Local film's young (and fun) guns

Nineteen-year-old Louie Benson began toying around with filmmaking early in his life, around the age of 13 or 14.

He's not happy about those early products he made.

"I'm ashamed for people to see them," Benson says while sitting in the video production lab at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center will fellow young filmmakers Scott Elsey, 21, and Andrew Kenner, 19 -- a place that has become an artistic Mecca for the area's young independent filmmakers.

Over the years Benson's prowess grew. He started making short films he could take pride in with friends like Zach Harris, Dane Cherry and Josh Armitage. Eventually, his work led him into projects with older, more established independent Southeast Missouri filmmakers. But Benson said he never felt like he was taken seriously, always the brunt of the group's jokes.

"I'm not Pat Bond, I'm not Mike Huntington, I'm not Steve Turner, but damn it, I matter!" Benson said, completely serious. Benson got great satisfaction when a comedic short he put together with Harris and others, "Unexplained Events: The Enigma Known as Bigfoot" beat out films by the Bond, Huntington, Turner and others for the audience choice award at the last Show Me Digital Film Festival.

Benson has something to prove. In league with Elsey, Kenner and Harris, Benson will make the trip to the 48 Hour Film Project in St. Louis June 8 to 10 -- an event in which filmmaking teams are assigned a genre, a prop, a character and a line of dialogue and must make a short film incorporating those elements within two days -- with that same chip on his shoulder, and a love for the art of filmmaking shared by everyone in his group.

The team is currently named Shinn's List Productions, a title Benson and his buddies used in high school for their projects after ditching the far cornier moniker Comedy Crew. But this team is not the same Shinn's List team, an issue for contention for Elsey, who was never a part of the original Shinn's List team. In all about eight or nine people will be on the team.

Benson, Elsey and Kenner see the competition as a challenge, albeit a fun one.

"It's really putting yourself to the test," Benson said. "You're proving to yourself you can be focused enough to put a film together under those circumstances."

For the past few years teams from Southeast Missouri have ventured to the St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project, a worldwide event that challenges independent filmmakers to quickly produce a short film without a budget.

Benson and Elsey have both been on 48 Hour teams before (Elsey participating in Miami while at an audio engineering school), but this year is their first to head up a team. Elsey and Benson have a long history, having both gone to school at Scott City and worked on short films together for years. But the common thread shared by the three is Randy McWilson's somewhat mislabeled "broadcasting" class (the class has increased its focus on filmmaking, audio production and a wide range of media production over the seven years McWilson has taught) at the Career and Technology Center, where the three say they learned to take film seriously, and found their inspiration from McWilson's encouragement.

"If Mac wasn't such a good teacher, I wouldn't love film," Elsey said, using McWilson's nickname. Elsey started out wanting to produce music, but after taking the Career and Technology Center class he's found a new interest in film.

Kenner said McWilson's strength is that "he's good a making it into a passion." In McWilson's class, many students can't wait to go home and study film editing software after class.

The Career and Technology Center is even paying the group's $150 registration fee to participate in the 48 Hour Film Project.

McWilson said Career and Technology Center director Rich Payne agreed to provide the registration fee for the team of alumni "without a second thought." The media program at the center has shown results, McWilson said, with students winning awards in national competitions and graduates going on to good jobs in the industry.

The three take their art seriously, and they want to be recognized as serious artists, even though all three are prone to joking and verbally jabbing at each other. Movies may be one of the only things they're serious about, and the one thing they know they want to do with their lives.

"Even if I don't make any money ... I think it's awesome," Elsey said. "I love the art of film."

McWilson said they're joking nature won't get in the way of their work.

"It's not a casual thing to them," McWilson said. "This is heart and soul to what they want to do. Their chances of coming out on top are as good as anybody's."

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182