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Excerpt:
The following is from the February 2008, edition of Meadows Spotlight.
Bryan Lewis wins grand prize
in Paramount Pictures nationwide contest
Theatre major Bryan Lewis has just snagged the grand prize in Paramount Pictures' Into the Wild competition with a short film that follows him on a weekend escape into the wilderness.
 Brian Lewis - see his winning video.  |
Lewis says he found out about the competition while surfing the Web site for the film Into the Wild. "I read the book and it changed my life. Then I saw the movie, and my life was changed again. I was on the film's Web site and I saw a link to the contest. It said to make a film about nature, adventure, and why escaping is important to you. I thought, ‘I can do THAT!' "
To create his film, Lewis packed a camera, a tripod, and a few cans of ravioli in his Jeep and headed to the Buffalo National River in northern Arkansas. He went unaccompanied, inspired to emulate his favorite show, Survivorman, in which nature enthusiast Les Stroud captures his seven-day stints alone in the wilderness. "Documenting your own adventure can be tricky," Lewis says. "I would set my camera on a cliff, climb the cliff to get the shot, then have to climb back up to get my camera!"
Alone, Lewis faced the danger of attempting stunts far removed from first-aid or rescue. He says, "I went to one particular place because I read in Backpacker Magazine that it was the best swimming hole in the South. I hiked along the river till I saw this huge rock protruding from the water and knew I'd found the place they were talking about. I set the tripod in the water, with the camera sticking out of the river, but when I went to climb the rock to jump, I was up there thinking, ‘This is really high. I haven't checked to see how deep this river is. I probably shouldn't jump off this.' Right at that moment, a family came down the trail and asked if I was going to jump. They told me it was as good a time as any because they were there if I got hurt. So I went ahead and jumped and it turned out great! That's my money shot!"
Lewis finished his project by setting his footage to music given to him by a fellow theatre student for the drive to Arkansas, "Happier" by Guster. "I heard that song and thought, ‘This is what this trip is all about. This is what I'm going to use.' "
As the grand prize, Paramount Pictures will pay for Lewis and his life-long friend, David Byrne, to travel to Alaska for a month-long mountaineering course offered by the National Outdoor Leadership School. Lewis says, "It's a survival training course. We'll be out in the wilderness, living in tents and ice caves to learn how to survive on our own. The last week is spent in total isolation, trying to make it from point A to point B in Denali National Park."
Lewis will spend the remainder of his summer putting his training to good use, as the climbing wall director for a Young Life camp in Buena Vista, Colorado, and on a trip to Yosemite National Park to climb Mt. Whitney. Lewis says with a grin, "It's my summer of adventure."
For Lewis, there is a strong connection between art and nature: escapism. "While amidst nature you escape from the hustle and rigors of daily life, to a place where you can exist without distractions. My art mimics this departure because I'm creating a world in which to escape and the possibilities are endless." His message for audiences in his film: "In the end it doesn't matter where you escape, it just matters that you do escape!"
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