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Jason Miller and crew film on the set for their entry into the 2008 Campus MovieFest. The team's film won the regional best picture title.

Student film wins regional title, advances to nationals

By: MANDY RODGERS

Posted: 4/28/08

Being the University's first team to win the regional competition of Campus MovieFest in Atlanta was not as easy as it may look, according to two of the filmmakers.

Jason Miller, Ethan Payne and Jason Lutrell teamed up to enter a film into the festival.

Their film, "'Til Death" did not win the University prize but went on to steal the regional honors from Atlanta schools Georgia Tech and Georgia State.

It moves to the national competition on May 3.

"I'm just happy with the way everything went. Happy to have made it this far," said Miller, a sociology and theater major from Lawrenceville.

His co-filmmaker agrees.

"We're happy UGA and Athens are represented," said Payne, a recent University graduate from Carnesville who studied telecommunications.

All three of the students had worked on projects for Campus MovieFest before with mixed results. Payne's movie last year was the University's runner-up for best comedy, and Miller wanted to improve on his last effort.

"I was really displeased with our story last year," Miller said. "I asked everyone. They were probably tired of hearing me talk about Campus MovieFest."

His first idea was a mockumentary set in a methamphetamine lab, but he decided that wasn't a good thought.

Miller then came up with the idea of a film noir genre movie, and University alumnus PT Umphress wrote the script.

"It's the classic noir tale of a woman who hires a detective to kill her husband, but he's already hired [the detective] to protect him," Miller said.

From the very beginning, there were problems.

The cast either didn't show up or didn't look the part of the classic story, but the filmmakers persevered and found the right group, including a special cameo by Drive-by Truckers' Patterson Hood, he said.

Miller had been in contact with Hood and the band when planning to shoot a music video for them through his production company, Eikon Productions. After some problems with its label, the band didn't make the video, but Miller had made a connection and asked Hood to help with the film.

"He was pretty busy, so we shot scenes with just him, no one else there," Miller said. "Scenes with just his arm, that's actually somebody else's arm."

"'Til Death" was shot at Arch Bar, and Agora donated clothes while Transmetropolitan and Raising Cane's donated food to the cause.

Though the rules of Campus MovieFest allow the script and planning to be done much in advance and a small percentage of the film to be shot before the week of the contest, these students filmed it all in one week.

However, that didn't stop questions being raised by fellow contestants and the festival.

"Another team did a film noir. Theirs was really good but wasn't shown," Miller explained. "We totally understand their frustration, but rumors started that we had been working on our film before. Everyone assumes we shot ahead of time. It's been really rough."

Campus MovieFest investigated the group, asking everyone involved a series of questions and found nothing wrong.

"We had eight- to 14-hour days at the Arch Bar to get everything done," Payne said, denying the rumors.

After not winning the University portion of the event, the group didn't think the regional competition would go better, but theirs was chosen as one of the 16 entered.

"The bar was higher in Atlanta," Miller said. "We were very sure we weren't going to win."

The group admired many of the other films shown, including the short "Baby Talk," an action film with pyrotechnics.

"There were several great films. Fun, creative ideas," Payne said. "The Georgia Tech guys were amazing. There was so much talent from Atlanta schools. We were shocked. It was pretty phenomenal."

Now, "'Til Death" will travel to New York City for the national competition, but its filmmakers might not make it there due to lack of expenses.

Whatever happens in New York, Miller and Payne still are focused on video production in one way or another and have future projects in the works.

Payne and Miller's Eikon Productions recently shot a music video for A Hopeforagoldensummer and began filming "soundies," good sound quality, live videos of bands.

Miller and Payne also are starting work on an indie music documentary, beginning in Athens.

"It seems obvious, but I don't think it's really been done," Miller said.

"And Athens is a great place to start," Payne said.