It’s the Reel thing

Click here to vote for
your favorite film in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award
competition.

A man with a vision. $7,500. Coke.

These ingredients could wind up a recipe for success for UCLA
film student Austin Formato. Formato, a graduate student in film
directing, is a finalist in this year’s Coca-Cola Refreshing
Filmmaker’s Award competition.

Each year, students from 13 prestigious film schools nationwide,
including USC and NYU, submit scripts and storyboards to the
competition’s panel of film industry professionals. Ten
finalists are then selected from the body of applicants to produce
a short constrained by the strict $7,500 production grant,
allocated film stock and an exact 50-second runtime.

As one of 10 finalists, Formato worked nonstop from Thanksgiving
to January to put the production together ““ sacrificing
several classes and his holiday in the process.

“Two Doors” was made on the meager allocated budget
thanks in no small part to the outpouring of support from the UCLA
community.

“I actually went through the (UCLA School of the Arts and
Architecture) and we ended up shooting in the new (Broad Art
Center),” said Formato. “I wanted to make (the set) an
architecture office so I put out word through the architecture
school. It was amazing the response that I got. Everything that was
on the walls, every model, everything that we decorated came all
from the architecture students.”

In addition to the physical resources, numerous UCLA students
worked on the film’s crew. Like many others heavily involved
in the production, Crystal Us, who served as first assistant
director on the film, is a fellow directing student.

“We’re all directors, but we all do everything. We
all grip for each other or do sound or script supervisor or
whatever’s called for. We’re trained that way through
the program,” she said. “There’s no,
“˜I’m a director so I’m not going to sweep the
floor.’ You just do what has to be done. Nobody really has an
ego about that.”

Belinda Starkie, an assistant professor at the UCLA School of
Theater, Film and Television, has been the UCLA coordinator for the
competition since its inception in 1998. Starkie said the
competition originated as an opportunity for students to
demonstrate their abilities and put together an entire production
on their own.

“These projects would be totally student-driven,”
Starkie said. “Faculty would not be giving input other than
the person who was coordinating it at the school. No professionals
““ it wasn’t a class project or anything like
that.”

The winner is decided by online voting, which ends Tuesday, Feb.
6. All the finalists can be viewed on the competition’s Web
site, ccrfa.com/ccrfa. Winners will be announced on the Web site on
Feb. 13.

The winning short will then be screened on 21,000 movie theater
screens nationwide for a year, in addition to receiving a $10,000
award to be presented at ShoWest ““ the theater
industry’s largest trade show.

“I think Coca-Cola started a trend of many companies
wanting to create some kind of film contest to show that they cared
about film students,” Starkie said. “As the Internet
develops, companies don’t have to put money out. … Now
it’s readily done on the Internet.”

Among the other companies following Coca-Cola’s lead in
creating film competitions in recent years are General Motors, Vibe
and Philips.

In past Refreshing Filmmaker’s competitions, UCLA has
fielded several finalists including Peter Hunziker, who nabbed the
top prize in 2001. Perhaps there will be another UCLA prize-winner
this year.

Formato, who counts among his inspirations UCLA alumnus Gore
Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) and Brad
Silberling (“Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate
Events”), has high hopes for his short.

“The Coca-Cola (Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award) is one
of the higher profile competitions in the country right now,”
said Formato. “It’s been six years since any UCLA
person has won it, so we’re really trying to get the crown
back to us this year.”

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