ITE students highlight similarities between rugby and national service
To a group of Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Higher Nitec in Filmmaking (Cinematography) students, there are many similarities to be drawn between sports and national service.
A short film by second-year ITE students called Battle-Field - which highlighted similar values such as teamwork, discipline, responsibility and leadership - clinched the favourite actor award for the student category and a special mention at the recent ciNE65 Movie Maker Awards 2019.
The three-minute film by Mr Isaac Magnus, 21, Mr Muhammad Hadi Syafiq Ahmad Safarudin, 20, Miss Vanessa Erika Shepherdson, 20, Miss Nureen Shaheerna Md Imran, 18, and Mr Mohammad Danishkhilfi Ahmad, 20, was also nominated for seven other awards - best film, best cinematography, best direction, best editing, best screenplay, best sound design, and best art direction.
Mr Magnus, the director and scriptwriter, has a passion for rugby, and draws parallels between the sport and the SAF.
The film tells a story about how the protagonist's love of rugby brings forth his strengths for Singapore.
As part of their course, the students had to pitch film ideas to lecturers who then picked the best ideas to be produced and submitted to various film competitions in Singapore.
Mr Magnus, who has been playing rugby since he was 10, told The New Paper: "It took a lot of effort during the conceptualisation and editing of the film. Hadi, the editor and a camera operator, and I had to discuss the exact shot and the exact movements day after day because we had to ensure there is a clear correlation between the rugby and army scenes."
The ciNE65 Movie Maker Awards is a biennial competition organised by Nexus that required the production of a three-minute film showcasing the Singaporean identity.
The theme for this year's competition was Singapura, in line with Singapore's bicentennial, which calls on film-makers to reflect on the stories our past generations have shared that make us Singaporean and how they want these stories to live on for future generations.
On their awards, the team's camera operator, Mr Danishkhilfi, said: "We didn't expect to be nominated or to win. We wouldn't have been disheartened if we didn't win, because we know we did our best. I'm very happy we won."
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