New Directions Come From the Outer Banks.
Manteo’s John Bilven could be the next big movie director.
Since the fall of 2004 John Bilven has been attending ECU. During this time he has developed a passion for film, video production, documentaries, writing and archaeology. He is very dedicated and passionate about his work. The young director’s friends say that he always in the university’s video lab working on something even when there is no assignment.
The dedication that he puts forth is tremendous. John’s friend and co-filmmaker John Bosco said “I think it’s pretty obvious that a guy’s dedicated to his art when he’s willing to build a 7 foot long tunnel inside his hallway for the sake of a shot or two of a 13 minute long film.” This 13 minute long film titled “Lonely Lessons” is about a married couple separated by a South Korean tour of duty by the husband in the U.S. army occurring in 1992.
There is a natural drive behind John. Wayne Anderson is a fellow media production major, roommate, and friend to John. Wayne talked about John’s drive, “He has too many good cinematic ideas for him to not be doing, and a natural drive for making movies.”
In 2001 John began to take interest in video production. The film “The Fellowship of the Ring” came out. He was a fan of the books, so by watching the films he was able to see how they work as scripts. In 2003 he began shooting short films. Another one of John’s roommates, Alex Sevens, talked about watching movies with John, “I occasionally watch movies with him and he constantly critiques them, but in a good way.”
John has been working on several projects lately. Over the summer he worked with the production of “Nights in Rodanthe.” He worked on the project as a camera production assistant. He is also developing a documentary with his brother and sister to shoot over the summer.
In this documentary John is capturing the lifestyle of an older man whose lifestyle is quickly fading. John said, “This man collects driftwood for a living, lives in a camper trailer, eats McDonalds food practically everyday, drives a beat up truck that revs up when he puts it in park, and spends all his extra money on guns, then a few months later he sells one for $100-$200 less than what he paid for it so he can have gas money to go driftwooding again.”
This side of John’s comes out of his Anthropological side. John’s room mate Alex is anthropology major. He said, “John loves movies and movie making but also shares a passion for archaeology, especially digging for the lost colony on the outer banks of NC.” You can see this passion for archaeology reflected in his subject matter for documentaries. His senior thesis video project “Lonely Lessons” documented life during the Gulf War.
John also documents local bands. His friends say that has documented and now compiled a huge catalogue of local, regional, and national bands that come through Greenville. His co-filmmaker John Bosco says that he takes this very seriously.
When asked what John would be doing four years from now Alex said that John would be “Digging up the lost colony with his family.” However John wants to attend The University of North Carolina at Greensboro this fall to study film and video production. He is looking to obtain a Masters of Fine Arts in Production.
John is very diverse in talent. His friends say that he plays the guitar, and enjoys writing songs. His roommate Alex described John’s guitar playing, “He also plays the guitar a little bit, and has one very annoying song that he created that he plays all the time. Karma got him back last night while he was showing off his song and he broke a string.”
When John is not directing, filming, or editing his friend’s say that you might find him playing video games. John’s co-filmmaker John Bosco said that getting to hang out with John and play video games has alleviated boredom. Bosco also claims to have beaten John’s butt many times playing street fighter.
John and his friends have a unique sense of humor. While interviewing his friends I received many interesting responses to questions. I feel these answers really sum up the wacky emotions of John’s friends. John’s co-filmaker John Bosco explained John’s habits, “John is always getting drunk and punching midgets in the nuts. It’s kind of bizzare, but it’s true. And one of his habits is that he tends to like fart extremely loud and it is disgusting.”
John would probably challenge his co-filmmaker’s commentary of his habits, but I think it gives you an interesting perspective into the interesting world of his friends. Every one of John’s friends made sure to point out that he uses the phrase “jackleg” often. They did not give any explanation of the phrase.
He and his friends have a unique relationship. I think it is best summed up in his roommate, John Bosco’s thoughts on where John would be in four years. He says that John will be “In a jungle in Africa giving birth to a lion’s cub while drinking milk from an ape. I’m not sure; I guess he’ll probably be doing some productions by then, working on films, etc.” If John continues this track he might not be in Africa, but the Outer Banks will definitely have produced one of the next great directors.
Filed under: Classmate Profiles, Spring 2008