Two groups of UCLA student filmmakers advanced in the Campus MovieFest competition at the Western Regional Grand Finale in San Francisco. The Wait List’s “The Butterfly King” and Kelly Li’s “Life (in V Minutes), earned their spots in the International Grand Finale next June at Paramount Studios.
At the Grand Finale, the filmmakers will not only get the chance to meet with important directors and producers, but they will also compete for the first place prize, which is a $10,000 cash grant.
The Wait List, an improv group, consists of several UCLA students, including Chris Reinacher, a fourth-year theater student, Jason Lazarus, a fourth-year music history student and Steven Wilson, a fourth-year Design | Media Arts student, who directed “The Butterfly King.”
Their film was awarded “Best Picture” at both the UCLA competition and the Western Regional Grand Finale, and they have already won a trip for two to a top film festival as well as having their film shown in-flight on Virgin America and at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner.
Members of The Wait List, which was formed after last year’s Campus MovieFest, said they are excited by how far their first official short film as a group has gone in the competition.
“We’ve just been blown away by its success,” said Jordan Dunn, group member and fourth-year English student.
As they wait for the finale in June, the group has plenty of big plans to keep them busy, from an upcoming one-page article in the February issue of NYLON magazine, to a proposed campus improv tour.
“We’ve been talking about doing a much longer film,” Lazarus said.
The group plans to collaborate on a film ranging from half an hour to 40 minutes so that they can enter into the longer portion of film festivals. They are also focused on making more short films as well as working on their new Web site, waitlistcomedy.com.
“While the tour and longer film are big projects, I think the consistent ones are going to be the shows on campus and our shows over at the Improv Space,” Reinacher said.
Li, a fourth-year Asian American studies student with a film, television and digital media minor, also said he is excited for his film’s success in this year’s Campus MovieFest.
Li is the writer-director and male lead in “Life in (V) Minutes,” his third film as part of Campus MovieFest.
“It’s our little film that could,” Li said. “I really felt like this was three years in the making for me because every year I just try to make (the film) better than the last. You keep wanting to go further and further with each film, and when they announced my name for best drama (at the UCLA finale), I felt like all these past couple years all pushed up to me finally earning that moment.”
As he waits for the Grand Finale in June, Li also plans to work on more films.
“This being (our) senior year, I’ve gotten some of my fellow student filmmakers together and hopefully we’re going to be working on a feature length film this year, in the vein of “˜Paris, Je’tame’ or “˜New York, I Love You.’ … I just felt like this is our last year being students here at UCLA and really being able to interact with each other, so why not get together, have fun and create this piece of work that we can remember 10 years from now?”
Li especially stressed the fact that he wants to continue to push himself with his next projects.
“The film was definitely a great way to cap off senior year, but as far as that went, I can still do better. Whatever I do next I have to up the ante.”
Overall, both Li and The Wait List emphasize their commitment to moving forward as they wait until June.
“We’re going to keep having fun,” Lazarus said. “We’re a group of people who just really connected on so many levels, creatively and personally.
“We have a lot of great relationships within the group and we just learn from those and try to translate those into funny things that people like to watch.”