Students win place among film stars at Sundance

Two aspiring filmmakers from Dixie State College won the Utah Film Commission "Spot On" contest held in Salt Lake City last week, and join the list of winning film students in St. George.

Bobby Bowden, a Dixie sophomore from Murray, and Ben Braten, a senior from St. George, as a team were one of two recipients of the award, selected from more than 100 applicants in the competition.

The contest asked producers why it would be ideal for filmmakers to shoot among Utah's landscape. The fifth annual competition called for 30-second, campaign-style or individual commercials.

Marshall Moore, director of the UFC said participants promote the Utah film industry and the work of the commission to bring more filmmakers to Utah. He said the entries help to "showcase the tremendous amount of talent that exists in the state of Utah."

Bowden and Braten's spot, entitled "Dream Utah," was a simple clip of a young boy looking at the southern Utah red rock scenery and imagining what his desires as a future filmmaker might be.

When the competition was announced in early September, Bowden said, "I immediately started thinking of ideas on how to advertise Utah and why the film industry should shoot here." Following numerous pitches to his film instructors at the college, he was given the go-ahead to start shooting.

Theirs was a two-month-long project that elicited a $1,500 check, complete with a trophy and various other prizes, including Sundance movie passes and party invitations for the highfalutin occasion coming to Utah in January. The winning commercial will air throughout the film festival on Park City Television, also at similar film-screening events in Los Angeles and New York in the coming year.

Bowden and Braten's work is among many winning productions made by students at Dixie. Students enrolled in the Communication in New Media program work with digital motion picture and broadcast production, as well as Web design and electronic publishing. Former winners, such as "One Giant Soundstage" and "Lights, Camera, Distraction," were other student entries.

"For me, the most interesting aspect of teaching in this program is watching students discover how intricately the communication discipline relates to film production, narrative and documentary," said Eric Young, Dixie professor and film advisor. In eight years of teaching at Dixie, Young has been able to expand the new media bachelor degree program to include a digital film educational track, which features digital film production, digital film production management and compositing.

Students like Bowden and Braten say they are inspired by Young and credit him for his influence.

"When it came down to it," Bowden said. "I'm just your average guy who came up with an idea, ran with it and got lucky."

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com