One of the youngest recipients to ever receive the prestigious “Kodak Award” from ShowEast, director Brett Ratner knows the importance of staying in touch with a young audience. “The film business is the only industry that’s number one everywhere. American films cover 70 percent of the world, and American pop culture has been expanding to different cultures with cable television and the Internet,” he says. “Young people keep the theaters full and are very loyal to the movies. We need to help cultivate their talent and bring it to the screen.”

Raised in Miami Beach, Florida, Ratner dreamed of being a filmmaker since the age of eight. He enrolled in New York University’s Tisch School of Arts when he was sixteen, becoming the department’s youngest film major. While attending NYU Film School, he made “Whatever Happened to Mason Reese,” which earned awards and brought him to the attention of Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin Entertainment gave him a production grant.

Ratner also directed more than 100 music videos for such recording artists including Madonna, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, and many others. He won the Tony Award for producing “Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam” on Broadway.

“I always believed I was going to be a director,” Ratner confided during a telephone interview when he was in Orlando, Florida, to accept the Kodak Award. “Visualizing and believing are the way to make things real.”

The director of “After the Sunset,” “The Family Man,” “Red Dragon,” and the “Rush Hour” series, Ratner has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most successful directors with films grossing nearly $1 billion worldwide. By the time he was 26-years-old, he already had directed his first feature film, the box-office hit, “Money Talks,” starring Charlie Sheen and Chris Tucker.

What makes the recent New Line Cinema heist film “After the Sunset” so entertaining is its combination of elements, he says. “First you have a great simple story, then you take the star, Pierce Brosnan who’s a modern-day, old-time movie star and put him with the most beautiful woman in the world (Salma Hayek) on a tropical island together. This is great escapism for every demographic – a heist movie that delivers on every level.”

He says that he was destined to make a heist movie someday. “’After the Sunset’ was my first time making a heist movie. It was the biggest budget ‘student film’ ever made. But I learned so much along the way, and the next time I make a heist movie, I’ll be ready.”

Although individual creative choices for “After the Sunset” were determined in the editing suite, Ratner knew all along what he wanted from the finished product. “It had to be past-faced, a good story told in an interesting way driven by characters, not by flash.”

In fact, Ratner emphasizes the storytelling aspect for all aspiring filmmakers making any kind of movie. “In film school, they talk about composition and lighting,” he says. “But the format doesn’t really matter that much. What matters is telling a simple story that touches people’s emotions. You need to make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel.”

Copyright 2006 Leslie Halpern

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Central Florida entertainment writer Leslie Halpern wrote the books “Reel Romance. The Lovers’ Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies” (Taylor Trade Publishing), which reviews date movies and suggests romantic ideas inspired by these films and “Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science” (McFarland & Company), an analysis of representations of sleeping and dreaming in more than 125 movies. Both books are available at Amazon.com Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com Barnesandnoble.com