IRVINE, California (Press Release)–Student film maker Edward Zeiden, a junior at UC Irvine, says he wants to bring to film something that many artsy, creative types tend to avoid: solid business principles.
He loves movies and movie making, but life in front of the camera doesn’t have as much appeal for him as movie producing, which he compares to being a chef. “You have to be able to get the ingredients and know how much to put in.”
Zeiden and fellow film students have some projects on the back burner that will require major financing, so in the meantime they are trying to raise money by practicing their craft.
Recently, Zeiden in his capacity as head of Zeichik Productions, helped put together a commercial for a cough drop company, which offered prizes for one minute stories that illustrated the utility of their cough drops and also essayed the topic “my best friend.”
Titled “Lovesick,” Zeiden’s story starring student actors Andreas De Rond, Vanessa Wolf and a golden retriever named Vida is up on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yDEykfPZeo. Whether it wins the $5,000 or $3,000 or $2,000 first, second and third prizes will depend in large measure on how many people watch the commercial on You Tube.
As a business economics major, Zeiden says he admires the approach the Bee M.D. cough drop company took to devising a commercial.
Instead of paying an ad agency $25,000 or more to do a spot that people may or may not like, the company instead decided to spend only $10,000 on a contest that would involve more film makers and potentially, via You Tube, many more potential viewers.
As a student, Zeiden says he himself has to make movies frugally.
For example, he said, for “Lovesick,” he borrowed the camera, got the student actors to volunteer (they look for ways of showing what they can do), and consolidated shooting into two days in order to mesh everyone’s schedules. When it started to rain on the second day of shooting, Zeiden promptly introduced “rain or shine” into the dialogue.
While Zeiden isn’t saying what major projects he plans, as a member of Anteaters for Israel (Anteaters are UC-Irvine’s nickname) and Hillel, the Jewish film producer says he hopes some day to delve into Jewish-interest subjects.
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Preceding provided by Zeichik Productions
Preceding provided by Zeichik Productions