Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City man won the Mountain Dew Green Label Studios Open Call competition and $250,000 with his locally filmed video submission.
Aspiring filmmaker Nathan Balli said he applied for the video competition because it “seemed like a really cool opportunity.” Balli said he began filming when he was 14 years old and has been working as a professional videographer for the past six years.
Balli submitted a portfolio for the national competition in March and was selected to advance to the second round where he was required to create a video for the Mountain Dew Green Label Studio in 10 days. He worked with Arrius Sorbonne, Nate Gunn, Nate Sorensen and his wife, Ellesse Balli, to complete the video on July 8.
“In its entirety, we had 10 days from the time we got it approved until the time we had to deliver,” he said. “We had something like 42 setups over 10 days, and I work full time, so it was really tricky to find that time in the evenings to make it happen.”
Balli’s video submission showcased local talent with music from Salt Lake City-based Better Taste Bureau and local companies to perform the stunts. The video showed cyclists from Salt City Builds riding their motorcycles while standing and Wake Utah representatives wakeboarding beneath the I-15 spaghetti bowl at the I-80 Interchange. Balli said he obtained permits from the Utah Department of Transportation for the stunts.
He said his goal was to highlight the diversity of Utah.
“In Salt Lake, it’s such a diverse landscape and diverse culture,” Balli said. “There is quite a bit of diversity in the way people live their life and all the opportunities and different activities that exist here. The kind of activities we chose were stuff that was kind of close to our heart and other people we knew through networks of friends that were doing really cool stuff.”
Balli’s submission, "Authenticity is Everything," was selected as one of nine finalists, and he was flown to New York City on July 15 where he was announced the winner.
“I was really quite shocked,” he said. “All the other videos were really impressive and such a great group of people. I really was just shocked. And more than anything, I really get shy when I become the center of attention in a weird way. My wife was just laughing at me because she said I got really nervous.”
As the winner, Balli received a $250,000 production grant to create six Web videos for Mountain Dew venture Green Label Studios.
Salt Lake City resident Patrick Romero also made it as a top finalist with his video, "Flossing the Sky."
