31 Oct 2017

Kiwi 'mini' blockbuster scoops award

From Nine To Noon, 9:44 am on 31 October 2017

It sounds like a standard Hollywood blockbuster -  car chase, explosions, a raging fire, the heroic fire brigade working to save the city - but the twist is the city and its inhabitants are made of cardboard.

Phil Brough's family-friendly short action film Fire in Cardboard City has won him the Best New Zealand Short award at this year's Show Me Shorts film festival. 

He talks to Kathryn Ryan about the win, and launching a television show based on it. 

The film uses 3d animation of cardboard to tell the story of the Cardboard City Fire Department fighting their first real fire. 

He said it was intended to be a generic New Zealand city.

"It's a bit of everywhere in New Zealand so there's the civic, we've got the Beehive, the Sky Tower." 

He said he had started by scanning actual cardboard, but found it was easier to then build brushes in Photoshop with the scans.

"As it went on, my skills got better, so I think that kind of helped a bit."

 He said he had done the opening shot of the Star Destroyer in the Star Wars Uncut project - which assigned 15 second segments of Star Wars for filmmakers to recreate in their own way - in the same style, which had prompted him to work on Fire in Cardboard City

He said the planned TV show was just being developed now, and would be in a different blockbuster style each episode.