The UA will be represented at Campus MovieFest 2009 with a film titled “”Scene 5.””
Campus MovieFest is a competition where college students around the United States make a five minute-long movie in one week and compete for software, equipment, and glory.
“”Scene 5″” won Best Picture at the UA campus level, and placed in the top 16 at the Western Regionals, giving them a spot in the final competition.
“”Scene 5″” is about a nerdy director who decides to act for the first time. He casts his crush as his love interest for a heart-pounding make-out session in, you guessed it, “”Scene 5.”” The plot thickens when his plan is discovered.
The film was a joint effort between twin brothers James and Joseph Tullar.
“”As team leader and producer, I organized everybody, got everything together, hauled equipment around, got the props required for the scripts, while I let the director do his job.”” James Tullar, a freshman who aspires to be in the media arts program said.
Joseph Tullar, a science sophomore and James’ twin, wrote and directed the movie.
“”The joke is that James, the man in the movie, directed it (in the movie) but in reality my twin brother Joseph directed and wrote it,”” James Tullar said.
Unlike other movies in the competition that were written prior to the start date, “”Scene 5″” was written, cast, and shot in the five allotted days.
“”Ours was written particularly for the Campus MovieFest,”” James Tullar said. “”There was no pre-planning except getting the equipment together.””
Campus MovieFest provides teams with equipment to use, but the Tullar brothers didn’t need it for “”Scene 5.””
“”We had a better camera than they provided, an HD Sony camera and a better microphone, our own tripod and own boom mike,”” James Tullar said. “”You had to edit the movie on their laptop. That’s how they knew you edited it.””
The most difficult part of filming was the choreography for the gruesome opening scenes.
“”There are some pretty intense live-action blood scenes that took a lot of choreographing and timing,”” James Tullar said. “”We had to go through about three changes of clothes and everybody got covered in blood.””
The team is looking forward to the final competition, since the biggest hurdle is behind them.
“”The hardest and most dense competition is out of the way,”” James Tullar said in reference to the many California schools competing.
“”We’re going to do a lot better in Los Angeles because our movie is very witty and intellectual unlike other ones that appeal to the lowest common denominator,”” James Tullar said. “”It’s all the awesome film schools I’m afraid to go up against (such as the) East Coast, Chicago area, and those other film schools.””
However, James and Joseph Tullar aren’t new to the film industry.
“”We make movies all around town and we’ve been doing it since sophomore year of high school,”” James Tullar said. “”We’ve won a ton of local film contests.””
On Nov. 6 the team won another film contest at The Loft Cinema’s monthly First Friday Shorts, walking away with the $200 grand prize for a different film.
Every year the best of the First Friday Shorts winners is chosen for the grand finale.
“”In May we won the grand finale at The Loft $1000,”” James Tullar said.
James Tullar says their previous experience helped them with this time-crunched competition.
“”We sort of have an established team or ‘pod’ group of people who really enjoy helping out in our movies because we’ve been so successful,”” James Tullar said. “”People stay and want to help out.””
The actors enjoy working with the group because of the chemistry during production.
“”My favorite part was probably was the communal feeling,”” said Edward Whitney, an actor who has worked with the Tullars on several other films. “”I loved the allowance of free flow and the allowance of off the top of our head lines and camaraderie.””
“”To have a successful, interesting, powerful film, a team needs talent in every aspect: script process, cinematography, lighting. One of the most important things to have is great actors, and to bring it all together you need tight professional editing,”” James Tullar said.
