Willie grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and from as far back as he could remember he knew he wanted to be a film director. When asked by others when he first discovered this ambition he wasn’t sure how to answer until it finally occurred to him that it had to happen after his parents took his older sister and him to see Beauty and the Beast, and while he was impressed with the movie he remembers having the realization that someone had to make it. Later he credited that moment as being the definitive one created a charming story to go along with it. He figured it would come in handy somewhere down the line of his film career.

Another thing Willie remembered wanting from a very early age was to have a film shown at Sundance. He used to fantasize about it and could imagine himself flying into a town and receiving a hero’s welcome. He wouldn’t stay at his parents house but in a fancy hotel Salt Lake and would have to sign autographs wherever he went. He didn’t go around publicly declaring his fantasies as that would have been ridiculous, but still he had them as well as the intent to one day become a famous film director.

When Willie was fifteen his parents took him to his first Sundance screening. It was absolutely thrilling to the youth who had just finished his first ten-minute film on his parents digital camera. He wanted to go to school at UCLA and was already getting started on trying to create a project that he could include in his application. He knew that this recent short wouldn’t be it, though his parents thought it showed potential and were proud of him. He had remained true to his desire and consistently studied film and filmmaking. They were finally believing that he was actually going to pursue it and decided to support him with a trip to Sundance. Of course Willie couldn’t have been happier with the decision and thought about documenting the entire trip.

Young Filmmaker From Salt Lake Dreams of Sundance is a post from: Pilot Report

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