Pueblo filmmaker Timothy Sparks has got true talent and passion, and is well on his way to breaking into the field professionally.

“I’m trying to get there on my own and not really wait for something to come to me,” Sparks said.

Sparks is currently a senior at CSU-Pueblo and majoring in mass communications, with an emphasis in electronic media.

He submitted his 12-minute short film, “The Meadow,” in Pueblo’s Sol Film Festival, Friday, Sept. 9, and won the titles, “Best of Festival” and “Best of Science Fiction Genre,” due to its creative adaptation of the theme, good acting and cinematography. The festival screened a total of six short films at the Damon Runyon Theater in Pueblo.

The film festival challenged Pueblo filmmakers with the quote from C.S. Lewis, a British novelist, “What can you ever really know of other people’s souls – of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands.”

“The Meadow” tells the story of Jake, who struggles with his mother’s unexplained death. Jake encounters a stranger who comes from another galaxy, and as the stranger approaches him, his mysterious and long forgotten past is revealed.

Though Sparks had a limited budget, he planned the film out in a few weeks. Then, Sparks and a crew of 13 people, most of which were his friends and family, shot the film in just one weekend.

“I have a great team. Everybody was amazing and really worked all together,” Sparks said. “That’s really what made it success.”

Sparks has always tried to push his projects to a professional level, and he considers “The Meadow” to be the closest film to that level thus far, he said.

Sparks’ passion for films dates back to his childhood. Influenced by a great amount of films he watched when he was little, he became very attracted to telling a story through film, he said.

“I have always been a very visual person,” Sparks said.

Sparks started Sparks Bros Media, a video production business, with his brother Daniel Sparks in March. SBM has produced many short films and commercials. They have also filmed 15 weddings.

In his spare time, Sparks works on his own projects and tries to participate in as many film events as he can. In fact, many of his films have received other recognitions.

His short film, “My Own Prison,” won “Best Film” in Pueblo’s 24 Hour Film Festival,  November 2010, and another short film, “Mystery Stache,” won second place in Vimeo’s Weekend Project, July 3.

“The Blacksmith,” an 11-minute documentary on a Colorado metal worker, was also selected to screen at the Indie Spirit Film Festival in Colorado Springs in April. The festival viewed 800 films but only selected 120 to screen publicly.

His recent plan is to expand “The Meadow” to a full-length feature film that will have better character development and a more detailed explanation of the story, he said.

“When I get an idea of a project, it kind of pushes everything else out until I have completed it,” Sparks said.

Sparks’ family is always very supportive of his filmmaking. His brother Matt Sparks was the assistant director of “The Meadow,” and his wife Chrissy Sparks volunteered to care for the crew member’s children during filming.

His two daughters, Isabel Sparks, 5, and Deidre Sparks, 3, have played many roles in his short films. Recently, Isabel acted in a music video he helped produce for a friend.

“She did it very well,” he said. “She could get into the mood very easily.”

The girls are very adapted to cameras because he has also tested many camera effects with them, he said.

His passion for filmmaking is definitely influencing his daughters, he said, but he wants them to find their own paths instead of forcing anything on them.

To contact Sparks, visit his production’s website sparksbros.com.