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UCLA directing graduate student Austin Formato (left) is one of 10 finalists in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award competition for his short film "Two Doors."

Click here to vote for your favorite film in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award competition.

A man with a vision. $7,500. Coke.

These ingredients could wind up a recipe for success for UCLA film student Austin Formato. Formato, a graduate student in film directing, is a finalist in this year’s Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award competition.

Each year, students from 13 prestigious film schools nationwide, including USC and NYU, submit scripts and storyboards to the competition’s panel of film industry professionals. Ten finalists are then selected from the body of applicants to produce a short constrained by the strict $7,500 production grant, allocated film stock and an exact 50-second runtime.

As one of 10 finalists, Formato worked nonstop from Thanksgiving to January to put the production together – sacrificing several classes and his holiday in the process.

“Two Doors” was made on the meager allocated budget thanks in no small part to the outpouring of support from the UCLA community.

“I actually went through the (UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture) and we ended up shooting in the new (Broad Art Center),” said Formato. “I wanted to make (the set) an architecture office so I put out word through the architecture school. It was amazing the response that I got. Everything that was on the walls, every model, everything that we decorated came all from the architecture students.”

In addition to the physical resources, numerous UCLA students worked on the film’s crew. Like many others heavily involved in the production, Crystal Us, who served as first assistant director on the film, is a fellow directing student.

“We’re all directors, but we all do everything. We all grip for each other or do sound or script supervisor or whatever’s called for. We’re trained that way through the program,” she said. “There’s no, ‘I’m a director so I’m not going to sweep the floor.’ You just do what has to be done. Nobody really has an ego about that.”

Belinda Starkie, an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, has been the UCLA coordinator for the competition since its inception in 1998. Starkie said the competition originated as an opportunity for students to demonstrate their abilities and put together an entire production on their own.

“These projects would be totally student-driven,” Starkie said. “Faculty would not be giving input other than the person who was coordinating it at the school. No professionals – it wasn’t a class project or anything like that.”

The winner is decided by online voting, which ends Tuesday, Feb. 6. All the finalists can be viewed on the competition’s Web site, ccrfa.com/ccrfa. Winners will be announced on the Web site on Feb. 13.

The winning short will then be screened on 21,000 movie theater screens nationwide for a year, in addition to receiving a $10,000 award to be presented at ShoWest – the theater industry’s largest trade show.

“I think Coca-Cola started a trend of many companies wanting to create some kind of film contest to show that they cared about film students,” Starkie said. “As the Internet develops, companies don’t have to put money out. ... Now it’s readily done on the Internet.”

Among the other companies following Coca-Cola’s lead in creating film competitions in recent years are General Motors, Vibe and Philips.

In past Refreshing Filmmaker’s competitions, UCLA has fielded several finalists including Peter Hunziker, who nabbed the top prize in 2001. Perhaps there will be another UCLA prize-winner this year.

Formato, who counts among his inspirations UCLA alumnus Gore Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) and Brad Silberling (“Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”), has high hopes for his short.

“The Coca-Cola (Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award) is one of the higher profile competitions in the country right now,” said Formato. “It’s been six years since any UCLA person has won it, so we’re really trying to get the crown back to us this year.”