Former
CSULB student wins prestigious awards
Career:
CSULB's film department turns out more award
winning students along with the most recognizable,
Steven Spielberg.
By
Renee Lemus
On-line Forty-Niner
Brian
Fischer, a former Cal State Long Beach film
student, swept the top four awards at the
2003 Media Arts Festival in November and
is planning for a great career in filmmaking.
Most
people know that Steven Spielberg graduated
from CSULB in 2002 with a degree in film,
which boosted the film department's reputation.
So will Brian Fischer be the next great
director to be a CSULB alumni?
At
the 2003 Media Arts Festival Fischer took
away the award for Best Cinematography,
the Audience Choice Award, first place in
the narrative category, and the most prestigious
of them all, "Best of Show." The
movie short was entitled "L'Histoire
de Billy Matter," about a plastic lobster
and time travel.
"When
we read the script in class, a lot of people
thought is was going to be just another
funny movie, but it turned out to be really
great," Garret Grundman a close friend
of Fischer and producer of the movie said.
Fischer
said he was surprised and happy at his success
at this Festival.
"Winning
four awards for my film was pretty cool,"
he said.
Grundman,
who is working with him on his next project,
said that Fischer is, "a very easy
going guy, he is very smart, and a great
writer."
However,
Fischer is more modest about his accomplishments.
"I
haven't really accomplished much more than
my peers," Fischer said. "I do
consider myself lucky to have made a film
that a lot of people tend to enjoy."
Grundman
and Fischer said they partly attribute their
success to the film department at CSULB,
and that it offered them a more "intimate
environment" than that of a bigger
university.
"CSULB
gave us more freedom to shoot the movies
we wrote and allowed us to do what we wanted
to do, [the school] simply guided us,"
Grundman said.
Grundman
and Fischer said Steve Hubbert from the
film department was and is a great support
to the film students.
"[He]
is the man," they agreed.
Aside
from the film department at CSULB, Fischer
said he admires many successful directors
and aspires to follow in that success. He
admires such people as Steven Spielberg
and Wes Craven. He said that when he decided
to go into film he emailed Craven's Web
site asking for advice and received a response.
"It
may seem pathetic to some people, but that
really motivated me and put me on the right
path," Fischer said.
Fischer
said his current hero is Charlie Kaufman,
whose style he tries to emulate in some
ways.
Fischer's
current project is sponsored by Kodak, which
covered some of the costs of the film. Fischer
entered a script writing contest and won,
thus getting to make his movie with Kodak.
Grundman was also selected to be the producer.
Fischer said the movie is still in the editing
process and is set to premiere sometime
next year. Aside from the film Fischer is
working on getting an agent or manager.
"I
need to strike while the irons are hot,
while people are still interested in me,"
Fischer said.
Both
Grundman and Fischer said they have high
hopes for their futures. Fischer said he
hopes to have written or directed at least
two films that are "critically or commercially
successful."
"Hopefully
we won't be going to these small film awards,
but we will be going to the Academy Awards,"
Grundman said with a more optimistic outlook.
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