Filmmakers popping up all across campus

By Cortney Western

November 3, 2004 | The next Steven Spielberg may be attending Utah State right now. Interest in making motions pictures has skyrocketed at Utah State. To accomodate these aspiring filmmakers a film club has been organized by Morgan Yost.

Yost and some of his friends started making home movies a few years ago. They had so much fun they decided to establish a film club as a place for people to express themselves. "When I first thought of the film club I thought only a few friends would show up. Without a lot of publicity 60 people showed up for the first meeting. I thought, what have I gotten myself into?" Yost said.

Today, Yost receives three to four e-mails a week inquiring about the film club. Yost says the response to the club has been more than he ever expected. The film club periodically offers different instructional meetings on such things as lighting, sound, and cinematography. It is also currently organizing its second film festival, to be held Dec. 2.

Members of the film club range from novices to seasoned filmmakers. One of the more experienced filmmakers is Tyler Atkinson. Atkinson also became interested in movies a few years ago. He says he wanted to originally be an actor but found he wasn't that great at acting.

"I was horrible. But at the same time I was taking a film class and discovered I really wanted to direct. So my friend James Cauley and I wrote and directed a film for my film class as extra credit. The teacher loved it so we purchased some better equipment, re-filmed it, and entered it into the LDS Film Festival," says Atkinson.

The Mind's Shadow was featured in the promising young filmmakers showcase. From there Atkinson went on to make a number of short films including Transfer of Aggression, which won many awards at last year's USU film festival. He recently finished Workplace Violence, a murder mystery influenced by Quentin Tarantino's films.

"We recently showed the films to a test audience and somebody told me it reminded him of Tarantino's movies. That's exactly what I wanted to hear," Atkinson said.

Atkinson would like to attend film school one day but he believes that a short film can do more to further a film career than four years of film school. He also says he wants to get away from the darker films he has been making.

"My main goal is to end up in Hollywood. I won't stop until I'm in the film industry. I'd like to help clean Hollywood up. There isn't enough good family entertainment out there," Atkinson said. Atkinson isn't the only student who has high aspirations.

Burke and Rhett Lewis, two brothers from Millville, have goals of becoming professional filmmakers. When Burke and Rhett were children they used their tape recorder to create radio dramas.

"We found it was a lot of fun to create these stories and we wanted to do more," Burke said. They then began setting their family's camcorder on the table and acting out stories in front of it. Since that time the Lewis brothers have taught themselves all the basics of filmmaking.

"We recently were paid to be cinematographers on a movie being made in Park City. The producers of the film asked us where we learned our skills and they were amazed when we said we were self-taught," Rhett said.

For the past year the Lewis brothers have been working on a full-length feature film entitled The Nunnery. They expect the film to be finished by the beginning of next year. They are so excited about the film that they already have a trailer they've shown to various people. They also recently submitted a short film, The Theory of Nakedness, to the Slamdance Film Festival.

In giving advice to aspiring filmmakers the brothers say to be true to yourself. They are tired of the type of movies that are being released. "You can guess every movie now days. We don't worry about rules. We tell stories how we want to tell them," Burke said.

Some of the student interest in filmmaking may come from the success of Jared Hess, a former Preston, Idaho, resident who recently hit the big time with his film Napoleon Dynamite. Hess originally directed the short film Peluca and submitted it to Slamdance.

It went over well enough there that investors encouraged him to make a full length film. He did so. Napoleon Dynamite was made for under a million dollars. It was entered into the Sundance Film Festival where it was picked up by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It was released nationally and has grossed over $27 million dollars. Not bad for an aspiring filmmaker from a small town.

Atkinson's The Mind's Shadow actually competed against Peluca at the LDS film festival. "I was honored to be in competition with a film like that," said Atkinson.

Whatever the influence of these students is, there is no denying the passion these people have. In addition to movie making, there is also a student on campus who has the goal of creating a televison show for the campus. Adam Mansfield, a political science major, wants to create a show, which will air only once a month. The show would be a TV comedy/drama sitcom he is calling "The Freshman." It is a TV show similar in style to the hit show, "The Wonder Years." He currently has plans to air the show on Aggie television.

Despite all of these success stories Yost says his favorite story was a group of students who entered last year's film festival and had no prior experience with making movies.

"They knew nothing before they started. In one week's time they actually successfully put together a show. I really like how they were able to do that," said Yost.

To learn more about the film club you can send an email to the USU Film Club.

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