ONE sleepover was all it took for the youngest finalists in a regional movie contest to film their masterpiece.
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Twelve-year-olds Vincent Edwards, of Tuross Head and Thomas Gardner, of Moruya, hope to beat contenders from south-east NSW in the YOOFTube contest with Famous in a Week.
Without giving too much away, the duo’s film is about a hunter finding a Tasmanian tiger, which are officially extinct, and taking his story and a photo to the Prime Minister.
Vincent said his mum told him about the competition and encouraged him to enter.
“Because Thomas and I have made some other cracker movies in school that the teachers liked, Mum thought we should enter,” Vincent said.
Thomas said he enjoyed filmmaking.
“We did one for a project about fish and did different facts and put a bit of a comedy twist on it and the teacher really liked it,” he said.
“We both got As and it said down the bottom: ‘Extra marks for a great video’.”
The boys brainstormed ideas for the YOOFTube storyline.
“I went to Vincent’s house with heaps of props, like soccer gear and nerf guns, because we didn’t know what the movie was going to be about,” Thomas said.
“We were talking about ideas and Vincent came up with the idea of doing a biography about a Tasmanian tiger.
“At first, I thought we should think about it a little bit more, but then I agreed and saw that it was a great idea.”
Finding a Tasmanian tiger was the first hurdle.
“We thought, ‘wait, Vinnie has a dog that looks like a Tasmanian tiger’, so we got black spray paint, held him down, gave him treats and made him black,” Thomas said.
“We made a bit of a big deal about it, because they are extinct.”
Vincent’s Mum helped out along the way.
“We had a few different cameras at home and Mum showed us how to use them and how to use the computers,” Vincent said.
“Mum helped with the editing.
“My eight-year-old brother helped with a piece of music he wrote and played on the piano for the film.”
The boys included facts about Tasmanian tigers with the fictional storyline.
“We had a character like David Attenborough, but we called him Attembro,” Vincent said.
“We explained what the Tasmanian tiger is and why it is extinct.”
The five-minute film will screen at free showings at Bay City Cinema, Batemans Bay and at the Narooma Kinema on Monday night, where the winners will be announced.
Although the boys will be on a school excursion, they are sending their mums and Skippy, the dog, to represent them.
They thanked everyone who helped those who gave feedback.
YOOFTube is a project of South East Arts.