UI filmmaker makes MTV contest final

By Traci Finch / THE DAILY IOWAN / November 9, 2004

Linda Beck couldn't grab her cell phone to tell relatives the news fast enough during her son's birthday dinner in late October.

Scott Beck, a UI sophomore, received a voice mail from MTV while dining on bacon cheeseburgers from Famous Dave's. After checking his messages, he casually relayed the information to his family: His four-minute movie had been chosen as a semifinalist in MTV's Best Film on Campus competition. He was notified late last week that his film was named one of three finalists in the contest.

"His humility is unbelievable... When he called me Friday to tell me he made the top three, he first asked if I'd made an appointment for a haircut on Saturday," Linda Beck said, laughing.

Success in the film industry is nothing new for Scott Beck - he and co-director, producer, writer, and good friend Bryan Woods formed a production company, Bluebox Limited, three years ago. The duo has won four awards in the past seven years from the Iowa Motion Picture Association out of a catalogue of 13 short films and four feature-length movies. A recent feature has been screened at four Midwest festivals.

Scott Beck and Woods, who met in sixth grade, began their career together filming their Star Wars toys.

"We both kind of did the action-figure thing on our own before we met each other," said Woods, who is a sophomore at Scott Community College.

It wasn't until the Bettendorf natives' sophomore year in high school that they became serious about filmmaking, studying every aspect from sound to scriptwriting, Scott Beck said.

"Each [part of filmmaking] is really fun," he said. "I would say probably the production phase, when we're actually shooting, is the most fun."

He and Woods teamed up for the contest in September to create the four-minute short, titled "Shades," a dark drama in which the main character deals with the murder of his girlfriend. Beck wrote the screenplay in one day, and the film was shot in three.

"Anytime Scott comes up with something, we usually respond to the same material," Woods said.

Scott Beck said the idea stemmed from a feature-length film he wrote but didn't plan on producing.

He and Woods had difficulty condensing his vision into an-under-five-minute piece; they had to rework the movie several times before they and their parents, who previewed the film, were satisfied.

"He's always been able to tie different stories together," Linda Beck said. "He's not just trying to make a movie to occupy an hour and a half."

An online voting system determined the finalists for the contest, and now a team of Hollywood directors, MTV staff, and online voters will determine the winner of the contest, who will receive two tickets to the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and an internship with MTV Films.

"It's amazing when someone whose films you've been watching for the longest time is actually going to see your work," Woods said about directors Gus Van Sant and Joel Schumacher, two of the judges.

Actor and recent UI alum Travis Shepherd, who starred in the film, knew Woods and Beck in high school, and he has worked in several of their movies. Shepherd graduated with a degree in history but would love to act.

"I always wanted to be an actor, but I never really took it seriously until I met these guys," he said.

Scott Beck said as many as 75 actors have come out for different Bluebox auditions, but he wrote the "Shades" screenplay with Shepherd, one of the four characters, in mind.

"Shades" can be viewed at www.blueboxlimited.com, where viewers can then vote for the film. The winner will be notified Friday.

E-mail DI reporter Traci Finch at: traci-finch@uiowa.edu.