28 Day Film Festival Contest a fun experiment

I'm no writer. I'm not even a videographer anymore. What I am is a film junkie. Since I was eight years old, I've wanted nothing more than to terrify people as much as Ridley Scott scared me with an overgrown, Geigeresque, space-cockroach. I also wanted to make people laugh and wonder like Jim Henson did with his oddball creations of styrofoam and ostrich feathers.

Have you ever turned around to look at the people in the movie theater or in the living room around you as they watch a movie screen? Most have the same look of child-like intensity plastered to their faces, and the kind of focus that is only seen on the face of a dog who sees a bone. That's what I wanted to do to people: captivate them, manipulate them, and divest them of some of their hard earned cash in the process.

It hasn't happened yet, but the first step on the journey of turning my employer into a movie studio is the talent search. So here we are, dangling the carrot to see who takes a bite. Five hundred bucks and a screening at the Charleston International Film Festival to draw out those budding auteurs among you. That's actually a better payoff than most freelance jobs in the film industry right now, so you're already light years ahead of the game. What's holding you back?

Danielle Callesen didn't hold back. Eight days into our little experiment and we already have our first entry. "Toying with Life" is an introspective short featuring well framed shots, vibrant juxtaposition of colors, a look into the long journey a few panicked seconds underwater can send you on, and shades of kidnapping and dirty deeds in sheds at the end of dark, country roads.

Fourteen-year-old Corey Ryan didn't hold back. We received an eloquent e-mail from him positively pleading for us to allow him to enter the short he and a few friends put together. Unfortunately, our rules require that entrants be eighteen years of age or older, but I think we can let him have fifteen minutes of fame on Charleston.net. Don't you? Sorry, Corey. Four more years until your sense of humor starts actually paying the bills. Hey, they wouldn't let me enter the contest either!

I said all that to say this. I watch a lot of movies. There aren't enough movies to watch or hours in the day to watch them. Get out there and shoot something. Anything. Well, maybe not anything, but send it to me. Let me watch your movies! Because my wife and I have cancelled the cable, I'm in between Netflix DVDs and I've seen every movie I own at least a dozen times. I'm a film junkie, and I'm jonesing. Help a brother out.