The Afro News, Vancouver
In general children are fearless when it comes to dreaming big about their futures. If you ask a group of five-year-old’s what they want to be when they grow up they will respond with some ambitious responses: Fireman, Pro Football Star, Zillionaire, Prime Minister.
Ask adults however, if their childhood dreams ever came to fruition and you’re likely to get a melancholy response. Not too many of us end up following through with the pie-in-the-sky dreams we envisioned as kids.
This was not the case for ‘twenty something’ year old Vancouver based, born and raised AJ Lutsky. A first-born child and later a big brother to a set of boy/girl twins, was often left to fend for himself where he engaged in hours of play with Lego and clay and created stories through illustration. AJ loved the video camera from an early age, he always had a camera in his hands and recorded videos with the neighborhood children and his siblings. His dream at the early age of 5 was to be a Feature Film Director.
In 2015 Lutsky graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Film School at State University of New York, Suny Purchase. This school also known as Purchase College has the best Film Conservatory in the world. There he learnt all about 16mm film production, which in today’s modern world of technology is a historical art and skill.
AJ moved back to Vancouver after graduating and as luck would have it for this graduate or it could be that he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. One night while out having a few beverages with friends he stumbled upon a movie shoot in progress in a back alley behind the Bar he was in at the time. He wandered over to the Production Assistant (PA) and they immediately engaged in conversation where he shared his journey of being a recent Film School Graduate of State University of New York, Suny Purchase. It didn’t take long, and AJ was hired as a Production Assistant. AJ knew this was his first big step into the movie making business and was overjoyed to have been given this opportunity. He progressed and became the Head PA in 2017 in the Netflix Series Lost in Space. He then further advanced and landed an Additional Assistant Director role on two movie shoots ‘Dragged Across Concrete’ starring Mel Gibson, Don Johnson and Vince Vaughn and ‘Freaky Friday’ a Disney TV Feature.
As part of the Film School curriculum the students had to produce one large production per year. In 2015 AJ produced a Short Film, Sweet Thunder, it’s about a boy’s love for his car; despite having to give up everything except his car. This smiley, vibrant, bouncy, curly haired, ‘twenty something’ young Lad writes his own content and still enjoys telling the story through illustration.
At our ‘get to know you’ interview with AJ Lutsky he announced that he had recently completed writing and directing his first 70-minute Documentary Style Movie. AJ stated that this is his very own biggest project yet and the real McCoy in his career so far.
Lutsky worked with an Agency Casting Director and the casting process drew 100 applicants that took 3 days to narrow the search to 50 candidates that auditioned for the all female cast.
NOOBS is a story about 3 young adult girls that are Gamers. They are friends and not your normal stereotype girls – there is no love story in their lives. The plot for the movie is not surprising given AJ’s love of the camera, is set around a TV Movie Producer that wants to start her own project and meets two girls that are Gamers that live in the same city. They all become friends and their extraverted and introverted characters becomes a focus point for the plot of this movie.
The Lead Actress in this Documentary Style Movie is none other than the talented Singer Songwriter/Actress Marika Siewert. She plays the character of Alana the TV Movie Producer.
Millennials and Gamers have a language all their own – the phrase POWN SOME NOOBS is mentioned in the film. The meaning of POWN is to own or destroy and NOOBS is a newbie Gamer or more properly described as a person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the internet.
A role model of hard work and the great supporters of AJ Lutsky is his Dad and Grand Father Joe. In film his role model is George Lucas, the magic of his Star Wars and Indiana Jones films captured AJ’s attention when he was just a young boy. AJ accredits his new-found passion and acclaim of the film business to his Mentors at Suny Purchase College, Iris Cahn and Daniel Kang and Vancouver based Sarah Lewis, Co-Producer and Steve Carr, Director.
To conclude this ‘get to know you’ session of AJ Lutsky one can only say that this bubbly, curly haired Future Feature Film Director has taken POWN SOME NOOBS to a whole new level in his game as a ‘youngin’ on his way to the big screen!
