Two Duke students are just clicks away from snagging a free trip to Los Angeles to cover the Academy Awards. David Distenfeld, a junior from Maryland, and Lawrence Chen, a senior from Beijing -- both budding film directors -- have produced a video that has captured one of 10 semi-finalist spots in mtvU's first-ever "Oscar Correspondent Contest" for college journalists. "Lots of the other contestants are more ‘reporterly'" says Distenfeld, who is a member of Duke University Improv and appears in the video in a wrinkled, button down shirt. "I'm being normal. I really care about the movies."
Online votes will determine the winning video team. Distenfeld, who interned last summer for Scott Rudin, the producer of "Doubt" and "No Country for Old Men," heard about the contest from an email sent to members of the Film, Video, Digital Certificate program. He came up with the concept -- his longtime obsession with the Oscars -- about which he wrote a column last year for the Duke Chronicle.
"I love how absurd the Oscars can be," he says in the video. "This is the group that gave more awards to the rap group Three 6 Mafia than Alfred Hitchcock."
Distenfeld's Improv friend Chen shot the video in 30 minutes. It opens with a bit of format borrowed from "Slumdog Millionaire," the movie about a poor Indian teen who becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?"
"(Slumdog) is the odds-on favorite to sweep the awards," said Distenfeld, who prefers "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." "It's about an underdog who comes from behind, and that just seemed appropriate."
Whether Distenfeld and Chen win the chance to interview some of the most famous actors in the world is now out of their hands -- well, sort of. They're using listserves and Facebook and asking their families and friends to go on line and vote over and over. Voting ends Feb. 7.
"I sat watching an episode of ‘Lost,'" Distenfeld said. "There I was, just clicking away."
To vote, click here: http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/oscarlegacy/2000-present/2009/mtvucontest.html