For some rising filmmakers, Oscars a 'reel' dream
When aspiring filmmakers watch tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony, their minds just might wander to the possibility that someday they could be the ones taking the stage.
“I don’t think you can be a person who makes movies and watch the Oscars without picturing yourself (there),” said Jordan Imbrey, a 20-year-old studying media production and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “You hope beyond all hope … I think if I play my cards right, I will make it.”
For Hofstra University student Andrew Weston, there’s no bigger stage than the Academy Awards. “It’s like winning the Super Bowl,” he said.
Weston -- a 19-year-old film studies and production major -- splits his time between classes, the university’s film club and editing a documentary about his high school track team.
Film will be a part of his professional future -- of that he has no doubt. But he’s come to the realization that success does not hinge on taking home an Oscar.
“If I don’t end up in the Academy Awards, I’m not going to be like, ‘I missed out. I’m not the best filmmaker in the world,’” he said. “There are a lot of really good movies that aren’t released in theaters. If I could just have a career being a part of those … I still would look back and say, ‘That’s my dream career.’”
Not all filmmakers, though, are in love with the Academy Awards.
Adrian Atwood -- a 26-year-old University of Massachusetts communications major with a film studies certificate -- won’t be planning his schedule around tonight’s show.
“I personally don’t usually care much for pageantry,” he said. “The whole ceremony is a big spectacle.”
Atwood views the Oscars as a “Hollywood institution” and believes this limits the subject material found in Academy Award-nominated films.
Imbrey -- a communications major with a minor called “writing for the screen and stage” -- loves watching the Oscars. But he’s concerned that screenwriters are being overshadowed in the cinematic spotlight.
“The industry as a whole is director-centric,” he said. “The writers don’t get their due credit.”
Before Imbrey settles down to watch with some of his classmates, he’ll be working on a project of his own. Filming begins today on his story about two college students that run around campus with iPods and speakers, trying to create a soundtrack to everyday life.
On the opposite side of the country, in Redwood City, Calif.--– about 360 miles north of Hollywood -- 22-year-old Stevie Lewis will also be watching the show with friends.
But unlike Atwood, Imbrey and Weston, she’s already landed an official job in the movie business -- as a visual development artist at Dreamworks Animation.
Lewis -- a graduate of the Ringling College of Art and Design -- was a bronze medal winner in animation at the 38th Student Academy Awards last June.
It was at the SAA ceremony where she met Hallvar Witzø, one of the many filmmakers who will vie for an Academy Award tonight. Tuba Atlantic -- which won Witzø the SAA foreign film gold medal -- is one of the live action short film nominees, and Lewis couldn’t be more thrilled.
“Ever since I saw it … I couldn’t stop thinking about how clever and fun the film was,” she said.
At Dreamworks, Lewis worked on Madagascar 3 -- which will be in theaters this June -- and “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” a project scheduled for release in March 2014. She’s painted “color keys” for the studio’s lighting department and she’s worked on prop and environment design. Her goal is to become a film’s production designer.
And like the many filmmakers who will watch tonight as the envelopes are opened, she too holds a dream that one day it will be her taking home the golden statuette.
Chris Shores is a Spring 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.