Three aspirant film-makers will be given the chance of a lifetime - to work with Hollywood royalty Kevin Spacey and Adrien Brody, as well as award-winning US film production company, Trigger Street Productions.
The winners of the Jameson First Shot Film Competition will be flown to Los Angeles where they will direct their short films which will star Oscar winner Brody.
Spacey started the competition in 2010 to help wannabe filmmakers get a foot in the door of the tough movie industry.
Uma Thurman and Willem Dafoe starred in short films produced by previous winners. The films, once completed, will be screened in Los Angeles.
South Africans stand a good chance of making the top three as two have won in previous years. They were directors Hanneke Schutte and Henco J, last year and this year respectively.
Schutte’s shortie, Saving Norman, told the story of a hypochondriac table tennis player who once missed a major tournament due to a cold and never fully recovered from the defeat. Dafoe played the lead.
Henco J’s film The Mundane Goddess, starred Thurman. It told the story of a Greek goddess who talked to a therapist about her boring home life.
Entrants will need to write an original and compelling piece of work with the final draft being no longer than seven A4 pages. Stories should reveal, with a lightness of touch, the epic that is to be found in everyday experiences.
Spacey said that he saw it as his duty to help young talent in an industry where it is notoriously difficult to enter.
“If you’ve been successful at the career you wanted to have, it’s your obligation to spend a good portion of your time sending the elevator back down
.”
World-class producer Dana Brunetti, and a partner in Trigger Street Production, will assist in making the films with the experienced crews. “Any time you can open a path for people who actually have talent to demonstrate it’s a wonderful thing. Hollywood doesn’t have a monopoly on talent.”
Applicants must be at least 25 years or older, be living in South Africa, Russia, the US, UK, Ireland, India, Australia or Canada.
Scenes depicting drug-taking or drug references, drunk driving, excessive violence or excessive drinking will not be accepted. The script should include no more than seven cast members and must be submitted in English. There is only one entry per person with no writing teams allowed.
- For more information and to enter, visit www.jamesonfirst shot.com/
- Sunday Tribune