When Erik Madsen won BCAA’s province-wide video contest, the news took the Okanagan Valley by storm. The George Elliot Grade 12 student with a passion for filmmaking spent the day answering calls from local media about his winning three-minute film, One Way.
The contest was in support of raising awareness of impaired driving amongst youth and the prize is a $4,000 grant which goes directly to George Elliot’s dry grad committee and Grad ’12 dry grad celebration.
This is the second year BCAA has hosted the contest, open to senior year students across the province who want a shot at the prize money for their school.
BCAA spokesperson Neila Melani said the quality of the 48 entries this year was astonishingly high. “The production values of all the videos are incredible, they are really well done.”
When Madsen found out about the competition his first step was to come up with a believable story. He took his inspiration from an anonymous poem he was given during driving lessons at All Weather Driving School.
“The poem is called Jenny and the Moonlight Ride. I wrote the script based on that,” explained Madsen.
It took a week of writing and tweaking the script with full notations before he felt ready to shoot. Madsen relied on skills gained from workshops and film courses taken at the Center for Arts and Technology in Kelowna to develop the storyline and get ready for shooting.
Madsen worked with his two best friends and fellow George Elliot students Daniel Harrison, in Grade 12 and Nick Novak Grade 11, to bring the production together and shoot the video.
The team worked off and on for a month to complete the project.
Madsen estimates up to 30 hours were spent shooting and he spent about an equal amount of time editing the video.
Madsen is happy that the theme of the intense three-minute video which caught the attention of the professional judges and then the 6,500 voters who cast their votes online.
He is definitely going to the George Elliott dry grad as well.
After graduation Madsen plans to pursue a film career and, “go all the way, with ending up in Hollywood.”
The film is intense, with graphic scenes that drive home the consequences of teen drinking and driving. There is a full score, solid acting, writing that drives the plot forward through believable relationships and action rather than the dreaded ‘telling’ the viewer what is happening. It is well worth your time to do a quick search to see for yourself why Madsen took home top prize.
To see the film, One Way, go to Youtube and use the search terms ‘one way eric madsen production.’ Or go to BCAA www.bcaa.com/drygrad.