Red carpet for film students

Opaki School's senior students got a taste of the red carpet treatment this week, when they premiered short films made by the students themselves.

Teacher Belinda Bunny said the school opted out of putting on a school production this year and set their 60 senior students the task of making and starring in their own short films instead.

"We decided we'd give kids their own licence to develop something of their own ... this way everyone had a part, with a production it's us saying these are the songs, this is what we're going to do."

The Year 6, 7 and 8 students used the school's iPads to film and edit their own short films, which included stories of radioactive chickens, bullying, fairytale crime, and animal Olympics. Students were in charge of picking their own groups, deciding on a story, writing the script, storyboarding the film, divvying out parts and pulling together a soundtrack.

Year 8 student Hannah Forster, who was part of a team who made their own version of Enid Blyton's creation The Faraway Tree, said the experience was very different from being a part of the school production.

"It was just fun, and you could choose your own costumes and were free to choose what you wanted to do."

Parents and students got to strut the red carpet on Wednesday and Thursday nights before watching all 13 short films, which will be on the school's Facebook page shortly.