Student short film makes it to festival circuit

22 April 2010

Student short film makes it to festival circuit

The 3D animated short Slightly Fishy made by students from Auckland's Media Design School has been selected for screening at both the London and Melbourne International Animation Festivals.

Led by Course Leader James Cunningham (previously Head of 3D at Digipost) and created by students on the Graduate Diploma of Advanced 3D Productions, the final piece is a live action short film with elements of CGI and comes at the end of an intense two years of study.

Slightly Fishy tells the story of a fishmonger, attacked by an increasingly slimy array of aquatic creatures on his journey home after a long shift at work. After inadvertently squirting himself with a weird substance whilst cutting into some shellfish, the fishmonger’s reality starts to unravel in a series of seemingly hallucinatory experiences.

Students grades are heavily weighted on the feedback received from invited industry panellists, with one such piece of feedback coming from industry heavyweight Jeff Okun (of Visual Effects Society). Okun, whose body of work includes The Day the Earth Stood Still and Blood Diamond, gave feedback that included “Generally overall impressive” and that “I do want to emphasize that the work is also pretty outstanding overall.”

The Melbourne festival is being held at the end of June, while the London festival takes place in September. The festivals attract thousands of entries from around the world with only a few hundred being selected for viewing, making this achievement by Media Design School students something to be very proud of.

Slightly Fishy can be viewed on Media Design School’s vimeo channel: www.vimeo.com/8361863

Ends.