The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Variety

Media Credit: Courtesy Jason Miller Jason Miller and crew film on the set for their entry into the 2008 Campus MovieFest. The team's film won the regional best picture title. [Click to enlarge]

Being the University's first team to win the regional competition of Campus MovieFest in Atlanta was not as easy as it may look, according to two of the filmmakers.

Jason Miller, Ethan Payne and Jason Lutrell teamed up to enter a film into the festival.

Their film, "'Til Death" did not win the University prize but went on to steal the regional honors from Atlanta schools Georgia Tech and Georgia State.

It moves to the national competition on May 3.

"I'm just happy with the way everything went. Happy to have made it this far," said Miller, a sociology and theater major from Lawrenceville.

His co-filmmaker agrees.

"We're happy UGA and Athens are represented," said Payne, a recent University graduate from Carnesville who studied telecommunications.

All three of the students had worked on projects for Campus MovieFest before with mixed results. Payne's movie last year was the University's runner-up for best comedy, and Miller wanted to improve on his last effort.

"I was really displeased with our story last year," Miller said. "I asked everyone. They were probably tired of hearing me talk about Campus MovieFest."

His first idea was a mockumentary set in a methamphetamine lab, but he decided that wasn't a good thought.

Miller then came up with the idea of a film noir genre movie, and University alumnus PT Umphress wrote the script.

"It's the classic noir tale of a woman who hires a detective to kill her husband, but he's already hired [the detective] to protect him," Miller said.

From the very beginning, there were problems.

The cast either didn't show up or didn't look the part of the classic story, but the filmmakers persevered and found the right group, including a special cameo by Drive-by Truckers' Patterson Hood, he said.

Miller had been in contact with Hood and the band when planning to shoot a music video for them through his production company, Eikon Productions. After some problems with its label, the band didn't make the video, but Miller had made a connection and asked Hood to help with the film.

Continued...

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