witch style final product. The use of greys for the through the lens shots and the effective use of torches make for visually entertaining viewing.
THE GOLDEN SLICE: Dir. Darwin Schulze (NSW) This film is all round great fun from a Trop Jr finalist for four years in a row. It’s funny, has two great leads and circular story with a happy ending. Combine this with great graphics on billboard and truck, an animated monster and some split screen action and you have a very entertaining film. Not to mention some majorly gross toilet action!
KEEPING MY VOICE: Dir. Tisya Sharma (NSW) This is a deceptively simple film about a young woman who is struggling to be seen and heard at a new school but who refuses to let the dismissiveness of others and her own awkwardness silence her. The camera work and shot selection is cleverly choreographed, especially when she is at the microphone with her guitar. The choice to stay fairly static on her is risky but pays off as the actor/singer has charisma and something important to impart. The use of blurred backgrounds and movement into the blur is also shows terrific technique.
THE MASK: Dir. Ruby Kontaratos WA. Kontaratos writes about her interest in mental health in her bio and this film is a short but genuine spoken word poem about a girl’s struggle with depression and the mask she uses to hide it from the world. There is lovely use of natural light here, the sunset and long morning shadows are perfect. As are the images chosen of ducks and sail boats and waves contrasting with the stillness of a pond. It’s very touching.
MASKING TAPE: Dir. Charlie Butler (SA) was great fun with a mysterious thumping, pounding sound effect before the film opened to show a role of gaffer tape making the noise. The gaffer and the masking tape are the protagonists of the story and there are some very comic lines. This film also had some very comic use of angles to enrich an inherently funny story. Butler enjoys trying out new filmmaking techniques and his method of storytelling here is really clever and unique.
ROVER: Dir. Hugo Morgan (NSW). A lovely, heart-warming Claymation work . The ending is just wonderful! An astronaut is trying to get home when a Martian steals his vehicle. From the beginning the film has a strong sense of impending disaster due in part to the music which was also written by Morgan. The speed of the stop motion is manipulated depending on the action and the vehicles ad momentum and interest with some clever settings too.
STREAM THIS!: Dir. Jordan Paolillo (WA). A documentary here on a subject close to the audience, competitors and judges heart. The local video store. Will streaming eventually drive all the local DVD hire places out of business? Though this was created in 10 days by Paolillo there is considerable thought about content and editing. There is a sense of inevitability in the film through the use of montage and vox pops crafted to show the weight of change. The camera work is clever too as he balances the jerky hand held style with smooth movements depending on the content.
A WEEK TO DELIVER: Dir. Zander Czerwaniw & David Liu (NSW) These two filmmakers have been working together since Year 7 and seem to have quite a resume behind them. This offering is about a competition for a pizza delivery job between a highly motivated, industrious young woman and a slacko young man. It makes very good use of split screen for dux vs dunce graphics. There is a really funny reprise to show the week of competition travelling. Great sound effects like knuckle cracks and pizza box lids slamming and distant kookaburras laughing at them. Plus a terrific script with a surprisingly non redemptive ending.
Trop Jr 2017 took place on Saturday 11th February.