A comedic tale of two college students trying to create a
scholarship for hot girls, a suspenseful murder mystery a la
“Blair Witch Project,” and an action-packed,
high-octane foreign language kung fu film.
The kind of trailers you might expect to see at the local
cineplex are actually among the choices mtvU is giving students for
its second annual Best Films on Campus contest.
UCLA directing master’s degree candidate Justin Wolske,
the 28-year-old filmmaker behind the kung fu trailer, was picked
from a number of student filmmakers at colleges and universities
across the country as one of 10 contest semi-finalists.
While last year’s inaugural run asked students to make a
short film, this year’s contestants were challenged to create
a trailer of a film they would one day like to turn into a feature
film.
Voting for the trailers of the semi-finalists is done solely by
viewers, who can see the finished products both on-air on mtvU and
online at mtvU.com.
On Nov. 6, the five remaining finalists will be announced and
then voted on by both mtvU viewers and industry judges.
This year’s judges include award-winning directors John
Singleton (“Hustle and Flow,” “Boyz n the
Hood”) and Catherine Hardwicke (“Lords of
Dogtown,” “Thirteen”).
The winner of the contest will be revealed in early December,
and will receive a development deal with MTV Films to create a
feature film version of the top trailer.
Wolske’s trailer, “Broken Fists,” was a long
time coming.
“I knew I was going to try a kung fu film someday,”
he said. “I grew up watching Asian films. They were my
Westerns.”
Wolske, who worked in book publishing in New York before coming
to Los Angeles to pursue his passion for filmmaking, found out
about the contest last year by seeing a commercial on the station
in Ackerman Union. His cinematographer urged him to send in an
entry.
The master’s program degree requires students to make four
films, so Wolske, who was beginning work on his third film during
the spring quarter of last year, decided to compile his trailer
from the first round of shooting that was soon to take place.
The first segment of shooting for “Broken Fists,”
which takes place during the era of the Boxer Rebellion (between
1900 and 1927), occurred in late May and early June.
Wolske and his crew used all the space and money possible to get
the most important scenes completed, which involved all the scenes
in the film set in China and the bulk of the heavy fight
choreography.
The set was built in Melnitz Hall, which is also where the
second part of the shooting will take place this January.
On the issue of casting, Wolske said he was able to find ideal
actors who had a good handle on the Mandarin language and were
skilled in martial arts.
Ross Martin, head of programming at mtvU, reviewed the top batch
of applicants for the contest.
“Wolske’s work is among the most confident pieces of
filmmaking I’ve seen in years,” he said.
The contest has been a success so far, Martin says.
“The contest has developed relationships with leading film
schools across the country,” he said.
“The contest was an obvious thing for us to do. It finds
ways to develop and empower students.”
As for Wolske, he ultimately wants go to on diverse paths with
his films, citing director Jonathan Glazer as an inspiration.
“The goal is not to be pigeonholed,” he said.