Film Festivals

I'd like to take this post to promote some film festivals!

Here's one I've been looking in to! I'm not 100% sure on what I want to do just yet but I'll figure it out. If anyone would like to help me out on it let me know! I'd be happy to bring some other people in on this!

This is another interesting website I found over the summer when I was looking for more film festivals to submit White Lights to.

Withoutabox is cool in that it gives you all kinds of film festivals all over the world! I did try to submit my film to one festival but the process was a little confusing and I didn't get my film in on time. Anyway, if you can figure it out, it's worth a try!

It's good to go to film festivals whenever possible even if you're not entering a film. It's fun to not only watch the films and where they place, but also to try and compare them to films you have made and see if the film would belong there! You'd be surprised, some films that are entered aren't as advanced as one might think they would have to be. Your film could really fit in well!

Some people can't really handle film festivals in that they can't sit through so many movies at once. However, some people can handle it. I'm certainly someone who can handle it and I love going to them  just to see the films! I'd also recommend the Theodore Case Film Festival in Auburn NY if anyone happens to be a local or even remotely in the area. I live in Mexico, NY so it's a good hour and 15 min. drive for me to get to it's location at Auburn Public Theater! Which is one of my favorite places! However, unfortunately they didn't do the Ted Case Film Fest last year so there was no way of knowing if they will bring it back again this year or not. It was a great festival (non-competitive) to view the different films being made by various people in the NY area! I met some really great people there as well. Since it's non-competitive I can tell you I know a lot of people that work there as well as the owners! They're a great bunch of folks! So if you're ever in the Auburn area check it out they've got lots of artistic events not just in film but also in music, poetry, and other ars!

Here's  their website! Check it out!!

Speaking of timed film festivals:

This is one of the guys I met at Ted Case FF in Auburn. He actually comes from the same roots as I do in that he went to my old school (Cayuga Community College) and then came to Ithaca he then transfered to Oswego. I don't plan on doing that however! His name Is Jeffrey Newell and he's extremely talented. This was one film festival that he did for a 36 hour film festival. He said he'd never do it again, however I think he did do a 24 hour film festival just recently.

I love seeing ALL of the videos he does, he's truly an amazing person. I would love to work with him someday. I'm sure I will have the opportunity at some point in time.

I would like to try to make a 24 hour film someday just to see if I could and what would come from it.
It'd be good for my brain!
TaTa for now!

-Lucy Lynne' Hall

Extracurricular Projects

A lot of people may stop after they finish schoolwork or required materials but I often find myself wanting to create and do more. Sometimes class work can get tiresome and boring so finding something you actually enjoy creating and doing is very important. Recently I have created a few different side projects not associated with school that I have been really proud of and would like to share.

My first project I created last week after watching a few parody videos online. After the announced hiatus of a great sitcom called Community there has been an outpouring of fan made videos showcasing how special this show really is. My friend and I stumbled on a video where a user created the opening credits for Community yet in the style of another great show called Parks and Recreation. We then realized that it would be interesting to see Community’s credits in the style of Arrested Development, a show that like Community had cult fans and network scheduling problems in its third and final season.

A few minutes after this discussion I went right to work seeing if this was doable. After playing around in Photoshop about if I could do it, all of the sudden it was all I could think about. For the next two days every free minute I had I would work on this credit sequence. I first created all the images in Photoshop by using pictures of the cast from online. Then I put them all into Final Cut and animated the slides to move and change at the exact same time the original credits changed. Next came adding the videos included on the slides. Finally I had to figure out how to make moving arrows, circles, and the hanging pictures. I then just sat down and tried different things and used trial and error to problem solve these things for myself. Two days later I was done and posted it online. In 48 hours I nearly had 2000 views and now as I write it has over 4000. I am very proud of the outcome and how I may finding people I don’t even know post it themselves on sites like Twitter and Tumblr! To view my video click here and to see the original I based it on click here.

Another side project I have been involved in is called Dual Redundancy. Dual Redundancy is an entertainment and television podcast my friend Mike and I created and host every week. On the show we have different segments where we discuss the week in entertainment. These include “In and Out Points” where we jump in and out of the week’s big headlines and “The Flashback” where we highlight a great new episode of a show from the last week. We also give movie reviews and have done a variety of theme episodes. These have included an Emmy prediction episode and another where we revealed the list of the top ten TV characters from the last ten years. For the latter podcast we created a survey and asked our listeners for their votes. We received over 100 votes before we closed voting! We are still going strong and have created ten episodes so far.

If interested in learning more about Dual Redundancy you can find us all over the Internet. We have a Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube page where you can find out about the latest episodes, contribute content for the show, and even participate in contests. Most importantly you can subscribe and listen to our show on iTunes or download it to your MP3 player.

Community's Halloween Episodes and Parodies

To many people Community is a television series about a group of students at a community college but it is so much more than that. The series heavily uses pop culture references and meta-humor often parodying film and television clichés. These episodes include a holiday stop-motion episode, a clip show of memories that never happened, a parody of westerns, and even a recent episode that had seven alternate timelines. Every single of one these are worthy of an entire blog post but today in the spirit of Halloween I am focusing on their annual Halloween episodes.

In the first season their Halloween episode was called “Introduction to Statistics” and dealt with Jeff and his decision to blow off his study group’s Halloween party in order to score with the young Statistics professor. However the b-plot of the episode is a great parody of superhero films and Batman. Abed is a student that is obsessed with pop culture and entertainment, much like the show’s creator Dan Harmon and the writers. At Halloween he dresses up as Batman and more specifically as the Christian Bale reboot version. At the end of the episode he saves the day as a chair and desk fort begins to collapse on Jeff who is trying to comfort Pierce about realizing he is old and “un-hip.” Jeff is usually the first to complain about the absurd behavior of Abed but at the end of the episode after he made his decision to choose the study group over the teacher he accepts Abed, his behavior, and his new batch of friends. The ending moment is then a straight parody of the heroic music and narration Batman will often do which was just recently seen in the movie The Dark Knight.

Last season the Halloween episode was called “Epidemiology” but most fans know it has the zombie episode. In this episode the study group is left to fend for themselves when their classmates become “zombies” due to tainted food the Dean cheaply bought. While it was actually an outbreak of rabies instead of them actually being zombies, the episode features numerous horror movie clichés the would be seen in a zombie or horror movie. First was a cat rustling in an abandoned area. Many times in movies characters are often spooked by some animal like a cat flying past them when they are trying to hide and escape the real evil outside. Community parodied this by having the cat constantly keep reappearing and showing it unconvincingly flying across the screen. Another funny comment on horror movies the show made was on music. Usually horror movies have scary, dark, and very intense music but on Community the music was the greatest hits of ABBA mixed in with the Dean’s voice memos. Unable to leave that section of school to change the playlist, upbeat songs like “Dancing Queen” played as the zombies attacked and bit the study group. Finally another comment on horror movies (or any movie in general) came when Troy tries to run through crowd to save the day and turn down the thermostat (which is believe to slow down the symptoms of the zombies before they suffer brain damage). While normally the action hero will burst through the group and destroy all the bad guys in his path, Troy is immediately attacked and stopped. He ends up reaching the goal but after he was bit himself.

I love Community and their themed episodes like their past two Halloween episodes. Tomorrow night at 8 pm on NBC their third episode airs called “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps” and I am sure based on the title and the prior history of the show that it will continue to make fun of and comment on horror movies, pop culture, and entertainment in general. I for one can’t wait for the hilarity and references to ensue.

"Community" and its Pop-Culture References

I am genuinely surprised that nobody has yet written about the comedy-masterpiece that is Community. The half-hour comedy on NBC is about a group of six eclectic “losers” who attend Greendale Community College and form a study group. Over the course of the series, they become friends and experience highly unconventional college trials and tribulations.



Jeff Winger, played by the handsome Joel McHale (who I had the pleasure of meeting in Los Angeles!) is a “too cool for school” 30-something womanizer who was forced to go back to school after the law-firm that he was working for realized that he had a false degree. Jeff is the character that all of the other characters look up to and respect the most—he is basically the leader.

Britta Perry, portrayed by Gillian Jacobs is a radical feminist who takes any chance she gets to take a stand against “the man” and get her voice heard. From the beginning, there is sexual tension between her and Jeff although mostly she is disturbed by his chauvinistic point of view.

Opposite of Britta, is Annie Edison (Allison Brie) who is a straight out of high school perfectionist. Annie is set out to get the perfect grades and is very susceptible to what people think of her. Annie and Jeff also have some tension between them, which sometimes creates a competitive atmosphere between Annie and Britta.

Then there are the inseparable best friends, Troy Barnes (played by comedian Donald Glover) and Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi). Abed, is a nerdy but sweet film connoisseur whereas Troy is a not so smart ex football player. The have a great dynamic and often create outrageous circumstances for themselves.

The final two of the group are the oldest: Shirley Bennett (played by Yvette Nicole Brown) and Pierce Hawthorne (played by Chevy Chase.) Shirley is the mother of the group, as well of her own children and is usually overbearing with her religious beliefs. Pierce on the other hand is extremely offensive—he is racist, sexist and overall inappropriate. He is very old-fashioned and out of touch with a lot of modern day technology.



The dynamic that all of these characters create is the perfect combination for a brilliant comedy. Not only is the acting and writing magnificent, but the storylines themselves is what sets Community apart from other comedies like Modern Family (which I also love) and Parks & Rec. The writers of Community love to reference pop culture. There are episodes that movies like Pulp Fiction, Dinner with Andre, Die Hard , Space Odyssey and Star Wars. There are also episodes that are homages to western films as well as zombie films. The stories are always very rich.

Here is a clip from "Epidemiology", the episode that is an homage to zombie movies in which everyone at Greendale Community College becomes infected:



The beauty about the writers is that they don’t automatically assume that everyone watching will understand the references. In fact, most of the time they go over my head—however, I still find myself laughing out loud. Understanding the references enhances the show, but it is still enjoyable to those who don’t grasp it.

In order to watch Community and properly enjoy it, there needs to be a suspension of disbelief. Essentially, the world of Community is one in which anything goes and therefore the audience needs to grasp the fact that zombies might exist in one episode and not in the next.

Community is truly a wonderful comedy although it hasn’t been particularly noticed by award shows such as the Emmys. I believe that it is a show that has a little something for everybody, so I recommend it to all who are looking for a laugh.