Westlake Village teen moviemaker asks for online votes

VOTE FOR MAX-Young filmmaker Max Miletich would like residents to vote for his film in Fresh Films' national moviemaking competition. What better way to help a 15year-old find his dream than to vote for his movie in a nationwide competition?

Max Miletich of Westlake Village recently participated in the program Fresh Films, during which 10 participants chosen from hundreds of Los Angelesarea applicants make a short movie together. Nine other major cities hosted the same weeklong program. The 10 selected teams will compete for the chance to win a movie premiere in L.A. and a Mac laptop computer for each winning team member.

"This was a great experience and a wonderful opportunity," said Miletich, who's wanted to make movies since he was a little boy. As a teen, Miletich was especially inspired by the Osc a r w i n n i n g "Crash," which strongly reinforced his filmmaking aspirations.

The instant Miletich heard about Fresh Films, he logged onto the Internet, looked into the program and joined the hundreds of other area applicants in trying to get on the final L.A. team.

As part of the process, each applicant had to write a short essay on why he or she wanted to be a filmmaker and another short essay on a story idea for a movie.

According to Caitlyn McBride of Fresh Films, a screenwriter turned the story ideas of the 10 selected participants into one cohesive script.

"The script is really based on the whole group's ideas," Miletich said.

McBride said two producers and four teenage instructors, who were past participants in Fresh Films, helped the new team make its movie. Each participant got to work all the various crew positions during the making of the short movie, according to Miletich. They rotated positions throughout the week of production, he said.

"It's really about helping teens get into film by showing them all the different jobs that are within a film crew," McBride said. "We're really hoping that Fresh Films becomes like an institute where people will come here as their door to the industry."

Miletich's experience with Fresh Films confirmed his desire to direct movies.

"I would be open to positions like producing movies because I really got a chance to see what producing was all about during this program, but I really like being behind the camera and directing the shots and directing how it looks and feels," Miletich said.

The movie Miletich helped make is a drama about a girl who meets a boy and then must explain the boy's sudden death to authorities.

The first round of the Fresh Films competition involves teams from two cities going head-tohead in competition.

"There are two different cities that compete with each other each week until it's down to five cities," Miletich said. "And then there will be a Round 2 to pick the winner."

Cities competing are Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Denver, Atlanta, Austin and Tampa.

Los Angles will compete with New York today through Wednesday. Those who vote online decide the winner of the competition.

Fresh Films was founded in Chicago in 2002. Dreaming Tree Films-creator of Fresh Films- was doing programming for teens on WB and UPN affiliate TV stations and was also holding a filmmaking workshop with inner-city teens. Someone got the idea to combine the two programs into one.

"They took the two things that they were doing and created this other program," McBride said. "It's separate from the two original ideas in that it has nothing to do with WB or UPN. Fresh Films is essentially teens creating films."

According to Fresh Films, the program has made more than 50 films, attracted several Fortune 500 sponsors and gone to 10 film festivals, with 65 million teens watching and participating.

To vote for a film or for more information about Fresh Films, go to www.fresh-films.com.