THE NEW KINGS

Louisiana Film Prize names $50,000 winner

Filmmakers Kyle Clements and Samuel Macaluso of Baton Rouge are the new reigning kings of the Louisiana Film Prize after their film “Silo” took the grand prize of $50,000 Oct. 6.

“I still feel like I’m dreaming,” Clements said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

After a celebratory embrace, the two friends stood on stage with the $50,000 check held high. Canons of money shot into the air, a New Orleans-style brass band ceremoniously entered playing “When the Saints Go Marching In,” and the audience gave a standing ovation and cheered wildly.

Through calculations of 50 percent of the public’s vote and 50 percent of the judge’s panel vote, “Silo” received the highest points of the Top 20 films. “Silo” swept the three award categories: Founder’s Circle, Crosscut Editing and the Grand Prize awards.

They received one of five Founder’s Circle awards of $3,000 in grants toward shooting another film prize short next year. They won the Crosscut Editing Award for best film editing, which includes $20,000 and a contract to work with the state of Louisiana on several film editing projects. Finally, they claimed the coveted $50,000 Grand Prize that includes film distribution through Shorts International and guaranteed screening of “Silo” at three other film festivals, the Dallas VideoFest, Sync Up Fest in New Orleans and Hollywood Shorts Fest in Los Angeles.

Steve Ramos, media journalist/ storyteller, was one of nine judges on the panel this year. “We look at content, storytelling, technique, very polished and impressive,” Ramos said. “I’m a fan of the emerging storytelling and creative risks, and this is a film that wasn’t afraid of taking those creative risks. It is very impactful.”

Clements believes it was also the audience’s ability to relate to the story. “My goal was to create lovable characters and relatable relations, and I think we achieved that,” he said.

Clements said the goal of “Silo” was to tell a story, and the real reward in winning the film prize is more than monetary.

“It has nothing to do with the money,” Clements said. “That money is going to go right back into making another project. The trophy is the real prize, the validation that we’re good at what we do.”

The film prize is a short narrative film contest with the one rule that filmmakers must shoot their film in the Shreveport- Bossier City area. Clements, 29, and Macaluso, 30, travelled upstate from New Orleans to Shreveport-Bossier City to shoot “Silo” on less than a $5,000 budget and returned home with $73,000 worth of cash prizes and recognition.

Director, writer and actor Clements and co-producer Macaluso worked together to create “Silo,” their first film. “Silo” is a dramatic tale about “how just as easily two people can come together, they can be pulled apart.”

“It’s a relationship story,” Clements said. “It’s a story about holding on and letting go, making tough decisions in life and moving forward.”

The story was first inspired by an incident involving a close friend of Clements’, but during the screenwriting process, Clements ran into a writer’s block. “I started putting the pieces together and could never figure out how to organize the puzzle per se,” Clements said.

He said a couple of months had passed when he learned the tragic news that another close friend had been a victim of a hit-and-run accident and was in a coma. “I was there at the hospital everyday with him, and I found myself wondering, ‘Could he hear us?’” Clements’ friend came out of the coma and made a full recovery, and the situation brought Clements back to the script. “The experience of that just brought the story back to the forefront of my mind,” he said. “Taking that time away from it enabled me to revisit it from a different perspective and finally finish it.”

Clements had hoped to enter film prize in its inaugural year in 2012, but due to conflicting schedules with another project, he was hired to act in, he had to delay production until this year. “It knocked us out the time frame to shoot in time for deadline, so we had to delay and do it this year,” Clements said. “It worked out.”

Clements can usually be found in front of the camera as an actor; he has appeared in a list of feature films, including “Battleship,” “2 Guns,” next year’s release of “Ender’s Game” and television’s “Vampire Diaries.” However, a career in filmmaking looks promising to him.

“It’s been reinforced that I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing and what I should be doing,” Clement said. “We’re right where we should be.”

– Tiana Kennell

WINNERS:

Louisiana Film Prize 2013 Winners $50,000 Grand Prize: “Silo”

Top 5: “Last Call” “Lineman” “Red River Ode” “Ruby and the Dragon” “Silo”

$3,000 Founder’s Circle Grants: “El Gato” “Last Call” “Lineman” “Red River Ode” “Silo”

$20,000 Crosscut Editing Award: “Silo”