VIDEO MATSURI

STUDENT SHORT FILM CONTEST

2022 Judges’ Comments

This is the 14th Video Matsuri contest. We are pleased to announce the prize winners for 2022!

We received 94 entries this year and were overwhelmed with the large number of excellent submissions. We were delighted to see many schools who have participated previously, and it gave us great pleasure to see the progress that they have made in their Japanese skills and acting skills. Many videos this year exhibited advanced skills in cinematography including camera work, sound effects and editing. The Judges were especially impressed with the use of voiceover techniques to differentiate between dialogues and monologues which made the subject matter easier to follow. We’d like to acknowledge all the teachers and the parents for their contribution, dedication, and continued support.

This year’s signature item was furoshiki (a wrapping cloth), and the submissions showed an array of interesting and creative ways for it to appear in the videos. Some used furoshiki as the main theme, and others cleverly embedded it into the story and made its inclusion more subtle.

The winning video in the primary division was ‘How to Use a Furoshiki’. The students showed great creativity and teamwork to present various ways that a furoshiki can be used with the language they have learnt in class. The video also showcased how students enjoy being involved in the production and acting and it was a joy to see through the screen how much the students were enjoying learning Japanese language and culture.

Popular themes amongst the junior division were dramas such as detective thrillers, horror stories and romance stories. The judges were highly impressed by the originality of the choice of settings and the storylines. The judges found it difficult to choose an outright winner in the junior division, and so 3 winners were selected.

One of the three winning videos was ‘The Bugs Bento’ and was based on a modern-day high school romance with an amusing twist at the end. This drama was made in anime style with cleverly collated and layered digital illustrations and well-timed voiceover and sound effects. The second of the three winning videos was ‘Watch Where You’re Going’. This had a well-structured plot and was very entertaining to watch. The dialogue was well rehearsed and delivered effectively through the acting.

The third winning video in the junior division was ‘Sky Blue Memories’. The quality of the hand drawn animation in this submission was impressive. The actors skilfully delivered the voices of the family members at different stages in their lives. The content was well-structured, and the dialogue had a touch of melancholy that resonated with the judges.

In the senior division, the judges were impressed by the high quality of the productions and how well the actors performed and delivered their lines. In this division, ‘Furoshiki Misadventures’ was chosen as the winning video. The performances were well delivered, the locations and costumes changed with each scene and this made the story both easy to follow and engaging. The judges also enjoyed the humour that was used in places and made it enjoyable to watch to the end.

In the tertiary division, ‘Kawatta Irainin’ was given a special mention prize. The story was a well-structured comedy, and the style and format was like something out of a comic book. The fighting scene was almost surrealistic. Unfortunately, the lines were difficult to catch at times due to the sound of the wind.

Overall, we were thoroughly impressed with the quality and creativity displayed and we would like to suggest couple of points to help and guide future submissions. We found some videos had complex storylines which were hard to follow, especially when there are several people in the video. Their roles need to be clear otherwise it can become confusing, and this tends to detract from the overall effect. Some stories had a great start, but the ending was not clear. As for pronunciation, we recommend that all students practise well so that they know when one word ends and the next begins; this is important to sound fluent and natural. It also really helps to learn the lines well so that its unnecessary to read off the script. You also need to make sure that you do not overreach. It is always better to stick with and use language that you are comfortable with. On a more technical note, the audio quality was not so good at times in some videos: The volume was not always consistent, and the sound of the wind sometimes unintentionally made it difficult to hear the voices.

Once again, it was clear that this competition is a powerful driver of language learning, as well as also promoting teamwork and the development of a broad range of skills from brainstorming, to managing the video project, to completing the final product. In this way, students are given the opportunity to develop and practise many of the general capabilities set out in the Australian Curriculum. Most importantly, we hope that everyone had fun creating their videos and found it a rewarding experience.

Thank you all for taking part in Video Matsuri this year, including the students, teachers, families, and any others who supported the project. We look forward to seeing your videos next year!

どうもありがとうございました。

The Video Matsuri Judges