Michelle Savill's film BATS follows a group of 20-somethings through a fever-dream night in Wellington.

For one Wellington filmmaker, her work is a love letter to the city.

Michelle Savill grew up in the Philippines capital Manila and came to Wellington about a decade ago.

"Manila is a city of, I don't know how many millions, and it's just this chaotic traffic, busy city. Wellington was the opposite. You don't need a car to get around. It's artistic, relaxed and easy."

DAVID UNWIN/STUFF Michelle Savill (right) moved to New Zealand from Manila about eight years ago and fell in love with the capital city. (File photo)

From her early forays into film with student projects to her latest reel, BATS, Savill said she just sort of fell into filmmaking.

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Her short film has been accepted into the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) and was made with the help of drama and design students from Wellington's Toi Whakaari.

Described as a "fever dream" of Wellington, the film charts a night of being young in the city, as a group of 20-somethings search for a connection.

"I worked on [BATS] last year," Savill said, "It came about because Toi Whakaari Drama School were looking for some directors to come in and make some films with third year students."

For many of the students, it was the first time they worked on a film set for something due to play on the big screen.

"They were already great actors and it was just doing some workshops with them, coaching them through character development and working with the scenes to develop the idea a bit more."

Work started on the film in March last year and Savill, the students and the crew worked through nights, through storms and winter temperatures to make BATS.

"We shot on the streets and we shot down at the Freyberg Beach and the cable car," Savill said.

BATS isn't Savill's first film accepted into the festival either - in 2012, her short film Ellen is Leaving, was named as a finalist in the New Zealand best short film programme at NZIFF.

Savill called the BATS filming process a collective effort, with some Toi Whakaari design students lending a hand with costumes and set.

Savill said the film's producer, Desray Armstrong, was also vital in pulling things together and worked some gruelling schedules, mostly at night, to get things done.

BATS is playing as part of Eight Uneasy Pieces, a collection of Kiwi shorts on August 1 at Reading Cinema.