Quad Cities filmmakers hope for 'Greenlight'

By Jeffrey Bruner / DES MOINES REGISTER / May 13, 2004

Two 19-year-olds from the Quad Cities have fared well in the "Project Greenlight" competition, the contest that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are running to find budding screenwriters and directors.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods made the Top 50 in the directing part of the contest for their three-minute short film "Amber." They were to learn Wednesday night if they made the top 10.

"We certainly exceeded our expectations," Beck said. "Bryan and I thought about entering the 'Greenlight' competition last year but we didn't do it because we didn't like the idea."

Can't blame the guys for their reluctant entry - the contest doesn't have much of a track record. The first film, "Stolen Summer," got no support from sponsor Miramax and grossed $120,000 on 13 screens. Last year's "The Battle of Shaker Heights" earned about $280,000.

But pragmatism got the best of them.

"There's a lot of opportunities out there, so you might as well take whatever you can get," he said.

"Amber" was shot Jan. 31 and edited in 24 hours, which was good because entries were due the first week in February. The film uses characters from a full-length feature called "University Heights" that Beck and Woods plan to screen in the Quad Cities in late June and submit to festivals for consideration.

The "Project Greenlight" finalists will get a three-page script that's pretty much nonsense - you know, like "Kangaroo Jack" - and try to make sense of it through storytelling.

The directing winner will get $1 million to film the top screenplay. That's not a huge amount of money these days, but when you see what Iowa guy Peter Hedges did with less than half of that for "Pieces of April," anything becomes
possible.