The four cinephiles in this panel are filmmakers Elizabeth Chatelain, Justin Joseph Hall, and Inga Moren Tapias, as well as actress and public speaking coach, Shirley Venard. If the piece has moving images and came out in the appropriate decade, it’s up for nomination. This group chooses an array of documentaries, shorts, animated films, and feature films, including one with the best-trained dog in cinema history.

Megan chose a short film she shot called We’re All Alright, which she fell in love with as soon as she finished reading the script. She talks about the film’s central themes of depression and female friendship, what it was like working with a majority female team, and the challenges of filming on a fire escape. For the feature film, Megan stuck to the theme of mental health with Short Term 12, about young staff members working at a foster care facility. It’s an independent film that continues to find fans years after its release (2013) and is also known for its phenomenal ensemble of now critically acclaimed actors including Lakeith Stanfield, Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Dever, John Gallagher Jr., and Rami Malek.

There’s a connection between 70’s cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Justin Joseph Hall’s directorial debut, “Prologue,” which he gets into this episode of Feature & a short. After watching the two films, Justin answers audience questions. He shares what it was like collaborating with writer Piper Werle on Prologue’s script, how locations are characters in themselves, the casting process, and horror movies that explore the fear of having children.

WARNING: This episode is a workflow episode. It is made for people with extensive knowledge in Post-Production and can be confusing if you do not have that background. If you do not have that background skip to another one of our episodes. Welcome to another COVID Feature & a short episode: Coloring Differences. Owner of Fourwind Films, Justin Joseph Hall, has worked on many projects as Colorist. In this episode he gives us some tips about giving working on a feature and a short as a colorist. It’s important to budget your time and tell people how much it costs. You need to know what program you can use, if you are onlining the material and where you are taking the hand off point from the editor (if you are not editing the film.)Justin guides you through topics like creating a budget and that it’s important to ask questions like how many looks and set ups you need to create. He goes through other essential things to consider in color are color space and exports.If you have any Post-Production questions, email Justin Joseph Hall directly at [email protected] or check out Fourwind’s blog page for helpful tips in creating media.

WARNING: This episode is a workflow episode. It is made for people with extensive knowledge in post-production and can be confusing if you do not have that background. If you do not have that backgorung skip to another one of our episodes. Welcome to another COVID Feature & a Short episode: Assistant Editing.Most assistant editors want to advance their career to become and editor someday.Owner and Editor of Fourwind Films, Justin Joseph Hall, has worked on many projects as Assistant Editor. In this episode he gives us some tips about Assistant Editing. First off to know the different jobs in Post-Production to find opportunities to experiment and try different things. Always discuss at the beginning of the project how your credit is going to be. Remember that as an assistant editor you gotta be the organizational voice. You want to have an easy-to-read organizational format. Be consistent with the way you label files as you working on a team! Talk to the editor about gaining a system for ingesting and synching. Color-correction and sound-mixing are essential parts to consider for a complete proper project. It’s your job to make sure that your work is accurate and that you maintain a high quality product for finishing your video!If you have any Post-Production questions, email Justin Joseph Hall directly at [email protected] or check out Fourwind’s blog page for helpful tips in creating media.

WARNING: This episode is a workflow episode. It is made for people with extensive knowledge in post-production and can be confusing if you do not have that background. If you do not have that background skip to another one of our episodes. Welcome to another COVID Feature & a Short episode: Setting Up in Post-Production Differences, which focuses on how to set up a project in post-production. What differs the most between working on features and shorts is which software editing you use. Owner of Fourwind Films’ Justin Joseph Hall suggests Premiere for faster turnaround time and Avid for longer projects. He also gives us some tips about folder structures and file labeling. Specifically that organization skills are extremely important in post-production. Know your camera. Know your codec. You wanna make sure that things will sort in a logical manner in order not to cause yourself a lot of work towards the end of the post-production process. Here is a link to our folder structure template that is mentioned in the episode. YYYY-MM-DD (Name of Project) Episode hosted by: Justin Joseph Hall. If you have any post-production questions, email Justin directly at [email protected] or check out Fourwind’s blog page for helpful tips in creating media.

Welcome to another COVID film list Feature & a short Black Media Matters which focuses on the importance of black voices within the film industry and how diversity within the cinema space benefits the art form. For so long black talent has been suppressed within the industry but when a diamond shines so bright, one can’t help but notice it in the rough; Paul Robeson who began making films in 1925 with Body and Soul. Josephine Baker who was the first black woman to star in a film in 1934 with Zouzou. And perhaps one of the most influential black filmmakers, Spike Lee who made his mark as a staple director with his first feature film, She’s Gotta Have It. With so many gifted black filmmakers & actors, it can be hard to narrow it down to a mere listicle; but in this episode Justin Joseph Hall and Laura Davi hone-in on some of their favorite films which also happen to focus on stories that revolve around black lives, experiences, and issues. (Spoiler alert: Spike Lee is mentioned more than once on the feature films list and throughout the podcast.) Short films discussed include Hair Love, Child of Resistance, 3 Brothers: Radio Raheem, Eric Garner and George Floyd, Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No, and Halfway Home: A Father’s Story. To donate to the Connecticut Children with Incarcerated Parents, please check out their website here. Feature films include The Butler, 13th, If Beale Street Could Talk, Malcolm X, Pursuit of Happyness, and Do the Right Thing. And perhaps just as important as the filmmakers themselves are the actors & actresses that help bring the craft to life. These artists, plus additional filmmakers mentioned by Brian Trahan during this episode, are as follows: Charles Burnett (Director) - Nothing but a Man Viola Davis (Actress) - Fences Jordan Peele (Writer/Director) - Get Out Oprah Winfrey (Actress) - The Color Purple Thandie Newton (Actress) - Crash Melvin van Peebles (Writer & Actor) - Classified X Debbie Morgan (Actress) - Eve’s Bayou Thanks for tuning-in! Stay safe.

Welcome to a totally COVID kind of Feature & a short. Fourwind Films has decided to dedicate a podcast to talking about the best of the contagion films seen by our accountant Laura Davi, and your host, Justin Joseph Hall who has been called a movie encyclopedia. We redirect our documenting of our small film events to bring you our second film list episode! The definition of an epidemic an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population. We are doing this episode because our lives have been stagnant and we’re looking for ways to cope.  Films are a quick way for humans to process other people’s minds.  So what will this list do for you?  If you watch these films, you may help understand the conditions of contagions in society through the medium of film.  These are the films we think are the best at communicating what life might be like during the time of a contagion. First we discuss the BEST SHORT and FEATURE FILMS since STAY AT HOME ORDERS March 22nd in New York  Tusalava This animation film appears all over YouTube.  A great few minutes to take a step back and reflect. The Shawshank Redemption Frank Darabont watched Goodfellas (1990) every Sunday while shooting this film and drew inspiration from it, on using voice-over narration and showing the passage of time.  Place Beyond the Pines Compelling two part story about family and mystery with hunky lead actors, Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling. Portrait of a Lady on Fire We loved this film so much we actually watched another film from Céline Sciamma’s earlier work as she’s been making films over the past two decades.  The real similarities I noted in her style is her use of music.  The absence of a score until the music is so utterly embedded in the moment or feeling of the film.  The silence let’s the music drive emotion more when it is present and Céline has mastered this art in Portrait of a Lady on Fire.  Also, best title ever. BEST CONTAGION FILMS - Movies that teach us about possible scenarios of human spread contagion Fast Spreading Contagion Films list Philadelphia TriStar the studio actually felt there was a need for this film, not so much about the disease, but to have Jonathan Demme have a homosexual main character was essential in the director and studio’s eyes. Dallas Buyers Club This is one of those “based on a true story” that isn’t quite accurate but is more of a conglomeration to express the mood of the times.  Based off of the man Ron Woodroof, but the film budget was incredibly low and they shot the film on twenty-five shoot days. High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell Everyone knows the crack epidemic.  Wordlwide 585,000 people died as a result of drug use in 2017.  COVID-19 is 232,180 at the moment.  This story is visceral, not only is my favorite film by Episode 21 guest, Jon Alpert who was a producer and cinematographer on the film.   Jon and the team with Downtown Community Television captured Christian Bale’s character Dicky Eklund.  It’s only an hour and packs an unbelieveable wallop Thriller The death count of zombies is unknown and presumed to be zero.  But this metaphor for disease and/or stupidity is a favorite in the film genres.  This film is my short, very closely followed by One Cut of the Dead that Thomas introduced me to in our 2010’s Fresh Air Award Episode.  Director of Blue’s Brother’s SNL spinoffs, John Landis spent half-a-million dollars in the 1980’s making this 13 minute film. Requiem for a Dream Based on a book written by Hubert Selby, Jr. in 1978.  Greeks, Egyptians, Sumarians, Chinese, Americans, Germans all have encountered this seemingly endless contagion in our society.  Darren Aronovsfy makes this disease live through music and compression of time.  He orchestrates everything you may notice in drug use, especially heroin use. These are our top Contagion films, please write us at [email protected] or shout out to us on social media for the films we overlooked @fourwindfilms Credits for Season 3 podcast: Produced by Fourwind Films Brian Trahan - Sound Mixer Theme song of Season 4 is Loopster by Kevin MacLeod.

Christian Felix is an actor from Chicago now based in New York City. He now regularly does a specific kind of acting in diversity training, which is one of the coolest jobs you’ve never heard of previously. No matter what you say about Christian, he is definitely a professional storyteller. On top of him expressively recounting amazing adventures , he’s a spectacular listener. This is what makes him successful throughout his years and his willingness to be professional in all setting yet still have fun. The exact person you want on any filmset. Christian’s theme for the episode is how film sets can be fun and funny or incredibly contentious and still create great works of art. The short film Book Club by VARIETY SHAC Christian brought is a film where he was a background actor with hilarious comedians (Chelsea Peretti and Fred Armisen to name a couple) where his main job was not to laugh. He talks about other television sets such as the show Blacklist that were more stressful and lead us directly into his feature choice Blue Collar. Blue Collar had three lead actors who were in a tif during the time of shooting. Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto were all told they were the lead and drugs and feuds lead to a rough set life as Christian explains in descriptive detail. The story centers around worker’s unions and the fight of the worker against the larger system is a story that continues to be retold and relived throughout the test of time. If you want to hear more of Christian, please check out our podcast We Don’t Even Know where he co-hosts with Shonali Bhowmik.

This episode features Jon Alpert, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-award winning documentary journalist. Prestigious award ceremonies aside, Alpert has been making films for over forty years and has stories for DAYS. Highlights include the story of how he was chosen as the director for the first Sundance film by Robert Redford, and another dives into how he and his partner Keiko Tsuno managed to get breaking footage in Vietnam during the war. As a co-founder of DCTV he shares how the Chinatown documentary incubator offered film equipment to anyone who wanted to tell stories about the community. Alpert’s career was birthed out of supporting his community, and he continues to prioritize doing so to this day. The films he curated for the episode are both extremely personal. The short film by Jasmine Barclay is called, “When Life Hands You Lemons.” It tells the story of how she was houseless for all of high school without most people in her life having any idea. For the feature, Jon chooses his most personal documentary, “Papa.” Jon also shares how this film got made by working with documentary legend Sheila Nevins Jasmine was part of the DCTV program “ProTV.” The free school teaches underprivileged high schoolers how to make film. Link to donate. Hosted by Justin Joseph Hall.