ETHAN ROY REVIEWS SHERLOCK HOLMES!

Sherlock Holmes, the last action film of 2009, went with a bang. Well it’s more of a mystery rather than an action film, but it had more action than many other “action” films this year. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude law are just a pleasure to watch. Now I’m not a hardcore Holmes fan, in act I’ve never read any of the books, but I did my research and this goes back to old school Holmes. Downey is funny and amazing as Holmes. Watson (Jude Law) was really good too. He is the fool that follows. He knows what’s going to happen yet he still follows him. The action was a blast to watch. Guy Richie knows what h is doing; I feel he should go to action rather than gangster films. But the real show stopper is England. I love just staring in to the background and just seeing the shops and homes. It had the sin city approach to it. The cinematography also was astonishing for an action film. I love how more and more films are starting to care about that. (SPOILER ALERT HERE TILL THE END OF THE SENTENCE) But I love how the concept of the cult is played and all is science rather than magic. The only problem of the film is Rachael McAdams. The first half she was all right, then what happen? She was so bland and sometimes really bad, but she isn’t in it as much as the others. But the slow-mo then cut to fast action scenes actually serve a purpose unlike Watchmen. In these Holmes explains the moves and effects.

I had a ball with this film - I was shocked because my expectations were very low, but I can easily say that this is one of the best of '09. 8.5/9

NOTE* I apologize for the Avatar review for those that saw that James Cameron got an award nomination for writing. My source was wrong he did not get a nomination for that (which is good). Please understand that I am very busy. I had a school play, exams, and a new high school so understand if they’re mistakes. I assure you out there, there will be no more mistakes. And the finalized score for Avatar is a 7.5

CATHY LE'S "MUNDANE MONDAY" - ON TUESDAY!

I guess I should begin by explaining the title of this blog. It occurred to me in the middle of my aesthetics class when we were discussing the bias in classical literature to only write about high class people engaged in big moments of their lives. Until recently, there hasn't been much written about regular people doing mundane, everyday things. There's plenty of "regular" people in mainstream media now, but the mundane activity part isn't quite there yet. The characters are always engaging in some big important life event and this defines who they are. This is of course purposeful because mundane sometimes isn't so interesting to watch. But at the same time, films like Napoleon Dynamite which have no "point" to it, are popular. Simply put, are we defined by what we do every day or by our big periodic accomplishments?

 

It's interesting to me right now because, I'm just doing all these mundane and "everyday things", not anything film industry related in particular-- filling out some college applications, going to band practice from 7am-7pm everyday to prepare for the Rose Parade, chatting with my friends online, sleeping. But I'm finding inspiration for filmming everywhere: from modern-day segregation in LAUSD schools, to how bands and other large masses of people are controlled, to the new ways humans communicate in this technological age of texting, webcamming, and facebook.

Cathy Le's Mundane Monday will post every Monday morning on Freshi Now.

ETHAN ROY'S REVIEW OF AVATAR: PERFECT CGI / IMPERFECT STORY

With Avatar, James Cameron finally perfects CGI, but does he perfect storytelling, NO. The story has been done thousands of times, Dances with Wolves, District 9, Last Samurai, and a little bit of Ferngully. James Cameron came out saying that this will be the greatest movie ever made; it’s far from it. Now is it a bad movie, no it is an incredible film, but the story is meh. The effects will obviously win an Academy Award, but James Cameron shouldn’t win any awards for this.

Already before the release the film got Golden Globes for best writing, Director, and best drama. No I feel that people shouldn’t let their experience take a hold of them saying that it is the greatest film ever, believe me I had an amazing experience, but I can tell the difference between what is awesome and what is a amazing story. Trust me it is one of my favorite sci-fi films but Mr. Cameron disappointed me with the story. It is no District 9 (which is my personal favorite sci-fi film), but it is better than Star Trek. The 3D wasn’t any thing special; Coraline’s was a 1,000 times better. The 3D bothered my eyes way too much. But the effects where unbelievable. I felt like I was actually there and the Na’vi felt real at times, like I couldn’t tell the actors apart from the Na’vi a few times.

The action was great, but again the story felt dull and unoriginal. Not the say I completely hated the story is that I’ve seen it done better. Cameron has done action with a great story I mean look at T-2, Arnold Schwarzenegger actually made people cry at the end of that movie, which is something we never saw coming. Avatar, yet having an amazing experience and effects, it still lacks in story, but it is still an amazing film. 7.5-8/10

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

from everyone

at FRESHI NOW!

PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHT: LIP SYNC EPIC

Shorewood High School in Washington State created this unusual lip dub to Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams."   Aside from the epic production (it seems to include everyone in the school), what makes this really something  special is that the entire video was shot in reverse - including the lip-syncing.  Read more in this Los Angeles Times article.

IPHONE APP FOR FILMMAKERS: HELIOS SUN CALCULATOR

One of several views available with Helios

Chemical Wedding, the same company that offers the Artemis digital director's viewfinder, also offers Helios, another useful Iphone/Itouch app for filmmakers.    Helios "graphically predicts the path of the sun from dusk to dawn, on any given day, in any given place."  


For filmmakers and photographers who work in natural light (as opposed to artificial lighting), this can be a great pre-production tool.  Knowing where the sun will be at any given time of day can make the difference between a dimly lit (or backlit) shot and a good, professional image.  Additionally, you can email the information, so that you have a hard copy of the results for your planning needs.


Helios is also just $29.99 in the Iphone App Store, and has an average of 4.5 stars out of 5, although there are only five votes so far.


If you've had a chance to use this, let us know.

STARTING NEXT WEEK: CATHY LE'S "MUNDANE MONDAY"

Freshi Now writer Cathy Le begins her weekly blog next week!   Cathy is a senior at Cleveland High School, and is now looking to her future as a filmmaker - and the best way to get there!

Mundane Monday starts on December 28th!

IPHONE APP FOR FILMMAKERS: DIGITAL DIRECTOR'S VIEWFINDER

If you have an Iphone, you might be interested in Chemical Wedding's Artemis, a digital director's viewfinder for the Iphone.  Artemis allows the user to choose camera format, aspect ratio and lens type - it's made for both directors and cinematographers, and so far shows 4 out of 5 stars (out of 24 votes) in Iphone's App Store.

Users (and Chemical Wedding) note that the primary limitation of this app is that it is currently limited by the focal length of the Iphone camera.  Anything wider, and the app will create a blank screen around the subject to present an idea of the covered landscape.

Considering the inflated price of so many professional applications and hardware related to the film industry, the $29.99 price seems very reasonable.

If any of you have tried with app, we'd like to hear from you.

The International Family Film Festival, which will be celebrating it's 15th year in 2010, is a sister organization with Freshi Films, LLC.

Roy Disney, nephew of Walt Disney, had a critical role in reviving Walt Disney Studios and the art of animation in the decades following the death of Walt Disney in 1966.  For more information on Roy E. Disney, start with this Wikipedia entry. 

RECOMMENDED LINK: STUDIODAILY.COM

If you're interested in what's going on on the tech side of filmmaking, a good overall site for keeping up-do-date on what's going on is studiodaily.com, which offers news, tutorials, e-letters, lists of competitions, (some of which are free), and production case studies on many areas of production and post-production.

SALLY SALIA: HOLIDAY FILMS, PART THREE

Here's the third and final part of Sally Salia's three part article on the films she's most anicipating this holiday season:

In Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous character is back once more for more adventure, this time exposing not only his intellect, but his fighting skills as well. Crime, action, drama, and suspence, its all there in Guy Ritchie’s movie adaptation of the fictional character. This time the world renowned partners, Holmes and Watson must stop a conspiracy that threatens to destroy Britain. The movie will hit theatres Christmas Day, competeing with Avatar.

RECOMMENDED LINK: DOCUMENTARY.ORG

If you're interested in documentary filmmaking, there's no better place to be than DOCUMENTARY.ORG, which is the home of the International Documentary Association (IDA), the most prestigious organization serving documentary filmmakers and those who support documentary films.  Here, you're find resources for everything from funding to legal advice and basic filmmaking guidelines, to excerpts and trailers from short and feature length documentaries from around the world.  There's also forums to interact with documentary filmmakers around the world.

If you're just learning the documentary craft, this is a great place to start your journey.

SALLY SALIA: HOLIDAY FILMS, PART TWO

Here's the second of Sally Salia's 3-part series on the films she's most anticipating this holiday season.  This time, it's:

AVATAR

For all the sci-fi fans out there, Avatar is the perfect movie to enjoy over the holiday season. First, lets clarify that Avatar is not based or related to the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender in any way. On December 18th, the movie will hit theatres. The movie is about a former Marine, Jake Sully, now paralyzed below the waist, who joins an expedition to a distant moon, Pandora, which is the habitat of the Na’vi. He undergoes a transformation into the physical form of the Na’vi, but with the thoughts and feelings of a human being. He must persuade them to join and help the mine, but as he gets closer to the Na’vi and his relationship with one of the woman, Neytiri, deepens, he is faced with a decision that could alter the fate of an entire world.

We STILL Need You!

We need writers and vloggers to report on filmmaking and gaming - Our whole purpose to help talented young "media creators" do what they do - so as you report on people like yourself, we'll also feature your work, and link back to your own website or YouTube channel.  We have visitors from all over the entertainment industry, and around the world - it's a great way to get your work out there!

Contact Rich Samuels, Freshi's Director of Production (and your FRESHI NOW webmaster!), at rich.samuels@freshiflix.com

EVEN FILMMAKERS CAN GO GREEN

The Code of Best Practices for Sustainable Filmmaking is an online publication at American University's School of Communication.  It offers a guide to professional filmmakers to create productions that are "green," including guidelines for pre-production to production, and all the way through the post production process.

If you go to the site, though, make sure you scroll to the bottom and read  the posted comments from "real world" industry professionals.  While many applaud the included guidelines, some point out that some aspects of those guidelines are impractical considering the necessary requirements of production.  For example, one guideline encourages production staff to carpool to location.  Unfortunately, that isn't often possible, as even a small production crew includes varying call times (for example, make-up needs to arrive quite a bit earlier than talent, and talent earlier than certain crew).   The comments offer as much information as the article itself, and a real insight into the challenge of green filmmaking.

Your comments?

INTERCUT MAGAZINE PREVIEW: THE ZOOM H2 HANDY RECORDER

 Kevin D. Paige, Sr. is a Freshi teacher and muscian, and has had the opportunity to experiment with the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder:

The Zoom H2 Handy Recorder is basically a studio condenser quality microphone made hand held. The quality of the mic is outstanding. I got a chance to play with it before implementing into my film classes. The H2 has four built in mics and up to four channels of simultaneous recording capability. The front mic records in a 90o radius and the rear mic at 120o. All mics, when activated at once, create surround recording. You can record in wav. form or mp3, store in individual folders, and save on an SD card.  The H2 has line inputs and outputs for audio monitoring, as well as a small LCD screen for visual monitoring. When I brought the H2 to class, my students thought it was the coolest thing. They really loved that you can mount it to a flow-pod or uni-pod to use as a boom pole. It was very easy to export files and import them into any video editing or music editing program. Bottom line, I would recommend the H2 Handy Recorder.  It’s very affordable and you will not be disappointed.

Check out more about Kevin Paige, Sr. at the FreshiFilmWorx staff page.
Check out the Intercut Magazine archive here

SALLY SALIA: HOLIDAY FILMS, PART ONE

Here's the first of Sally Salia's choices for most anticpated films of the holiday season!

THE LOVELY BONES

Based on the bestselling novel by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones is a story about Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl, who, after being murdered, overlooks her family from above and watches as they struggle to go on with their lives without her. This is a unique story that hypnotized readers from the very first paragraph, which starts out with the words “I was 14 when I was murdered”. It’s definitely not how most stories begin, and something different is always refreshing. Book-turned-movies are often risky in the movie business, they look promising but loyal fans degrade and critisize it.

Will Suzie be able to lead her father to her killer, or will she let her family continue their life in peace? And will the movie live up to the expectations of the fanbase? Find out for yourself on January 15, 2010.

EXCLUSIVE FEATURE: INTERCUT MAGAZINE PREVIEW

Freshi Films, the company behind Freshi Now, also publishes Intercut Magazine (check out the archive here), designed for young filmmakers. Periodically, we'll feature selected articles from past and future issues of the magazine.  You'll only find it here...on Freshi Now!

First up, Intercut editor Yvonne Farrow, an independent filmmaker herself, reviews Before You Shoot by Helen Garvy.

Before You Shoot: A Guide to Low-Budget Film and Video Production is a fantastic book for those who want as little drama during the production of their film or video shoot as possible.  I used it as a guide during the pre-production of one of my short films and later received kudos from my grantor as one of the most well organized filmmakers they had ever awarded.  They even used my post production reports as examples of excellence for those applying for the scholarship/grant the following year.  A detail-oriented person to begin with, I wanted to do my best and why wouldn’t I?  Someone was giving me money to make the dream of producing my first sync-sound super 16 short film a reality!  I didn’t want to blow it not sweating the details.

PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHT: "Sausaguy! en America Latina"

Mael Santiago, a 16 year-old filmmaker in Venezuela, created this short  - make sure you also check out his  YouTube Channel for behind-the-scenes videos on the making of this project, and his other special effects projects.

From the filmmaker's description:  Sausaguy is a charismatic sausage that travels throught the outer space and finds the Earth. In this planet he discovers the terrible situation between sausages and humans.

NOWNEWS: 5 MINUTE YOUTUBE VIDEO LANDS FILMMAKER $30 MILLION FILM

An unknown filmmaker from Uraguay spent $500 on a YouTube video about a giant robot invasion - and now he has a Hollywood contract.

While it's true that the 30 year-old filmmaker runs a post-production house Uraguay, which obviously gives him some technical advantages a non-professional might not have, this goes to show that good, eye-catching and high-quality work can really lead to something.  And remember, he's about as far from Hollywood as you can get (well in the Americas, anyway!).  This is all about production value - effects like you see in the video below cost millions in Hollywood....

Read more here.

WE NEED YOU!

We need writers and vloggers to report on filmmaking and gaming - Our whole purpose to help talented young "media creators" do what they do - so as you report on people like yourself, we'll also feature your work, and link back to your own website or YouTube channel.  We have visitors from all over the entertainment industry, and around the world - it's a great way to get your work out there!

Contact Rich Samuels, Freshi's Director of Production (and your FRESHI NOW webmaster!), at rich.samuels@freshiflix.com

RECOMMENDED LINK: YOURINDUSTRYINSIDER.COM

YourIndustryInsider.com is a website dedicated to helping students get a "jump start" on their careers in the entertainment industry, offering resources including a blog, email blasts and practical guidance from industry professionals for those planning to pursue an entertainment-related career.

Here's an article on what it's all about.

INTRODUCING FRESHI'S NEW SITE!

Freshi Films, the company behind the Freshi Now website, has created filmmaking programs for youth around the world.   Freshi Planet, our new site celebrating our worldwide programs, just launched a new section celebrating our popular program in Puerto Rico. Stop by and take a look!

NEW FACEBOOK GROUP FOR UPCOMING FRESHI NOW PODCAST

Freshi Now Podcast - First Meeting on November 28th

The Freshi Now Podcast is just one of the upcoming features we're be premiering over the next couple of months. Some members of the Freshi Now team met at Freshi Headquarters last Saturday for a brainstorming session - we'll have more information as it comes available.

In the meantime, Ben Spiegel has created the Freshi Now Podcast Group on Facebook.  If you're interested in what they're doing, or interested in becoming part of the podcast, you're invited to join up!

[Note to Freshi Now team members:  Watch for news 

about an all-team meeting in early January]

THE BEN SPIEGEL WEDNESDAY FILM FESTIVAL (PART FOUR)

The film originally scheduled for today is still in post-production, so the Freshi Now webmaster brings you another Ben Spiegel classic:  Responsibility.

YOUTUBE PRODUCTION SPOTLIGHT: "DUET WITH MYSELF"

Occasionally on Freshi Now, we like to highlight videos that offer exceptional production value, above and beyond the norm.  19 year-old Charlie McDonnell, known on YouTube as Charlieissocoollike, (one of our first profiles) recently debuted this unique video, "Duet With Myself," featuring a musical duet with...himself!   Not only was he able to create a convincing illusion, his timing is really something to see - keep an eye on the expressions shared between the two Charlies.