4 students win opportunity to make movies in New York, Chicago

The screenplays have been written, the actors have been cast, and the films have been shot. Now all that’s left is the long wait. Four IU students from two different teams, Team New York and Team Chicago, have been selected to film a short movie in the Sprite Refreshing Films competition.

Two of this year’s six teams featured students from IU. Team New York used brothers Tim and Paul Mattingly’s original screenplay. Team Chicago had students Greg Hunter as the staff producer and Ellen Crilly as a filmmaker and crew member.

Thousands of students submit screenplays and internship applications, but only a chosen few are selected to participate. 

In total there are six teams: Team New York, Team Chicago, Team Dallas, Team Atlanta, Team Los Angeles and Team Miami. The entire film crew is comprised of college and high school students.

The student filmmakers had seven days on set to recreate their original screenplays on film. The films last six to 12 minutes, and each city features a celebrity
actor.

“It was an amazing experience,” Paul Mattingly said. “I got to be a stand-in while we were filming in New York for one of the characters we wrote. I also got to talk to Chris Gorham, our celebrity actor from ‘Covert Affairs’ and ‘Ugly Betty.’ He was really great. It was really cool to follow people around on set. There was one moment myself and another person noticed some continuity errors and were able to fix them.”

Paul Mattingly has experience writing other screenplays. Before he entered the competition last fall, Paul Mattingly was in a screenwriting class and also finished writing a full-length feature film.

“I have a full-length sci-fi action script,” Paul Mattingly said. “Though I realize how hard it is to sell a script in Hollywood, I never thought I’d be able to say I wrote something that a celebrity starred in. Sprite Refreshing Films proved to me that anything is possible, so who knows?”

This year, the competition’s theme was “Ingenuity takes the unexpected path and is rewarded for it.”

For Paul and Tim Mattingly’s film, they took the theme quite literally. 

Team New York’s film is a comedic action film called “My Life the Video Game,” which is about a young man at an awards banquet who realizes his life has turned into a video game and he must win the game to win an award. 

The film for Team Chicago is called “Swift Justice,” and it focuses on a comic book illustrator who gets sucked into his comic. The love interest of the illustrator is in the comic book, and they must defeat his awful boss to make the world a better place. The chosen celebrity for Team Chicago was singer Alexis Jordan from “America’s Got Talent,” who will make her acting debut in the movie.

“It was crazy. We were always busy,” Crilly said. “I was involved with some of the casting and got to audition a ton of people. I also got to do a little bit of camera work and helped pick some props. I did a little bit of everything.”

Even with long working hours, Hunter said it was a great experience.

“I think the thing I’ll never forget about is the shoot day,” Hunter said. “It was in the negatives, and we were outside shooting for at least six to seven hours, and no one was complaining. Not only were the actors supportive, but they were all very professional. Most were SAG (Screen Actors Guild) actors and had been in other more popular movies like ‘The Dark Knight.’” 

In the first round of the competition, Team Chicago and Team New York will square off head to head.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a tough competition,” Hunter said. “A big part of this is marketing and promoting, getting on Facebook and really getting people to vote.”

All films are in the editing process until March 31, after which they will be available online for all to watch. April 1 to May 30 is the audience voting period to choose the best, and the winners will be flown to a film festival in June, where their movie will be screened.  

“Being on set and seeing the script come to life is one of the best moments, but my favorite is yet to come,” Paul said. “Seeing the film online will be the most exciting thing. I’d like to make a call to action to IU to go to Sprite and vote for your favorite film from New York.”