Announcement of inaugural science film competition for secondary school students

Thursday, 21 January 2010

The Royal Society of New Zealand and Freemasons New Zealand are delighted to announce the launch of a new competition called the ‘Freemasons Reel Science Film Festival’ This competition is aimed at getting Yr11 – Yr13 students involved and excited about science and encourages students to make a 2 minute film, on any aspect of science that interests them.

“We want to make participation in this competition as easy as possible for the students so that they really enjoy the experience of making the short film” says Debbie Woodhall from the Royal Society. To help with this a group of Masters students from the University of Otago’s Centre for Science Communication will be holding a series of workshops around New Zealand during March. The 1 hour workshop will provide students with lots of useful information on how to make a great short film using very basic equipment such as their cell phone. Students will also be given useful technical tips on editing, lighting and sound techniques, which they can use to their advantage when making the film. This will be a great learning opportunity for students and of course teachers are most welcome to attend also.

The winning students will then spend five days in Dunedin. This will be a real adventure where they will work in small teams with film makers and scientists to make a professional film on a given science topic. The best judged film will win the Freemasons Reel Science Film Festival where the team of winning students will each be given an Apple Mac Pro with film editing software.

Information about this competition can be found at www.reelsciencefilm.org.nz which goes live on 10 February

For more information please contact Debbie Woodhall on (04) 479 0450 or Debbie.woodhall@royalsociety.org.nz