Saturday, July 19, 2008
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19861521&BRD=1211&PAG=461&dept_id=169689&rfi=6

Seymour High Graduate Ready To Become Big-Time Film Maker

SEYMOUR - Since graduating from Seymour High in 2001, Dusty Clark has been working toward becoming a Hollywood film director, and now he feels he's in a position to do just that. After winning five Telly awards at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 for a movie called "Caregiver," Clark and his Emagination Films partners believe they have written a screenplay that will draw local investors to bankroll the making of it. Clark's team includes Bob Leathers, assistant director and special effect/color corrector; Michael Mynatt, main editor; Ben Lawson, editor; and Eric Percy, producer. They all live in Seymour. The movie is called "Life Audit" and is set in the future where genetic alteration is performed to make people live longer.

"But before a person is approved for the procedure, they must be audited by the government and it will be the government's decision whether you have contributed enough to society to make you available for a life audit," Clark said in a telephone interview. "Not every movie is up everybody's alley, but this one has something for everybody," he said. "It's not science fiction because it's something that scientists say will be a reality in 25 years. They've already gotten rats to live 50 to 75 percent longer, and now they're testing the procedure on other animals, and soon they will be testing it on people. Private funding has just opened up for the testing, and that will accelerate the process. The question, however, is how will we handle who gets approved for the procedure, and how do we do it without destroying our environment?"

"Caregiver," which brought the team the attention it needed, is like Little Red Riding Hood with his own twist, Clark said. "We just now finished a move called 'In a Blink,' and we used the home of Barbara Pendregrass in Seymour for the interior scenes. 'In a Blink' is about a girl who has everything she needs financially, but not emotionally, and how she looks for her emotional fixes in the wrong places and gets caught up in a very bad situation. All of our films have been filmed in Seymour," said Clark.

"In a Blink" will probably be shown at the Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge in October. "It's a 21-minute movie," Clark said, "and we hope it will be our premiere. We're hoping it will go on to the National Film Festival." The team used personal resources to film "In a Blink," and Clark said they are hoping it will be the one that gives Emagination Films an opportunity to get a studio or local people to invest in a feature film of their screenplay, "Life Audit." "We hope we've shown what we can do with minimal resources by showing we have the director and behind-the-scenes muscle to make a true Hollywood feature," said Clark. Plans are to film "Life Audit" in Tennessee, and Clark said the team is currently seeking local investors. "It takes $1,000 per page of script for an ultra low-budget film. A quality film takes $10,000 per page and this script is 120 pages. But the profit potential is greater than the money put into it. The people working behind the scenes and in front of the camera up your percentage of making money. We will take all the steps necessary to invest money as wisely as possible and increase the percentage of profit to the highest it can be," he said.