Vegas Movie Awards honors Andrew Wojcik

The Vegas Movie Awards were announced Jan. 13, and the winners included 1999 Fallbrook High School graduate Andrew Wojcik.

Wojcik was given the Best First-Time Director – Feature award. "It's nice to get feedback on a film that you worked primarily solo on for many years. It actually can be a struggle," Wojcik said.

"I put a lot of work into it over the course of about eight years," Wojcik said. "To get feedback is very valuable."

The film is called "zwtral" and is a mystery drama. The mystery is related to the title. "It is explained in the film," Wojcik said. "It's a bit of a play on words."

“zwtral” has a run time of 2 hours and 36 minutes. "It's one of those films with a lot of meaning," Wojcik said.

Wojcik wrote as well as directed the film. "This is all spare time, primarily since 2015, so it's completely been on my own as a personal project," he said.

The film was ready for distribution in August 2020. The initial plan was to show zwtral in movie theaters, but the coronavirus shutdown scuttled that option. "It's very hard to put in words how rough that has been," Wojcik said. "I really hope we can all be back in the theaters soon, because there's really nothing quite like watching a movie with a lot of people."

A video of “zwtral” can be purchased on Amazon and will also soon be available on zwtral.com. Wojcik is also working with the streaming platform Vudu, although he acknowledges that placing a movie on a streaming platform can be a challenge. "It's just hard to get into these," he said.

Wojcik remembers the transition from video cassette recorders to digital video discs, so he also knows that various other platforms will be in the future of the movie. "Things seem to change every five years or so," he said. "We really get to adjust to it."

The coronavirus shutdown has also limited recent work for Wojcik as a substitute teacher. Wojcik had worked in sales at the Lafayette Hotel in San Diego prior to leaving that position in 2018.

Wojcik began working on the movie after developing the idea. "One of my goals was just to inspire people to do projects and make their goals come to fruition." he said. "I think a lot of people, they dream, they come up with ideas."

He opted to take action on his idea. "I was really wanting to take on something and I wanted to do something meaningful," Wojcik said. "I picked another challenge."

Wojcik began writing the script and decided to write the script in a way which would allow him to work solo. "That challenged me in a very positive way to make it and produce it in a certain way," he said.

He also restricted himself to executing his plan without compromising the film's purpose. "So many times I wanted to be creative and change something, but I always reminded myself to stay true to the script," Wojcik said.

Writing and directing weren't Wojcik's only tasks for “zwtral.” "I act in there as well," he said.

Wojcik had previously acted in commercials. zwtral is Wojcik's writing debut as far as a film is concerned. "I've done a lot of writing in the past. I was a history major," he said.

Wojcik graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His focus was early modern history, which he describes as being from the 15th century through the 18th century.

Fullerton State was actually Wojcik's third college and the first one he attended which does not have a football program. Wojcik was a defensive end on the Palomar College football team for two years, and he was an honorable mention junior college all-American and an academic all-American. "That was an interesting experience dealing with turf toe, a dislocated elbow," he said.

Turf toe is a ligament sprain in the big toe. After his two years of junior college football he was recruited by Louisiana State University, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Oregon, and Kansas State University among others. "I got turf toe and that definitely changed things, but I have to give a lot of props to Steve Hendrickson who at the time believed in me," Wojcik said.

At the time Hendrickson was a Palomar College assistant coach. "I felt like I let him down because of injuries," Wojcik said.

Knee surgery added to Wojcik's inability to play. He spent one year on Maryland's football team but did not see action in a game. He then ended his career as an athlete. "I felt bad about it," he said.

Wojcik noted that all athletes eventually have to conclude their playing activity. "They've got to make that tough decision at some point in their career," he said.

In addition to being on Fallbrook High School's football team Wojcik also played baseball and wrestled for the Warriors. His only year on the wrestling team was as a junior, and he placed fourth in the heavyweight class at the 1998 CIF meet. "That was after having only wrestled for about six weeks," he said.

As a freshman baseball pitcher Wojcik received a letter of interest from the Toronto Blue Jays, but he broke his wrist in football as a sophomore.

During Wojcik's only wrestling season at Fallbrook High School he was overshadowed by his brother Travis, whose 1997-98 season included winning the all-division Masters championship, placing third in the state tournament, and falling one match short of all-American honors at the national tournament. His brother's three previous Fallbrook High School wrestling seasons didn't give Andrew Wojcik personal experience in the sport, so he had to learn that part himself.

"It's part of my nature, I think," Wojcik said. "Varsity wrestling, it was nice to have something I could be very determined and excel at."

His achievement of a college degree also prepared him for undertaking a film project. "I think having majored in history helped out a lot," Wojcik said.

Wojcik read textbooks as well as took tests. "You realize how tough it is day in and day out," he said. "Going through a struggle really makes you a better, stronger person afterwards."

Accomplishing objectives would carry over to "zwtral" two decades later. "I was able to see the big picture," he said.

The people of his history focus period had their own struggles, since the Industrial Revolution had not yet occurred. That was also the era when the Old World was connected to the New World, so the struggles also involved adventure. "In some ways they were the lucky ones," he said.

The explorers made the maps as they ventured and would rely on a sextant to determine their location relative to the rest of the world. "It's really amazing what they were able to do," Wojcik said.

Wojcik is undecided about the subject of his next film. "I have a few ideas up my sleeve," he said.

Another mystery, a Western, and a romantic comedy are among the possibilities. "There's a lot of options but a lot of things are changing so fast. It's not going to hold me back," Wojcik said. "I just want to make the right decision first."

"zwtral" is dedicated to Wojcik's brother Michael, a 2007 Oasis High School graduate who passed away in March 2020. A tribute to his deceased brother follows the ending credits.