By BESS HARVEY
A former BYU film student will premiere his UCLA graduate school thesis film at the Varsity Theater on Friday
Marc Marriott’s film, “The Snow Child” will debut at 1 p.m.
The movie was filmed in the mountains above Fairview, near Manti.
The plot revolves around a husband and wife who live in the mountains. They are grieving the loss of their child. To fill the void in their lives, they decide to make a child out of snow, and she comes to life.
“The film has a real magical quality, kind of like ‘Field of Dreams’ in the mountains,” said Todd Erickson, entertainment marketing consultant. “This film exhibits a maturity in film making that most film students can only dream about achieving.”
Marriott enlisted the help of BYU students, faculty and staff to help with the production of the film.
One of these students was Alan Ward, a communications major from Bountiful, who was a production assistant.
“The Snow Child is about the love and happiness a child can bring into someone’s life,” Ward said, “Marc celebrates the small, simple, beautiful things in life through film.”
Marriott said the film was a unique production.
“The production value is really high. We shot in 35mm which is unusual and we have an original music score,” he said.
Erickson said the music score was composed by Tim Jones, a graduate from the Berkeley School of Music, who exhibits the same maturity in his music that Marriott displays in his films.
“Marriott always showed control of the crew and worked well with the actors,” said Brandon Christensen, a student from Seattle, Wash. who was the key grip electrician on the crew.
The crew of 30 people ascended the mountains on snowmobiles and Snowkats with two weeks worth of food and water for the production staff and actors.
“We were nowhere around electricity so the crew used generators and had no phone service except one cellular phone for the two weeks we were filming in the mountains,” Marriott said. “When we were filming it was an average of 20 to 30 degrees and some time even got below zero.”
Because of the remoteness of the location, Marriott said that it makes the film look authentic and beautiful
“The BYU screening is like a thank you to the faculty and staff who helped make the movie,” Marriott said.
The “Snow Child” is a 24-minute film. It will cost $1.
The stars of the movie are Sam Hennings and Kaye Kittrell. The stars were picked by Marriott himself. He picked them at a casting that was set up by Gerald Molen who also has done casting for Steven Spielberg.
The film was financed through the $25,000 James Bridges film award.
“This is the largest student/film award that any school offers,” Marriott said.
Marriott’s previous works include a 9-minute comedy called Short Order. It was his first film at UCLA.
The film received a number of awards and was aired on Canal Plus+, the French equivalent of HBO.
“Short Order also appeared on the Sundance channel for domestic TV and the Independent Film channel,” Marriott said.
