How do you top a film that beat out thousands of entries from college kids around the country, taking first prize in a student film competition?
You make another film, bigger and better.
And so it has been for Bridgewater State College student and Andover native Alex Perry, who wrote and directed a five-minute film that has risen to the top, once again, of the Campus Movie Fest student film competition. Last year, Perry won the nationwide competition with his comedic "Scrabble: the motion picture."
"We left 'Scrabble' in the dust. This movie is way better," said Perry. "My goal was to make a move that was just as entertaining, but with a production value three times as good. It took harder work, but we pulled it off, absolutely."
Perry's film, "Grow Grass Grow," follows the plight of a man trying to rid his lawn of gophers to keep a best lawn award he's held for years. Perry injects plenty of humor as the main character goes to extreme measures, from explosives to chainsaws, to outsmart the rodents.
The main character of "Grow Grass Grow" is based on Perry's uncle, who spends many hours perfecting his lawn.
"This is all him ... He's killed some animals to preserve his greenery," said Perry, breaking into a smile. "I took that concept and took it to the extreme (for the film)."
Perry used his uncle's immaculate lawn, surrounded by the woods of Groton, Mass., to film the movie.
Despite making the film crew fill in the 60 gopher holes they dug while filming, his uncle loves the finished film, said Perry.
"Grow Grass Grow" has been nominated for best actor and best director at Campus Movie Fest. Perry will travel to Las Vegas for the competition's grand finale on June 12, where it will be judged by a panel of celebrity actors and directors.
Campus Movie Fest, dubbed "the world's largest student film competition," loans teams of college students a camera and a laptop with editing software, giving them one week to make a short film. Entries advance to one of three regional finals and winners are chosen at the International Grand Finale in Las Vegas.
What makes Perry stand out in the competition is that he is mostly self-taught and comes from a college with no formal film program. After finishing some coursework over the summer, Perry will graduate from Bridgewater State with a major in communications.
He enlisted 10 friends to help him with everything from editing to digging gopher holes for "Grow Grass Grow." Fellow 2005 Andover High School graduates Felipe Machado and Jack Hamilton did the film's lighting and visual effects, respectively.
"We probably averaged about five hours of sleep per night that week, but for the last two nights, we didn't sleep at all," said Perry.
The whirlwind week ended with a harrowing drive through traffic from Andover to Bridgewater, as passengers made final edits on a laptop to make the contest's 6 p.m. deadline.
Perry said he worked to take "Grow Grass Grow" to the next level from "Scrabble."
"It delivers more information to the audience. The sound quality, cinematography is better. It's more tightly edited," he said. "I wanted every single shot to have a cool visual effect, set piece or prop."
After graduating, Perry plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking. He will live with his older brother, Adam Perry, who just finished law school. Adam will represent Alex, and the duo have already pitched some ideas for television series to Freemantle Media, the company that produces "American Idol."
"We make a good tandem," said Alex of his brother, a 2001 AHS graduate.
One of Perry's ideas, an animated television comedy starring "the last living lunch man," a school cafeteria worker, was dreamed up in a study hall Perry's freshman year at Andover High School.
Although the short, comedic "Scrabble" and "Grow Grass Grow" have been met with accolades, its not the type of work Perry would like to make a career out of, he said.
His dream is to make feature-length films. Drawing on inspiration from his favorite movies - the original "Rocky," "The Sixth Sense" and "The Shawshank Redemption" - movies Perry calls "inspirational drama," he is writing his first full-length feature screenplay.
"I'm a (screen) writer, before anything else. But when I first get out there, I will do anything. I'll do what it takes," said Perry. "I've always had a goal to work in feature films. I will make it happen."
