Now Cinnamon Cinemas, a trio of St Hilda’s Collegiate School pupils, have received national acclaim after winning the best school entry for their latest film.
Their submission, titled No Indemnity, was selected as the best out of over 140 school teams entered in the competition.
The four-minute film took inspiration from noir films of the early Hollywood days, complete with black and white visuals, a grizzled detective standing in the rain and a plot to murder a femme fatale.
However it quickly turned to parody when it was revealed the rain was simply a running shower head, the detective died and the fatale conveniently avoided her demise at every twist and turn.
Lily Knox said she and teammate Kate McEwan had studied film noir in media studies class and decided it would be the perfect style for their creation.
She was in charge of camera work and acted in some minor roles, while Kate embodied the detective and Courtney Lloyd acted as the femme fatale.
"We like making silly movies."
The competition gave them a hard deadline to create something, but it also provided a chance for them to leave their worries behind and focus solely on their production for a weekend, she said.
They created the film back in August and spent the first evening deciding on the general premise, a list of interesting shots and, most importantly, the jokes.
All kinds of ideas came to them as they brain-stormed, but only the funniest ones stayed in.
Even the title was a play on the 1944 film Double Indemnity, Kate said.
They had competed almost every year, but had to take a break during Covid-19.
Courtney said the group would be heading separate ways now that they had finished with school, but hoped to continue making films together somehow.
