He's not cocky. He's not eccentric. He's just Will. If you ever met Will Bigham, you would never guess that he just won a million dollar development deal with Dreamworks, but that's just what happened after he won the Fox show, “On the Lot.” Filmmaker.com got the opportunity to interview him after his win, and it didn't take long to realize that he's not only a good filmmaker, but also a solid guy – a genuine family man who hails from Canyon, Texas -- who started out in acting before becoming a director.

FM.C: I know that you have a background in acting. What made you make that jump from acting to filmmaking?

WILL: When I graduated from Texas Tech University, where I went to undergrad, my wife and I moved to Virginia, where we acted on stage for five years. And we were literally on stage six days a week for five years straight. It was amazing, but it was also tiring. At the end of five years I evaluated what I was doing, and I realized -- that I really loved performing for theater, but I didn't really like going to the theater. If I saw the most entertaining play of all time, I might fidget a little bit; if I saw the worst movie of all time I would be thoroughly entertained. So I wanted to be involved in something where I enjoyed the process as much as the product, so that's why I switched over.

FM.C: Now after acting you went onto film school, what made you decide to go to film school instead of just coming out to L.A.?

WILL: The way it worked for me was that I wanted to go into film, but I didn't know anything about film, whatsoever; so I knew I need had to go and get some sort of an education. You can either get an education by jumping into the fire or you can get an education by going to where the teachings at, so I decided to do film school. Since I had a wife and we had a kid on the way, we figured I should go and get a solid education without too much of a risk, so that's why I went to Florida State.

FM.C: Do you feel like going to filmschool helped you during the “On the Lot” process?

WILL: “On the Lot” was kind of like filmschool on steroids. It was the same thing but our time limitations were greater. Instead of having a semester to get one film out, you had four days to get the same kind of thing out. But it was just as competitive, and the strive to be the best was the same as when I was at Florida State.

FM.C: Can you tell me more about the whole “On the Lot” process? What was the experience like for you, and what did you take away from it?

WILL: I'll start from the very beginning. I submitted my thesis film from Florida State, and I heard something about two or three weeks later. They gave me a call telling me they really like it, but it's too long though; can you cut it down to like a one minute trailer? I said sure. I cut that down, and turned in an intro video with it as well. And from that they gave me a call like a month later, and said, we want you to film a three minute movie; you have one week from today -- go. And that was it. They gave us log lines to choose from. I don't remember what all the long lines were, but the one I chose was “something important is lost.” As soon as I hung up the phone, I just started brainstorming. My wife and I were brainstorming together, and we wondered what is something important you could lose? I was thinking maybe your vision, so I said what is an interesting way to lose your vision? What if you lose your eyeball? Well, how do you lose your eyeball? What if it's a glass eye? What if you can see what it sees? That would make it more interesting and make you want to get the eyeball back. And that's how I came up with the whole plot line of “Glass Eye.”

Two days later I went out and shot that and posted it that night. Then got the music done two days later and sent it back to Mark Burnett production. About a month later I got a call from them to come in for an interview. There were 200-300 people coming in for the interview and that's out of the 12,000. I was pretty nervous, but at the end Michelle McNulty, the casting director, said “we only pick a handful of movies to send over to Dreamworks to get approval . . . and yours was on the top of that stack.” Right then and there I thought, oh my gosh; this might be for real; this might actually happen. She said Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett and all those guys had watched your movies -- they had watched “Moondance,” which is my thesis film, and they watched “Glass Eye” -- and be expecting a phone call in a month or so. Sure enough, in a month, I got a phone call saying your in the fifty, so see you at the Biltmore.

As soon as I walked into the Biltmore, I thought there was no way that I was going to absolutely make it out there because the room was packed with extremely talented people . . . We paired up for the twenty four hour project, and we did a really bad job. We just didn't have enough time to come up with a good concept. We went out and shot. We did great on set. Everyone did a good job, but the story just wasn't complete. The next day when we showed our twenty-four hour project to the judges, it was like crickets. I said, man I am out of here . . . but apparently I was spared. If I was a judge, I would've kicked me out. That night we went out and shot our swing set: we had an hour to shoot and an hour to edit. And on that task, every ounce of talent that I had in my body came out on that one. That one right there, in my opinion, was the biggest success I had on the entire “On the Lot” show, and unfortunately they didn't even show it on an episode. They had it online for like two days. The short was okay cause I only had an hour to shoot it with the script provided, but personally that was my biggest success. Then I made it to the eighteen and from there America saw what I saw.

FM.C: Are you just concentrating on directing now?

WILL: With my job at Dreamworks, the whole job is to find two or three projects a year that I want to produce or direct. I am out there reading scripts, but I'm also writing scripts. Personally, the first film that I put out there in the world that says this is who Will Bigham is, the director -- I want it to be from me, and I don't know if I'm going to find a script out there that's just going to read Will Bigham all over the place. So I think I'm going to have to write that script, and now it's just up to me to find what Dreamworks will buy that's in my head. I'm definitely a director, but I'm also pursing writing and producing as well.

FM.C: Is there a specific project that you're working on or developing or is that still in the works?

WILL: It's all pretty much in the works right now. I've got a ton of ideas in my head and there's a lot of things that I want to develop. It's just, does Dreamworks want me to develop that project? Because I don't have much time, the contract is for two years, and two years is going to go fast. So I need to find exactly what they want and get that to them, as long as it's something that I can be passionate about. I know that . . . the first thing that I want to do is some sort of comedy that feels a little bit like “Amelie” or “Raising Arizona.” Something that's a little quirky, that doesn't necessarily live in the world of here and now, but takes place in a little bit of a fantasy-type world.

FM.C: Tell me a little about this Dreamworks deal. How's it structured?

WILL: The prize from “On the Lot” is a development deal from Dreamworks. It's a two year contract, and what that means is that I'm finding projects or developing projects that Dreamworks will eventually produce, whether that means I'm a director on a project, or if I'm a producer, or if I'm just someone who passes the script along on the desk . . . they gave me a production company.

FM.C: So you have a shingle (a production company) with dreamworks . . . that's great.

WILL: It's funny. My first day on the job, I had a meeting with Adam Goodman, who's the president of Dreamworks. He was telling me all the other companies at Dreamworks that have the same kind of a development deal. He was naming people like Nina Jacobson, the former president of Disney pictures, Ben Stiller's company, the guys who did “Transformers”, “Mask of Zorro,” and then there's little ol' me. I've got a lot of stiff competition within the Dreamworks gates, but I'm pretty excited about it.

FM.C: What's the name of your production company?

WILL: I don't have a name yet. I think it's going to be Shamrock Production. I'm Irish, and I was born on Saint Patrick's Day. And I have a shamrock tattoo on my back.

FM.C: After winning “On the Lot,” how do you feel like your life has changed?

WILL: Of course it's changed in some respects like I actually have a paycheck now, which is good. I don't have to go out and look for a job now cause I got one. I definitely did not do this for any kind of fame or celebrity status or anything like that. It's a reality show. That kind of fame only last 15 minutes anyway. As far as that, that hasn't changed at all. I'm still the same person, but now I have the potential. A lot of potential to make my dreams come true, so that's where I'm at.

FM.C: Do you find that people recognize you though?

WILL: You know every once in a while, occasionally. Here in L.A. the people who recognize me are people that are in the industry, not everyday people when I go to Walmart. I'm not hounded by people. I'm not a Clay Aiken, which is a good thing. One funny story: I took my family to Disneyland the day after I got off the lot, and I had only three or four people come up and recognize me. One person came up to me and said, 'hey, you're the last comic standing!'

FM.C: What type of access do you have to Dreamworks now?

WILL: It's all brand new to me, so I'm learning as I go; but I know that I do have an open invitation to the
executive's office to go in and talk to them about projects that I have in mind. But there is an order that I have to go through. There's development executives that are pretty much next in line. As soon as I find a project that I like, I'm going to those guys and pitch it to them to see what they think, see what I need to change around, or if I need to get a name attached to the script or something like that, before I take it to an Adam Goodman or a Stacey Snider . . .

FM.C: So what is your average work day now? Do you have an office?

WILL: I do have an office. It's on the Amblin property in Universal Studios. It's pretty cool. It's a nice area. My average day right now is I'm out there looking for a creative executive. Somebody who's going to find scripts for me and read them, and someone I can pitch ideas back and forth with. So that's been my main line of duty for the past week or two weeks -- trying to find that person and get my office in order.

FM.C: Are you going to have a staff of people?

WILL: Unfortunately, I don' t have the budget to have a staff or anything like that, but it's going to a two man operation, possibly a three man operation. But for the most part it's going to be me and the creative executive.

FM.C: Now that you do have the production company, what is the next step -- the process of attaching yourself to direct a project once you find something you're interested in?

WILL: Well, it's one of those things where I'm going to have to attach myself to the script. When I get to the executive at Dreamworks, I say this is something I want to produce, or this is something I want to be the director . Now, they have the ability to say we love this project, and we want Sam Mendes to direct. One of the fantastic things about Dreamworks is that they have a huge track record of giving directors their first movie: Gore Verbinski, Brad Silberling, D.J. Caruso . . . this was the studio that gave them their chance. So hopefully, my first feature will be a Dreamworks picture.

FM.C: Do you have any last bit of advice for those people who are interested in making film or going to come out to L.A.?

WILL: Well, if you want to direct, just pick up a camera and start shooting -- start directing. For everybody else out here that just wants to get into the film industry, know exactly what you want to do before you come to L.A., so that when you get to L.A. that's all you do. Because this is town where there's a ton of people trying to get a ton of different jobs out here. If you're wishy washy about what you want to do -- well, I could edit, or I could direct, or I could D.P.-- no, it's not going to happen. You're going to be stuck doing something that you don't like, so know exactly what you want to do. If you're passionate about editing, come out here to edit. If you're passionate about directing, come out here to direct. That may mean you have to get some job you don't like in order to pay rent while you're trying to do that stuff, but just never give up your dream of what you want to do.

FM.C: Thank you.