Fifteen finalists named for Handle the Jandal 2009

There were 133 entries but now there are just 15 set to compete for the Golden Jandal. And oh boy there's some totally weird wackery to behold from the cream of emerging filmmakers.

Radio Active 89FM today announced the 15 finalists for the 2009 Handle the Jandal DIY Music Video Competition. Each video will be shown in its entirety at the star-studded awards ceremony to be held October 29 at the sumptuous Embassy Theatre in Wellington.

The Final 15 were announced live on the Radio Active 89FM Breakfast show with Liam Luff at 9am Friday October 9. They will compete for six technical categories and the overall winner, the Golden Jandal, awarded from the audience vote. A list of the fifteen finalists follows.

Handle the Jandal event director Hadden Morrison said there were two themes that were apparent in this year's crop of entries, produced under the spectre of economic recession: Nostalgia summer motifs and bunny rabbits.

"Maybe the mood of the people was to look back at the rosy times of carefree summer holidays and remember the good things in life: sun, friends and good times," He said. Or maybe they just thought, 'we've got a lot of good stuff on handicam – lets make a music video out of it!'

"As for the bunnies? Sometimes scary, sometimes sexy but so many WTF? moments we were wondering what on earth had possessed the video makers.

"Some people were plain old weird; actually we wanted to ring the Samaritans on their asses – they just need help!

"There was a lot of fresh blood coming through too. Many videos were made or finished just in time for the competition with some directors saying that if it wasn't for Handle the Jandal the video would never have been finished.

"We are honored to have reached a nationwide audience and able to showcase all the talent out there in New Zealand. Probably only ten percent of the videos would have been seen by a handful of others so for that reason, we'll be making an announcement about a new feature to unleash the best and most truly bizarre of the videos that just didn't make the final cut."

The finalists will compete for a bulging bag of filmmaking goodies including services and equipment from Panavision, Sticky Pictures, Portsmouth and Park Road Post. Handle the Jandal are well stoked with the support from Juice TV, Manky Chops, Kraft:Haus, Nektar, Spyglass and Hovering Lion.

Handle the Jandal 2009 Finalists

(in no particular order…)

 

Joe Fish for James Duncan's "A Obvious"

 

Sophia Jenny & Emma Forster for Pie Warmer's "I Broke All The Rules"

 

Simon Ward for Thought Creature's "Your Telepathy"

 

Greg Pawsey for Cougar Cougar Cougar's "Satans Blues"

 

Lisa Dunn for Parallel Dance Ensemble's " Weight Watchers"

 

Christian Nicolson for The Sproutt's "Woman Man and Machine"

 

Jesse Taylor Smith for Grayson Gilmour's "Loose Change"

 

Mike Gray for El Schlong's "The Baddies Are Coming"

 

James Turnbull for Decortica's "Featherlight"

 

Preston McNeill for Isaac Aesili's "With You In My Bed"

 

Maz Hermon for Roy G and The Bivinators' "Welcome"

 

Robert George for Tourettes' "Letting Go"

 

Judah Finnigan and Ben Forman for Highlife's "Berserk"

 

Kimberly Brown for Electric Wire Hustle's "Perception"

 

Alexis Copland & Juliet Bergh for Amanda Maclean's "Mouse"