Poly students string together tale of Total Defence

Imagine explaining Total Defence in 30 seconds.

That was what Team Nacho Cheese from Nanyang Polytechnic succeeded in doing at this year's N.E.mation! 12 competition.

Their short film, String Of Singapore, went on to win the pilot Youth Crowdsource Category at the competition, organised by Nexus, the Ministry of Defence department in charge of Total Defence and National Education.

Miss Ng Si Rong Nataline, 18, who is pursuing a diploma in animation at the poly, told The New Paper: "Since the animation clip can be only 30 seconds, we decided to take only the key points and wrote a poem to summarise the idea."

There were 643 entries from 1,328 participants across all categories.

The Youth Crowdsource Category, open to individuals aged 17 to 35, was introduced this year.

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All participants were required to limit their films to 30 seconds, which is half the time set in previous N.E.mation! competitions.

Miss Ng said: "We were shocked to find out we won as we felt that many of our course mates had more technical skills.

"The other teams also animated their films well.

"The feeling was amazing, and we are glad to have this opportunity."

A spokesman for Nexus said: "String Of Singapore creatively used a ball of string to tell the story of how Total Defence has enabled us to overcome past challenges, such as racial riots and the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome in Singapore."

OVERSEAS TRIP

Apart from a trophy, Nacho Cheese also won a fully sponsored trip to Japan.

Miss Ng said: "We got the chance to visit (production studio) Production I.G. Inc., received a tour of their company and learnt about the daily life of an animator.

"We managed to visit Disneyland and had fun as a team, and we took this as an opportunity to unwind after one month of intense animation work."

Their film will be broadcast nationwide.

Miss Ng urged young people to participate in the next N.E.mation! competition, describing it as "an opportunity to gain more exposure".

N.E.mation! 2019 is now open, and submissions will close on Aug 12.

A cash prize of $1,000 for each winner is up for grabs, and winners also get the opportunity to intern at Big 3 Media and CraveFX, a media and animation studio respectively.

For more details, visit nemation.sg/