Westside alumnus Lucian Murphree (Class of 2012) recently directed a short film titled Because We Have To for Sprite Films’ annual filmmaking competition (his entry can be viewed and voted for until May 15 here). The winner of the competition is set to win $5,000 for their school, as well as a trip for four to the American Film Institute Fest 2014 in Los Angeles.

With a lot work going into making the film both before and after the production, Murphree recently took some time to answer questions for Westside Wired.  Here are his answers:

Why do you prefer to write instead of direct?

“It’s not that I prefer one to the other. I love both, but they are incredibly different. When I write, I’m able to dream of anything. I can call for scenes in helicopters, explosions, special effects. I can worry about what the story needs and what the best possible way to tell that story is. When I’m not directing the film, I can write almost anything without worrying about feasibility or how we are going to accomplish the shot. When I direct, I absolutely have more creative freedom to dictate what happens on screen, but I have to balance my creative concerns with the practical and budgetary concerns.”

What made you decide to study at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.?

“I ultimately ended up at UNCSA for three main reasons:

1. [Financially] the best film schools are as expensive as an Ivy League university. When you compound that with the fact that the average thesis film costs around $30,000, UNCSA becomes more attractive with the lower price tag and with UNCSA paying for the entirety of your production expenses. They provide you with Red and Alexa cameras, JL Fisher Dollies [and] amazing facilities, all for free.

2. It’s the second best public film school in the US after UCLA.

3. I was accepted to quite a few film schools, but it ultimately came down to UNL’s film school or UNCSA, and UNCSA had much more to offer in terms of talent, faculty and facilities for filmmaking.”

Did your background in theater at WHS help you in any way up in North Carolina?

“Oh absolutely. Being an actor first and then making the transition to behind the camera helped me to understand what the actor goes through and helped me to develop a few unorthodox techniques that really allow me to pull performances out of people that they didn’t know they had.”

How did you hear about Sprite Films and what made you decide to take the plunge and enter?

“[I heard about it] from Aviva Kleiner, the program manager of Sprite Films. I just have to take a second to say that she has been amazingly supportive and there by my side every step of the way. I have everything to thank to her. She came to our school and introduced the program to our whole school. 23 schools were able to participate, 135 scripts were submitted, and 6 finalists were selected. See, despite the amazing package of the Sprite Films, the chance to work with a global brand, the trip to Cinemacon, everything, my film still started the same way all of mine do. With an idea that inspired me. Without that, I wouldn’t be a finalist. I’ve never been the kind of guy to work on something that didn’t inspire me. Story comes first. Always.”

How did you go about picking your crew (i.e. your cinematographer, editor, etc.)?

“I tried to pick people who I would enjoy working with, and then most talented hands that I could get on the project. The credit for the film really doesn’t go to me. Although I’ll happily take it, it goes to them. Without Jack my cinematographer, and Chiara my amazing production designer, and Char-Lay my producer, and David and Ryan and James my editors, my film wouldn’t have happened. They are the most important part of the process, and if you liked something on the screen you have them to thank. I certainly do.”

What was your vision of the video before you went into the actual filming process?

“Pretty much what’s on the screen. I made a few mistakes, but I’m still learning. There are always things you wish you could do better at any level of filmmaking. I just tried to make the whole film as stimulating as possible with a bit of a retro punk vibe. The cinema language we were going for was interpersonal with an over arching theme of motion. It was my first time using a Steadicam rig, and it was absolutely essential to the feel of the whole movie.

Are you happy with the result?

“Thrilled. It looks great. I truly believe that it was the best film I could [make] at the time. That’s all I can really ask of myself.”

What are your plans for the future, both in filmmaking, writing, directing and other fields?

“When I was at the award ceremony at Cinemacon, I had a realization. Adam Sandler is still hilarious. (He was one of the award recipients.) But more than that, I realized that the people up on the stage are no different than me. I’ve always had this feeling that I wasn’t quite ready to make a film on a bigger level. Who was I to make a movie? When I sat in that audience, I realized, who wasn’t I? Sprite, a globally recognized brand, saw my reel and saw my resumé and believed in me. They flew me to Vegas, for free, and I got to meet people from some of the biggest studios in the business. And best of all, I made a film that inspired even some of the other finalists. You know, what was the difference between them and me? I sat there in the audience, and I made a promise to myself: I’m going to make my feature length directorial debut with my script, Death of a Superman.”

“Without saying too much about it, the film tries to focus on the human side of being a hero and strips away the glamour and sheen we’ve come to expect from brands like marvel. It attempts to take the superhero genre to its natural and honest conclusion, like Kiss Me Deadly did for the noir genre. We’re developing a graphic novel to help us gain interest in the early stages of crowd funding, and without saying to much about the crew, we recently entered talks with a camera operator from a multimillion dollar series to be our Director of Photography, and a few national celebrities, so we’re very optimistic. Sprite Films really made me think about my approach to the industry and has given me more confidence in myself than I ever expected. It has been an extremely humbling experience.”