Magar: As challenging as it is to do 12 seminar events per year across the country and juggle those events with my own directing work schedule and writing assignments, it has been a personal joy to meet so many filmmakers and screenwriters all over the USA and Canada. What I learned confirmed the reason I started the Action/Cut Seminars...which was to provide in 2-days, intensive filmmaking knowledge at a pro industry level. After I graduated from 2 top film schools, when I started my professional career, I realized what I was missing and desperately wish I had but is not available in film academia institutions...and that is to spend just 2-days with an industry director/writer willing to open his/her intimate work process and share actual scenes' progression step-by-step and shot-by-shot...allowing participants to read the actual scenes, discuss how to shoot them within a tight schedule, work out a shooting plan, and then executing it by seeing the actual dailies of those scenes and then seeing the finished work. This is what I was never taught because it can only happen with a working director/writer with accessibility to these learning tools which is what Action/Cut is all about...from page to film. I learned that everyone who takes Action/Cut greatly appreciates this pro workshop and leaves with a new methodology about how to translate any scene to the screen with the best possible approach. Screenwriters race home to rewrite their work after they learn how to write "visually". We have received thousands of thank you letters and testimonials, of which many are on our site, for the unique filmmaking knowledge they learned at the seminar. That has been the most gratifying as I know how difficult it is to get started and pierce through the closed doors of the industry.

FFT: What makes your competition different from the rest?

Magar: First, we are not a festival. There are hundreds of those and we didn't need one more. So we decided to make it a unique, industry-driven competition...there is no other that we know of anywhere. Our judging panels are all working filmmakers, screenwriters, agents, executives, etc...in Hollywood as we wanted a competition that would be strictly based not on hype or public screenings but on truly discovering the next generation of great filmmakers and rewarding them with more prizes than any other festival or contest including career access meetings. Then, since we do not have public screenings, we decided to promote the winning filmmakers by streaming their work on the internet for all to see. Only an industry-oriented competition could do this for filmmakers and this is why it is so unique and different from any others.

FFT: Have any of your students made a short film based on the knowledge gained at your Action/Cut Seminars?

Magar: Many have, and not only shorts, but feature-length films. The 2004 Action/Cut Best Fiction Winner is an A/C Graduate and so was one of the 2004 Semi-Finalists.  We have heard from many graduates thanking us for setting this competition up and many are planning to enter it with their shorts which they made since taking the seminar. At our very first seminar, a participant expressed how intimidated he was about directing and wished he could understand the process as he had a burning idea to make his first feature. Well, within a few short months after experiencing Action/Cut, he directed his dream feature project. His feature went on to win more than 20 awards around the world! He sent us a thank you which we list on our home web page with a list of most of his awards as it was too long to list them all!

FFT: You are offering some unique prizes, how did you come up with them?

Magar: We wanted to do something different and special for the winners: the one Grand Prize Winner and five First Place/Best Winners in 
each of the five categories. We organized an overwhelming amount of prizes because we felt that if industry judges chose them as most deserving then we wished to do all we could to shower them with career-changing awards. We came up with a combination of prizes which include Cash Prizes from Action/Cut, numerous Career Access Meetings Prizes comprising of actual meetings/conferences with Hollywood players, and Sponsor Prizes from industry companies designed to empower these filmmakers to further develop their careers...over 125 prizes valued at $50,000!

The list is long but includes for example meetings with industry directors, writers, agents, award-winning designers and cinematographers, distribution deal offers, producers' reps, exposure at certain festivals and streaming on our website to promote the winning films, filmmaking software products, and industry press releases that will make available private screenings of these winners to Hollywood folks. Our Call For Entries begins every year on January 15th and deadlines on May 15th and entry forms are available on our website. 
We look forward to a great annual competition in providing this unique short film contest to worldwide filmmakers.