Green means go
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 2, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Miramax Films Ben Affleck (left) and
Matt Damon, shown here in "Good Will Hunting," are
letting an unknown writer direct his own screenplay, which they
will star in. This movie-making process will be shown "Real TV"
style on HBO.
By Emilia Hwang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
We are filming a documentary TV series in this room. Your
presence here acknowledges your consent to be videotaped,
interviewed and voice recorded for a television series produced by
Miramax and promotion there of.
The cameras have already begun rolling for an HBO series
chronicling the experience of a first-time filmmaker slated to air
beginning January 2002. At the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills,
a television crew crowds around Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as they
discuss their latest joint venture.
The Academy Award-winning writers of “Good Will
Hunting,” along with Miramax Films, are giving the
“greenlight” to the winner of an Internet-based contest
in which one aspiring filmmaker will be chosen to produce his or
her original screenplay with a $1 million budget.
The movie-making process, from the submission of the screenplay
through production and the eventual release of the final product,
will be chronicled in a documentary-style series.
“We wish there was something like this when we were trying
to break through,” Damon said.
Through Oct. 22, amateur filmmakers can submit original
screenplays electronically to the “Greenlight”
project’s Web site. The winner of the contest will be
announced on March 1, 2001 and will get to direct the film based on
his or her screenplay.
While Affleck and Damon will executive-produce the movie, they
do not decide which filmmaker will ultimately receive the
greenlight.
 Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
“To put your own screenplay on (the Web site), you have to
read three others and you have to cover them and critique
them,” Damon said.
Contestants will by obliged to read and review other screenplays
in competition and finalists will be chosen, in part, based on the
coverage results.
“It’s a democratization of the process of deciding
who gets to make a movie and who doesn’t,” Affleck
said. “The people who decide who gets to make movies are very
few.”
According to Affleck, young filmmakers may find it difficult to
break into an industry in which only a handful of companies makes
most of the studio movies.
Although there will only be one winner, Damon hopes that many
aspiring filmmakers will gain exposure as other major studios cover
the screenplays. He anticipates that major studios will also be
covering the non-winning screenplays posted on the site.
In addition to giving rookie writers exposure, Damon sees the
“Greenlight” project as an opportunity to use new
technology to exchange ideas.
“The idea is really to create a community of writers and
people interested in film who can look at each other’s work
and trade ideas,” Damon said.
“(They) aren’t bound by where they live and
aren’t bound by the fact that they don’t have access
into these four or five offices that can green-light their
movies,” Damon added.
The Web site will feature opportunities for people interested in
writing and filmmaking to network and chat.
“A lot of times you feel like you’re on an island as
a writer,” Damon said.
For Damon and Affleck, collaborating on “Good Will
Hunting” allowed them to bounce ideas off each other.
However, for other writers who may be geographically isolated, the
“Greenlight” Web site will enable them to have access
to other screenplays, as well as provide them with a forum to talk
and exchange ideas and advice.
“Not everyone’s movie will get made,” Affleck
said. “At the very least you get feedback.”
He expects that the site will help to create a community of
writers, in addition to inspiring first-time filmmakers who lack
accreditation or practical experience in the field.
“It’s a de-mystification of the process (of
filmmaking),” Affleck said.
 www.projectgreenlight.com
Since Hollywood can be intimidating or simply impossible for
most young filmmakers to break into, Damon hopes to create a portal
of access for writers who have interesting ideas.
“There’s also so much hocus pocus in filmmaking that
hopefully the whole project will be enlightening to young
filmmakers out there,” Damon said. “You’re
eliminating a lot of the theory and you’re actually seeing
practically what it takes (to make a movie).”
While the Web site gives users access to numerous screenplays,
the “Greenlight” show will document the highs and lows
of making an independent movie for $1 million.
“Part of this is to show what it takes to make a movie for
that amount of money,” Damon said. “And we think
we’re going to help a lot more people if you show what it
takes to make a movie for this kind of money, the sacrifices you
have to make.”
While they have not decided on the exact format of the TV
series, or how they’ll augment the process of documenting,
the duo expects that the movie-making process will make for good
entertainment on its own.
“In some ways, a documentary is always going to be more
interesting than a fictional work because of the fact that you know
it’s real because you’re watching real human drama as
opposed to manufactured drama,” Affleck said.
By giving the “greenlight” to a total unknown, Damon
hopes the project will help the next Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas
Anderson gain access and understanding into an otherwise privileged
and enigmatic industry.
“It’s a response to really believing that there are
great writers out there and that they really don’t have
access and we’re going to miss them,” Damon said.
“This is the biggest kind of net that we can throw out
there.”
TV: To participate in the “Greenlight” contest or to
find out more about the project, check out www.projectgreenlight.com.
