Our previous article ( Fishing for Cameron Fay) on up and coming director Cameron Fay predicted that his film, 'Fishing for Trauster' would be screened at top film festivals and quickly take Hollywood by storm. Our prediction was correct and “Fishing for Trauster” is now screening at the largest and most important short film festival, The Los Angeles International Short Film Festival.
Cameron Fay has already shaken up New York City, and he is now conquering LA. A New York City Producer at the Tribecca Film Festival stated, 'Cameron Fay has been creating such a buzz with his new short film 'Fishing for Trauster' that it was the buzz of his office even before it went into production.”
Cam Scarborough star of
Cameron Fay’s “Fishing for Trauster”
“Fishing for Trauster” was first conceived when Fay developed the concept of the Grandpa character, “He actually changed a lot, but originally I thought of putting a family around a cursing, spitting old war veteran, that was now against war'. Fay knew he wanted to make a story about family and conformity in America.
'I think in 2002 when I was writing it, patriotism and conformity were big issues in the news. I wanted to show how much pressure there was on people to go with the grain. You were either with us or against us, and that’s the kind of environment that Margaret creates for Monty. It’s either UVA, or no where.”
When asked about the possibility of turning 'Fishing for Trauster' into a feature film, Fay answered “Sure, I’ve thought about it. I have a lot of really cool Trasuter feature ideas. Grandpa Trauster sneaking into the Fresco plant and causing a ruckus. A lot of people have told me they’d like to see it as a feature. Some people have showed interest in financing it with the right package and actors attached. I really want to take the short around the festival circuit and see what happens from that. We’re going to be sending it to Sundance soon. That’d be a big one that could open a lot of doors, and the possibility of a feature. It all depends, but yeah, I’d be psyched to work on a feature version of Trauster,” but currently Cameron says, “Right now I’ve got a couple of things going. I’ve got a feature script called “The Amateurs” which I co-wrote with my friend Greg Rock, that’s set up with Producers Brad Luff and Rebecca Dessertine who are on the Sony lot. Greg and I have also been working on a romantic comedy treatment for Working Title Films. They made Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, About a boy. Basically anything with Hugh Grant in it.”
Cameron Fay began filmmaking at the age of twelve, while growing up in Fairfax, Virginia. He made many short films with his home video camera, and used friends from his soccer team as the actors. This love of film brought him to the prestigious Kanbar Institute of Film/T.V. at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, Cameron was selected as the Lew Wasserman Scholar from the Film/T.V. class of 2003. This scholarship allowed Cameron to write and direct many films which have been received at various film festivals nationwide.
I had the opportunity to speak with LA Shorts Festival Producer, Gareth West, who has been an invaluable part of the festival for the last three of its eight years of existence. West originally flew over to Los Angeles from England with his wife and after spending some time in America he met the festival director, Robert Arentz, they hit it off and the rest is history. He has helped the festival grow to become the largest and most important short film festival in the world. West stated that “the festival this year had over 1200 short film submissions, and we accepted the top 500 of those.” The goal of the LA Shorts Festival is to “bring the film makers to Los Angeles”, West commented, “and try to get them networked with the right industry people and help them with the next step into feature films.”
Bryan Singer was on-hand during the opening the festival, to receive the first Maverick Film Achievement Award. Singer who is best known for the directorial vision behind X-2, X-Men and Usual Suspects, is currently prepping to direct the much-anticipated Superman. The Maverick Film Achievement Award was created to celebrate, honor and pay homage to an individual or individuals who generously contribute to and support the continual growth of the independent film movement. “Many of the finest filmmakers of our time began with a short and have gone on to create great masterpieces that have forever marked the art of filmmaking,” says Robert Arentz.
LA Shorts Fest is strongly committed to creating an open forum for the artist, creating an environment that allows them to be innovative and take risk with their creativity,” adds Arentz. “When we created this award we had filmmakers like Bryan in mind. He started his career with short films, moved on to Indie films and now is working at the top of his field in commercial features. His work, creativity and vision make him the perfect candidate Maverick Achievement Award.” The following day after Bryan Singer was honored with the Maverick Award, West said, “he showed up unannounced to take in one of the short film programs. This was something he did not have to do” and the festival was honored to have him show respects to his roots of short film.
Beginning this year the LA Shorts Festival, will identify a very select and limited number of directors and screenwriters from the festival whom they will offer to assist in developing projects via their connection to Hollywood agents, managers, studio and development executives. West could not comment on who was going to win, but we can only suspect that Cameron Fay will be in contention to win.
West concluded by saying that the LA International Short Film Festival is a place to have film maker’s efforts is seen on the big screen in front of an audience and that, “film making is an art form and the artists want to show their art and get appreciation.”
The LA Shorts Fest runs September 7 – 13 at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood.
