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Iowa Filmmakers go to MTV Film Contest

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Iowa-based filmmakers and University of Iowa juniors, have created a two-minute film trailer for the MTVu`s Best Film on Campus: Trailer Challenge competition. The two 21-year-olds have been selected as two of the 10 semi-finalists in the contest. The trailers will be screened on MTVu, a college channel that spans 730 campuses nationwide and reaches 6.5 million students. Online voters can view the trailers online and select the finalist. Finalists will be chosen by another round of online voting, as well as MTV staff and/or celebrity judges.

Beck and Woods` trailers, `University Heights` and `Her Summer,` will be available online for voting beginning Oct. 24th through Nov. 8th.
`We`re lucky to come this far, and now we need all the support we can get,` Beck says. The winner receives a development deal with MTV Films and a home theater system. Beck states, `The home theater system prize is nice, but what Bryan and I really care about is the development deal. We`ve done many feature films on our own, all of them for less than $300. It`d be nice to get a foot in the door, and have a major studio back our next project.`

A few of their latest films have received national attention, screening at festivals across the country and winning several awards, including four from the Iowa Motion Picture Association. Their latest feature, `Her Summer`, premiered in October 2004 at the IMAX Theater in Davenport, IA. `University Heights`, the third feature from Bluebox, has been screened at eight festivals in the United States, and received five nominations from the Wild Rose Independent Film Festival in Des Moines, IA, including Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.

In April of 2004, Beck and Woods placed in the Top 50 Director`s competition in the Project Greenlight contest, representing 3% of the total contestants. Project Greenlight was created by Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and is sponsored by Miramax Studios and the Bravo Channel. The top 50 were chosen from over 1,700 candidates, all of which submitted a 3-minute scene to demonstrate directorial talent. In October 2004, Scott and Bryan were chosen as the top 3 finalists in the MTVu Best Film on Campus competition. Their short film `Shades` aired nationwide to 730 universities on the MTVu channel, which reaches 6.5 million college students. The film was also judged by thousands of online voters, MTV staff, and Hollywood directors Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth, Batman and Robin), Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Elephant), Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging, Grace of My Heart).