Myron Murakami takes the idol worship of “Lord of the
Rings” director Peter Jackson to a whole new level.
“He kind of looks like a Buddha,” Murakami said.
Murakami, a UCLA film student, makes a nod to Jackson ““
his head on a stuffed Buddha model ““ in his entry for this
year’s Coca-Cola Refreshing Film-maker’s Program.
Titled “Kung Fu Film School,” the 50-second film
provided the aspiring filmmaker with a golden opportunity to meet
other film students across the country and craft a professional
film at the center of the film industry.
Shot outdoors at Melnitz Hall, “Kung Fu Film School”
is a take-off on classic Shaw Brothers kung fu flicks, featuring
two warring clans: the traditional film students versus the new
digital film students. The cheesiness of the dubbing and dialogue
makes the spot a delightful parody of the genre, but Murakami makes
a weighty point about these two opposing schools through the mock
Peter Jackson, who said that analog and digital filmmakers can work
together.
“”˜The Lord of the Rings’ movies were made
seamless,” said Murakami. “Can you tell when things are
digital or analog? Jackson’s found a way to work the two
together. The point is to hide the lines, not show off what you can
do.”
Jackson aside, Murakami does sense a real battle between analog
and digital cinema, or d-cinema, formats.
“Film is a proven technology for 50 or 60 years;
it’s very solid,” he said. “Hardware and software
gets quickly outdated in like six or seven months. I think
it’ll eventually go (d-cinema’s) way, but it’s
not going to happen as quickly as people think.”
What did happen quickly was Murakami’s itinerary as a
finalist. After submitting their films for judging, Murakami and
the nine other finalists were whisked away to the Sundance Film
Festival to meet with their sponsors, Coca-Cola and Project
Greenlight, and to meet with each other as well.
“I kind of suspect Project Greenlight wanted to lure Coke
into being one of their sponsors,” Murakami said. “We
were sort of an avenue to do that. The fact that we were corporate
pawns was fine with us; it was just cool meeting each other,
especially the (filmmaker’s from) across the
country.”
Project Greenlight co-creators Matt Damon and Ben Affleck met
with the filmmakers and discussed their projects. And these days,
wherever Ben goes, Jennifer Lopez is sure to follow.
“J. Lo showed up, too,” said Murakami. “She
was just tagging along. Everyone got kind of thrown off by
that.”
Project Greenlight’s involvement in the Coca-Cola
Refreshing Filmmakers Program took the form of a Web site where
eager film fanatics could vote on their favorite finalist online.
The voting was supposed to contribute to the actual outcome of the
contest, but the voting cutoff date fell too close to the actual
winner announcement at ShoWest, a national film exhibitor’s
conference, early this month.
Even though the Project Greenlight Web site turned out to be a
mere Internet straw poll, Murakami still sees the exposure online
as well as in theaters as the main benefit.
“The money would always be nice, but the exposure’s
more important,” he said. “It’s playing on 20,000
screens. Not even Spielberg can play on 20,000 screens. When total
strangers can walk up to you and recognize you and your work,
that’s the real win.”
Unfortunately, Murakami did not win this year’s contest;
the winning film was “Mafia Movie Madness,” directed by
Jordan Ross from New York University. However, “Kung Fu Film
School” fared very well at the Project Greenlight Web site,
finishing a respectable third in total votes. Also, after one year,
Coca-Cola will hand the film ownership rights back to the
filmmakers, a rarity for such filmmaking contests.
Murakami came away with a great experience, a film and the
rights to the film, but his perspective on the Coca-Cola project
remains firmly realistic.
“It’s hard to see this as a springboard to
anything,” he said. “I don’t think it’s
been much of a springboard for anyone. It’s unrealistic to
expect it’ll launch your career. For me, it’s the
opportunity to make a film on someone else’s dime. At the
end, I can have a film that I can be proud of. It’s a great
opportunity, but it’s a little step, not a huge
leap.”