NZ Media Design School's film Crash Course is a hit

Crash Course, the latest short film to be released from New Zealand’s Media Design School, is in the running to win the Car Shorts Grand Prix competition.

Car Shorts is an online film festival run by Direct Line Versicherung AG and Interfilm Berlin. The global competition features 351 movies from 56 countries, including Crash Course from New Zealand.

Crash Course tells the story of Gavin, the “hapless driving student who can’t fly, let alone drive” and Don, his flying instructor, who tries yet again to help him pass his flying test.

Hank the thief has just completed a heist and hijacks their flying car. What follows is a hair-raising ride through a futuristic city.

The sci-fi short is decked out with computer generated images and visual effects.

Seven third year students from Media Design School’s Bachelor of Art and Design degree programme put the film together. The students were involved in every part of the project, from pre-production design and conception to prop building and set-dressing and, of course, the visual effects work.

They had just 14 weeks to complete the project, and in that space of time managed to create more than 40 visual effects shots for the 4:05 minute long film.

Simon Heath, Senior Lecturer of 3D and Animation at Media Design School, was the writer, producer and director of the short. He says it was shot in a single day and actors performed in front of a computer generated city in a computer generated car.

“What was particularly impressive about the shoot was that in order to make the car scene completely realistic, a low-budget practical rig was developed and built by the students, which enabled us to raise and tilt the car, even when all three actors were sitting in it,” says Health. “We then tracked and digitally removed the car, replacing it with the computer generated exterior of the flying car that you see throughout the film.”

You can watch the film and register your vote here.