Dehnart finalist for short film

By ROGER ADKINS, radkins@newsandsentinel.com
WATERFORD — A local aspiring filmmaker has high hopes a national video contest for Bertolli frozen dinners will land him a trip to New York.

Tim Dehnart, with help from his enthusiastic family, directed, shot and edited a short film for the contest and is one of four finalists for the grand prize: a trip to New York City. Bertolli sponsored a nationwide video contest for short films and stories to promote a romantic night in with Bertolli’s products, said John Dehnart, Tim Dehnart’s brother.

Tim Dehnart’s two-minute film was one of more than 300 entries in the contest and was selected by Bertolli judges as one of the four finalists to compete for the most votes. Voting is open to the public via Bertolli’s contest Web site at www.bertollinightsin.com. Placing a vote enters the voter for a chance to see the winning filmmaker’s story on the big screen with a trip for two to New York to watch the premier of the movie.

The Dehnart family of Washington County also has created a Web site, www.Dehnart.com, that features the video and the complete story of the family’s adventure.

“We’ve always done things as a family. If our story gets enough votes by April 30, then it will be made into a short movie for the big screen by professionals in New York,” Tim Dehnart said.

Tim Dehnart said he has always had an interest in making films.

“As early as I can remember, I taped family videos and enjoyed editing and assembling films for special occasions and events. Many times I’ve ‘enhanced’ our own story lines with comic relief, morphing family videos to cause them to take a comical twist. I enjoy setting videos to musical backgrounds and have several family ventures on YouTube. It is a little difficult making a living at it here in Waterford, but there are more and more opportunities with the Internet,” he said.

Katie Dehnart, Tim Dehnart’s sister-in-law, is a professional voice actress for cartoons and commercials. She first heard about the contest and told the family.

“We all began creatively contemplating the perfect romantic night-in. We all thought about the contest for several weeks, yet no action was taken. At the end of March, my dad called a surprise family meeting on a Saturday and announced we only had three days left to enter the contest,” Tim Dehnart said. “We have all been home-schooled and when there’s work to be done, everyone jumps into high gear.”

In the short film, John Dehnart plays “Dan,” who is duped by his boss into thinking he’s missing his anniversary. Dan’s boss is played by James Dehnart, who is Tim and John Dehnart’s father.

Katie plays Dan’s wife. It wasn’t much of a stretch for her since she actually is John Dehnart’s wife.

“My mom, Jeanne Dehnart, makes a cameo appearance when she saves the day by suggesting Bertolli. My youngest brother, Andy Dehnart, makes a brief appearance at the end with the final twist to the plot,” Tim Dehnart said.

Other members of the family also helped with the film.

The family only had three days before the deadline to finish the film.

“We suddenly scrambled into high-gear and our creative thinking exploded. It was fun listening to mom and dad recalling stories of their romantic nights in during my younger years. Bit by bit, a story immerged with little snippets of each person’s input of what he or she felt would make a wonderfully romantic evening,” Tim Dehnart said. “Eventually, different acting roles were assigned to family members, and it was up to me to do all the on-the-spot directing, filming and tedious editing.”

Tim Dehnart said it was a blast making the short film, though it was difficult to edit hours of footage into a two-minute film.

“The video filming was fun for everyone, especially the bloopers. Probably the most difficult task was deciding how to condense two hours of video into two minutes. After 12 hours of painful editing and only 30 minutes before the contest’s deadline, I finished boiling everything down into a 2-minute, action-packed romance story with a surprise ending,” he said.

“After waiting nine days, I was delighted to learn that my video was in the top four finalists. I think I have a real shot at the grand prize, and eventually I hope I will get to watch my two-minute video, ‘The Deceptive ‘Date,’ turned into a short movie at a professional filming studio in New York.”