A humorous send up of cigarette adverts and sombre funeral piece inspired by silent film, The Artist, are among the Barking and Dagenham entries battling it out in a national anti-smoking short film competition.

Pupils from Robert Clack school in Dagenham and Warren School in Chadwell Heath have submitted their efforts to the Cut Film Competition, which asks young people to write and produce a short film which discourages their peers from smoking.

Members of the public have until May 4 to vote for which film they like best.

Pupils from Robert Clack school in Dagenham produced a film called Tobbacorama, which makes fun of the old cigarette adverts on TV that are now banned.

The students have uploaded their effort on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter and shared it with friends in a hope of getting their anti-smoking message across and boosting their votes.

Rob Jones, 17, one of the film's stars, said response to the film has been very good. "We've had great feedback. People have said it's really funny and gets the anti-smoking message across in a non-patronising way that appeals to both young people and adults."

Meanwhile at Warren School in Chadwell Heath, a group of Year 9 students taking part in a Prince's Trust initiative created a black and white silent film about a smoker's funeral. The film, called Pushing Up Daisies, was inspired by the recent award winning movie, The Artist.

Darlene Mear, a Prince's Trust instructor, said: "The students really enjoyed putting the film together and were very happy with the result and proud of what they had achieved.

"They have uploaded the film on social networking sites and the rest of the school has been very impressed."

The competition forms part of the Deborah Hutton campaign which aims to make young people think twice before smoking. Deborah was a highly-acclaimed journalist from north London who died at the age of 49 from lung cancer. She had smoked as a young woman but had given up at the age of 24.

View the films and cast your vote