The Contest

In December 2006, I heard about the MTV Amp'd Mobile Phone "The Stew" Cooking Contest for short film ideas. You didn't have to make the film, just send in the idea, in 100 words or less. It was the last day for entries, but I had put a lot of thought into this idea over the years, so I was able to write the essay very quickly. Here's what I wrote:

Mail screw-ups happen all the time. The carrier puts an envelope in the wrong box. You've accidentally opened someone else's letter before, haven't you? Or held it up to the light to see inside? What if you saw a lottery ticket? A ticket worth $300 million? Would you make sure it got to the right person? Of course not. You'd cash that sucker in and start living the high life. But, what if someone kept a record of the numbers? And the ticket's real owner hunted you down? That's the movie I'd love to make for you.

Three weeks later, my husband called me at work and said, "You need to call home and listen to the answering machine. There's a message on there about some contest you entered." Turns out it was Jacques Vroom from MTV telling me that I was a finalist and he wanted to talk to me about what I needed to send in for the next step of the contest. I immediately tried to call back, but I got his voice mail. I remembered writing the essay, but I couldn't remember any details about the contest. So I started looking online and found a link to the rules.

Here's the part I focused on:

Grand Prize: the Grand Prize Winner will receive the opportunity to produce a short film based on the short film described in his/her winning Essay of up to four (4) minutes in length with a production budget of up to $10,000 (the "Short"). The opportunity will provide Grand Prize Winner with access to an Amp'd Mobile producer as well as access to certain of Amp'd Mobile production resources (as determined solely by Amp'd Mobile). As of the time of the initial publication of these Official Rules it is contemplated the Short will be exhibited on Amp'd Mobile wireless service and/or on air, online and/or via wireless within MTV's "The Stew" (the dates of which shall be solely determined by MTVN) (the "Grand Prize"). Finalist Prizes (5): Each Finalist will receive an Amp'd Mobile "Jet" "pay as you go" phone and 1000 pre-paid minutes (each a "Finalist Prize").

Okay, so I was definitely getting a cell phone, which was cool, because I've never had one. (Seriously. I was hopelessly mired in the 20th century.) But what was next? How would they decide the winner? The rules mentioned a possible phone interview, but what else? Now all this was happening late in the afternoon, and I had a 6pm newscast to produce (I was a local TV news producer for 7 years, up until April 2007). I was so excited and nervous I could barely stand it! The newscast director, James Roy is an aspiring filmmaker, too. He's actually the one I'd told about the "Payoff" plot when I first thought of it, and he'd made his own short film a few years ago, so I told him about the call and asked if he'd help me out if I won, and he said, "Sure."

After the newscast, I checked my voice mail - nothing. Great. I hoped they weren't going to give up on me and move on to someone else. I was getting ready to leave when one of the other producers said, "Oh I almost forgot, some guy named Jacques called and left his number." I immediately called back, and this time I reached him. He told me again that I was a finalist, asked if I remembered entering the contest ("Absolutely!") and said he needed me to write up something over the weekend that would tell the judges how I would proceed to make the film, if my entry was selected.