Published: July 19, 2007 11:30 pm      

Ebensburg man’s ‘Donut Gun’ film tastes victory

An Ebensburg man’s movie about a young, renegade scientist who created a doughnut laser gun has been named this year’s viewers choice among those screened at the second annual Johnstown Film and Wine Festival.

Kev Stock’s “The Donut Gun” was announced Thursday as this year’s winner by Shelley Johansson, marketing manager for the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, the festival host.

“Patrons voted for the movie they liked most,” Johansson said of Stock’s movie. “It was very funny.”

Stock, 24, heard of his award from The Tribune-Democrat and said he was surprised.

He described his 18-minute movie as a live-action film with a lot of special effects.

“We tried to think of something very, very strange,” Stock said. “The original concept came from a dream I had, and the plot of the movie is the dream.”

This was not Stock’s first attempt at filmmaking, which he hopes to turn from a fun hobby into a full-fledged career.

A Pitt-Johnstown graduate with a degree in English literature, Stock will be attending Ohio State University’s filmmaking graduate program.

Johansson said the event was well-attended, and about 450 tickets were sold for all three screenings.

“That’s what our capacity was,” Johansson said. “It was a diverse group, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.”

She added that this year was even more successful that last year’s debut.

“Everybody is excited about how much it has grown,” Johansson said. “We had entries from all over the world, in addition to Johnstown and the surrounding region.”

Johansson said JAHA plans to host another fest next year.

“We haven’t had our follow-up meeting to say what we liked and didn’t like yet,” she said. “We have the opportunity to make changes from observations. I have no doubt we’ll continue to grow.”