Young filmmaker sets sights on Spielberg show

West Linn’s Zach King is serious about films

By Cliff Newell

The West Linn Tidings, Mar 15, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

/ West Linn Tidings

Zach King, right, directs a scene with some family assistance. Holding the script is his mother Marissa King, while Uncle Jody Rivas operates the sound boom.

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When Zach King was getting ready to turn 16, his grandfather was ready to come through big time on his birthday.

Grandpa planned to give his grandson $10,000 in order to buy a car, which he assumed every boy wanted when he became old enough to drive.

He assumed wrong.

“I asked grandpa if I could trade it in for film equipment (a Canon XL2 camera, boom microphones and computer editing system) instead,” King said.

Gramps was amenable, Zach’s dad, Mitch, pitched in some cash, too, and now the 17-year-old junior from West Linn is ready to get an early jump on filmmaking immortality.

King is getting his five-minute feature The Geek and I, a high concept comedy featuring laughs and deep thought, ready to compete for a spot on Steven Spielberg’s new television reality show for aspiring filmmakers, On The Lot.

“There’s going to be 16 filmmakers who make a movie each week,” King said. “It’s going to be voted on just like American Idol.”

Precocious as he is, King is far from breezily confident about making the 16-movie cut for the program that is slated to start this spring.

“There are people who are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s,” King said. “They’ve had a lot more time to develop their skills.”

But the teen King just might have had enough time. The Geek and I is about a popular and egotistical kid who magically switches roles with the school’s geek.

“He thinks he has things figured out,” King said. “Then one day he realizes life is not about those things.”

The cost of this production was $150, most of which went toward food for the 15-member cast and crew, including his key collaborators, Brandon Gendivilas and Andrew Gerlicher.

At least the plot sounds better than most Disney movies, and King hopes “Geek” will push him onto the movie map.

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