(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring James Lewis, class of 2005, appeared in Bexley News on July 23, 2008)  8/4/08

Bexley graduate gaining insights to the world of films

By SARA JOHNSON

He's spent time in Los Angeles the last two summers. He's also traveled to France for the prestigious 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival, and now he's back in the "City of Angels" for the remainder of this summer. Bexley's James Lewis is continuing to spread his name in the world of film production.

Lewis, 21, is a student filmmaker at Denison University in Granville, and he's a 2005 Bexley High School graduate. He had a key opportunity to take a two-week trip to Cannes, France, in May to attend its annual film festival thanks to an internship program with a four-year-old, L.A.-based company, the Creative Minds Group.

"I worked with them as an intern, as someone aspiring to be a director, and I got a lot of insight to what it takes to be successful in the industry," Lewis said. "I got a crash course in the (film) business itself, and how everything goes down."

One festival highlight for Lewis involved the red carpet experience of being among the various actors and actresses.

"It was like being in la-la land," he said. "When you see celebrities and those people, you don't know how to react. I didn't think that I would be walking with the stars."

The Creative Minds program sends American college filmmakers and directors to Cannes to perform tasks that help the festival run smoothly and to meet people in the industry -- all with intentions to help participants land a job after college graduation, said Robert Ford, the founder of Creative Minds.

"It's a lot of leg work and can be very administrative, but at the same time, it's incredibly important and a great learning experience. It puts them on the front line of meeting very influential people," Ford said.

Participants can do anything from distribute movies passes to actors, actresses or agents to attend movie premieres or to promote their own work.

Students must apply for the program, which has taken around 150 students to Cannes. Although it receives around 200 applications each year, Creative Minds only allows between 40 and 60 participants to make the trip to Cannes.

Ford met Lewis while he was a production assistant in 2007 with FremantleMedia in L.A., a company responsible with producing shows such as The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency Show, American Idol, and the Family Feud game show. He also interned for FremantleMedia in 2006.

"James represented Denison, his town and state very well. He was the first gentleman from Ohio and from Denison to attend our program," Ford said.

As part of the program, participants are given a laptop with editing software, a microphone and a mini-digital camera to write, produce, film and edit a short film within eight days to be submitted for judging.

Lewis created a three-minute action adventure film, Countdown to Seven, a work that Ford said he was impressed him.

But that wasn't all Lewis did.

Lewis also showed his first documentary film, The State of Ohio's Death Penalty System, along 1,700 other similar films at the festival. His father, Gene, a Columbus attorney, had introduced him to the topic. The film started as school requirement, but progressed into quite a project.

"I hadn't made a documentary before, and one of the things I discovered while making it is that it takes on a life of its own. I felt it was my responsibility to portray it (system), and really get across the messages handed down to me by the people I interviewed," Lewis said.

Lewis is now back in Los Angeles for his third summer, working as a production assistant with FremantleMedia before returning to Denison as a senior this fall.

"He did a great job, and we are very happy and impressed with his work. We are honored to have him as a part of the program, and he definitely stepped up to the challenge and took care of business," Ford said.

"I hadn't made a documentary before, and one of the things I discovered while making it is that it takes on a life of its own."

--James Lewis
 

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