Ben, I Like You

Adam Paul Stone was experiencing a typical Monday when he received a message from a Facebook friend congratulating him for an award he was unaware he had won.

The day before, Stone had been the oblivious recipient of the Audience Choice Award at the 2013 Flatland Film Festival for the short film he directed, “Ben, I Like You.”

After not attending the awards ceremony because he was certain the possibility of winning anything was off the table, Stone said he contacted the festival to confirm the allegation before getting his hopes up.

Tanja Hagy, coordinator of marketing at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts and a member of the Flatland Film Series Committee, said she could sense his enthusiasm when she told him he was indeed the winner.

“They said, ‘Yeah you won, come down here and grab your trophy,’ and I was just jumping up and down I was so excited,” Stone said, “I was eating lunch and doing a weird dance.”

Hagy said the Audience Choice award is just what it sounds like, where the audience votes for their favorite short film during the three screening sessions held throughout the festival.

This was Stone’s third year entering Flatland, and the 17 minute-long film about a young girl struggling with the death of her boyfriend, he said, took him two years to complete.

The work is based on a separate short film by the same name, he said, and in 2011 the story resonated with him so much that he decided to ask the original writers if he could adapt it.

He said he received permission and wrote a script, got a cast and crew, and shot the film. When the editing process came around however, Stone said he was disappointed in the outcome of his efforts.

He wanted to simply forget about it and move on, he said, but the project continued to haunt him.

Stone said he took time to rewrite the story and insert the themes he wanted to convey within the film and decided to show it to a few friends.

Austin Wideman, a sophomore electronic media and communication major, was one of the first to view the new product, Stone said.

“I thought it was a really simple yet powerful script,” Wideman said, “in regards to the heart behind it.”

Wideman said he and Stone met almost two years ago when local artist and musician Jordan Watts introduced the two on the common ground of them both being videographers.

As a freelance videographer, Wideman said Stone has shown him different ways to tell a story as well as new shooting techniques and editing styles.

Wideman said Stone is passionate about the amount of effort he puts into his work without relying on expensive equipment or the overuse of visual effects.

“Adam told me once that if a client looks at a video you produced for them and all they see is dollar signs and no heart behind the project,” Wideman said, “there’s something wrong.”

Director Stone said he felt something special about the revamped version of the project from as early as the audition stage.

Victoria Isett was brought to Stone’s attention for the lead role, and he said when she auditioned he knew he had unintentionally written the part for her.

“I remember almost welling up in tears after seeing her do her auditions because I couldn’t believe how I could have written a script about someone who exists,” Stone said, “she was like the perfect person for it.”

The role of the male lead, he said, was also seemingly fated for actor Josh Meyers, even though Stone had almost given up on him auditioning until he was returning to his car at the end of the day when he saw Meyers standing outside, locked out of the building.

Meyers’s character Brock deals with the aftermath of his brother’s death, which Stone said paralleled Meyers’s own life where he had in fact recently lost a close friend.

Stone said he shot the film in December, with Wideman as cinematographer, and then had to set the project aside for a while.

“In creative form you just get frustrated with something,” Stone said, “and then there’s always a push of inspiration after something tragic.”

On May 13, an actor in the film and a friend of Stone, Jordan Watts, committed suicide after years of struggling with depression.

Watts, Stone said, was actually best friends with Wideman and many other members of the cast and crew, which he said urged him to complete the film.

He said he premiered “Ben, I Like You” on a personal level at Gatsby’s coffeehouse at the end of May and wanted to show it on a broader spectrum at Flatland where he was shocked by its success.

“When I was watching it on the screen, I was lost in it myself, I was tearing up and it was personal so I had no idea what was going on in the room,” he said, “but that’s the way I felt so if people felt that, that’s the best thing.”

Sophomore Wideman said this particular piece was a good way for Stone to get his foot in the door in the film industry and hopes to work with him again in the future.

“I think this short film has reinstated in Adam’s heart why he likes to film,” he said, “and that’s because he wants to convey emotional stories through film.”

Stone said he has been interested in filmmaking since he was a child and after working several mundane jobs, decided to go to work at it on his own terms full time.

“My hope is that people really see, because I don’t come from a wealthy family at all, and see it’s possible to make due,” Stone said, “it’s possible to achieve your dreams if you believe in it enough.”

About Randi Reding

Comments

  1. A very well-written story! Thanks for posting!