ANU Visual Arts student wins big in short film competition

Third year ANU School of Art and Design student Max Jasinski took home four awards – more than any other entrant – at the recent Lights! Canberra! Action! short film competition.

Max’s film Mission Control Z won in the categories of Best Film, Best Student Film, Most Memorable Performance, and Best Use of an Item. This was Max’s fourth year entering Lights! Canberra! Action! and the first time his entry has won an award.

“When I think about it now I can’t quite believe it, especially considering the quality of some of the other films,” he says. 

The competition requires filmmakers to include ten items from around Canberra, and this year’s list and theme were a nod to 2019 being the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. One item on the list was ‘moon’.

In contemplating the requirements, Max had an image in his head of the moon in the night sky popping out of existence. 

“The reaction I thought people would have made me chuckle,” he says.

“I then thought it would be funny if the moon was deleted on accident, like someone deleting their finished assignment the night before its due and from there is spun off into the universe being run by public servant types.”

The result was a 6 minute farce that drew inspiration from sci-fi comedies such as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
 
Max kept mum on where the majority of the film was shot, but other locations that are recognisable were straight off the LCA list: the Captain Cook Memorial Globe, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, and the John Gorton building. His crew also made the hour and a half round trip to the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex in Tidbinbilla to film the piece of moon rock held at the visitor centre.

“It was quite a ways to go for what equated to less than 20 seconds of the overall run time, but it was worth it,” he says.

Max, who’s currently doing a visual arts degree majoring in Video and Animation, describes himself as “kind of a film fanatic”.

“I go to the movies way more than anyone probably should, but it helps that I work at a cinema,” he says.

“I’ve been making short films as a hobby since about 2009 and I haven’t really stopped since; they’re just a lot of fun to make.”

He’s currently working on a short thriller for one of his classes and is about to start doing a series of film reviews for social media.

“I’m looking forward to because it’ll give me a valid reason to go see more movies!” Max adds.

His ultimate goal is to become a film director, or to work in the film industry. 

“I just love making and watching movies so to have a career in that world would be fantastic,” Max says.

You can find Max’s work at Randomkid Productions on YouTube, and watch Mission Control Z here.