Vandyke students take part in Buzz Cinema Film Festival

Now celebrating its third annual edition, Buzz Cinema’s film festival showcases local film talent and brings people together from across Beds, Bucks and Herts. The programme included screenings of short films (comedy, horror and experimental) as well as a screening of the feature film Signs of Life which will be released early next year. There was a podcasting masterclass, lessons in production set design, a LGBTQ+ film night and the headline event – the 48 hour film challenge.

If you sign up for this, there is a brief launched at 6pm on the Friday and a deadline of 6pm on Sunday evening. There are also three things to include in the film; this year these were, a hole in the wall, a pair of wellies and the line ‘the first thing you can do to fight’. All footage must be shot within the 48h hour period and all music has to be copyright free. Even better, compose the music yourself.

The whole week showed the sheer depth of talent in our town, across plenty of creative arts with many current and past Vandykers taking part. In fact, of the nine short films submitted as part of the 48 hour film challenge, four of them were connected to current Vandyke students and staff. The Crooked Crow bar in the town hosted the closing night and it was great to see school staff, students and parents all in attendance to celebrate everyone’s hard work over the weekend. Although the winning team were straight out of film school, with a short film that was outstanding, we received some positive comments and commendations from film experts. It’s never easy to showcase your work to strangers, especially older strangers with expertise but we were there representing youthful exuberance and bravery. Get involved next year, as it’s a blast.