​​It is often amazing how a seemingly small event changes the outcome of one’s life. That’s what happened to Jason Prugar in 1999.
The year immortalized in a Prince song brought sweeping changes to the college sophomore. Jason learned he'd be a father and subsequently retired from basketball. He also joined the Student Government Association (SGA) as Treasurer. It was also the year that Star Wars returned to the big screen. The world had Star Wars fever, eagerly anticipating the first new film in 16 years. Jason was no exception, even going as far as to make plans to wait in line for tickets to go on sale.

One Thursday evening, the SGA faculty advisor was late for the weekly meeting. To pass the time, Jason’s friend Bryan Schaefer, a fellow SGA member, showed a video he made for literature class. He wrote, directed and edited it himself.

Something clicked in Prugar’s mind when the film ended. It was if a veil had been lifted; a box opened. A wealth of possibilities hit him and he’d never be the same. “I’ve often wondered what it’d be like to make my own film. If Bryan, a regular guy like me, could make a film, why couldn’t I?”
Jason immediately researched filmmaking techniques. It consumed his thoughts so completely that he remembers vividly the night Bryan showed the video but nothing about the subsequent 48 hours.

Another development was taking shape: plans to see Star Wars. Jason watched news reports of fans forming lines as early as February 1998. “My hometown (Phillipsburg, NJ) opened a new theater in ’98, and our town was still relatively small,” Jason recalled. “I knew a small line would form, but not until the week tickets went on sale.”

Jason’s research led him to some online website like Eejit’s Guide to Filmmaking and his hometown library. He had no plans to visit home in the near future (finals were soon), so he’d wait til summer break before diving into those books. Shortly thereafter, Lucasfilm announced that the film would be released on May 19 and later that tickets for the Phillipsburg theater would go on sale May 12 at 3:30pm. He also discovered that his last final exam was May 12th. Jason quickly made plans with friends to get tickets. Two friends would wait in line, starting at 5am, and Jason would join as soon as he could. He also planned to pack, not party, the last weekend before the exam to save time.

May 12th came and the exam went smoothly. Prugar was on the road to the theater at noon, and with an hour ride, would arrive in plenty of time to join his friends in line.

Once again, fate decided to change things up. Major road construction was taking place on route 222, which is a 2 lane road. Prugar had to take a detour through towns he’d never heard of, much less rode through. “It was terrible,” Jason said. “The way I was going, I thought I was halfway to Canada. Luckily, I saw a car I knew from Alvernia (College, his school) and followed it to the right highway.” Jason arrived at the theater at 3 pm. There were about two dozen people in line, and his friend was third.

A week later, Prugar started a summer job with a family friend. It allowed him free time, so he borrowed all of the library’s filmmaking books. He read them, copied the pages and took copious notes. He decided to write a script based on his experiences getting Star Wars tickets. He practiced techniques with his dad’s VHS camera, which he would later use to shoot the film. Jason told his friends about his plans and many agreed to help.
Later that summer, Bryan hosted an SGA summer retreat at his parents’ home at Jersey Shore. Jason brought the script with him. Knowing the first draft of his very first script would need work, Bryan’s brutal honesty would help him hammer out the kinks. “Bryan tells you how it is. I admire that in a person and I knew his feedback would be helpful. I showed it to him and he said ‘Dude, this is terrible. There’s no story. It sucks’. I told him I knew, I needed his help. We got a good script out of it.”

Bryan helped him hone the story and The Prize was born, based on Prugar’s experiences getting to the theater. Jason showed the script to friends and many signed up. Jerry Tumolo signed on to play Brad, the main character, modeled after Jason. Anna Pambianchi, a friend since kindergarten, signed on to play Alicia, modeled after Prugar’s best friend of the same name. Jim Wolfe, Jason’s best friend, took the role of Zach as well as Director of Photography. Keith Ketcham, his other best bud played John the cross dressing actor and camera operator. Mike Huber also played a cross-dresser (Jason himself has a cameo in the film, see if you can spot him.)

He got five filming locations including his home. The shoot took a total of 10 days, including a brutally cold night that had Jerry Tumolo, in shorts putting on a jacket between takes, even for short corrections. The cops stopped production twice, but when they saw the camera equipment, wished the production well and went on their way. Being the first production of a first-time director, there were problems. A scene on screen for less than a minute took over four hours to shoot. There were delays and it took three months to get the 10-day shoot completed. But Prugar took it all in stride. “Nothing ever goes the way you plan it, but every film that has had a delay or problem has played at film festivals, so I am not complaining!”
For post-production, Jason found Jim Pruznick of Informative Media. He was a good collaborator and trusted Prugar’s vision. They worked well together and in two days’ time, The Prize was a film!

Sadly, concessions had to be made for budget, time and technology. With VHS, it was impossible at the time to have music and dialogue together unless you played music on set while filming. Also, the Star Wars crawl Jason had envisioned for the beginning was not a possibility, so he settled for a Powerpoint facsimile.

The film opened to a small screening of Prugar’s college classmates. It was well received, and Jason took it to the film festival circuit. It was accepted to the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in New York City. With cast and crew in attendance Jason trekked to his screening. He was shocked to see a line extending halfway down the block, waiting to get into the theater (they were there to see the feature film The Prize was attached to, but they were still going to see his picture!). The audience laughed at the right moments and had a good time. They gave Prugar’s film a standing ovation at the end.

“It was breathtaking to have that experience, your film shown to an audience in an actual theater. Especially when it’s your first film and something you learned to do a year ago. You don’ t think that’s going to happen. It’s something I will never forget.”

The whole experience was a joy for Prugar, who immediately starting working on his next picture. He formed Jbird Entertainment with his pals and came up with ideas. A beast awoke within him, thanks to his friend Bryan, fate and a teacher who couldn’t be on time.

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THE PRIZE 10 YEARS LATER​

I can’t believe it’s been a decade since The Prize has been released. It amazes me how fast ten years have gone by, but part of that can be attributed to the happiness I’ve had travelling down the path the film placed before me.

I’ve done a lot these past ten years. I’ve started a family, achieved my other major dream of working in professional sports and I’ve continued making films. I’ve made five films after The Prize with a sixth on the way. Each one has improved on the one before, although I have yet to have one look exactly as it does in my mind’s eye (that’s due to external factors, like availability of technology and budget rather than my collaborator’s talent. Their skills far exceed mine).

That’s why I hold a special place in my heart for my first effort. Thanks to advances in modern technology (not the least of which is cheaper prices!), I’ve been able to back and finally make it the way I envisioned it. I added the Star Wars crawl and had my music man Fredrik Blom lay down a soundtrack. With some sound effects and improvements in audio, it’s exactly as I envisioned it now.

The Prize gave me something else to shoot for, a new goal and a new pastime. I have an outlet for my creativity and it’s rubbed off on my son, who’s knee-deep in his second Lego film. I’m prouder of his films than anything I’ve done. I’m also VP of the Lancaster Area Film Festival now, and meet new filmmakers all the time. I have made lifelong friends and collaborators doing this, all because of a little film I made 10 years ago. It’s changed my life for the better and will always look on it fondly.

Now, please excuse me while I shudder to think that before I know it, I’ll be 20 years since I made this film.

Jason Prugar

May, 2009

PS A lot of people, especially the cast, have asked if I’ve ever thought of doing a sequel. Not only did I think about it, I wrote a script…

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