Movies for Young Urban Filmmakers

The first step to becoming a filmmaker is to watch great works then analyze and critique them. I have found these films to be especially effective when teaching storytelling, composition, and editing. Some of these films are Oscar winners, some are not. Many of them are urban cult classics. You can even ask your students to let you know which music videos have been influenced by these works.

Blood In, Blood Out - Three brothers, their choices, the consequences. (also called Bound by Blood)
City of God - Gangs in Brazil. The documentary about Favelas that's on the US dvd is also very educational. A nice contrast is to show this film with Black Orpheus.
The Conversation - A sound tech regrets the job he's done. Coppola directs.
Cooley High/Boyz in the Hood - An African-American High School story. Cooley High is set in Chicago in the 1970's and written by the same guy who co-created Good Times. Boyz in the Hood is essentially a remake/modernized version set in LA in the 80's.
Made in America: Crips & Bloods - This documentary by Stacey Peralta presents valuable perspective and also shows some great CG (After Effects, Motion, etc.) technique.
Do the Right Thing - Great example of issue filmmaking and also had a huge influence on music videos. Shows a wide range of camera angles and moves.
Klute - 1972 Oscar winner about prostitution. Deep. Shows how the camera can be used effectively when NOT moving.
Mi Familia - LA's Chicano history told in a classic Hollywood structure.
Requiem for a Dream/Trainspotting/Gridlock'd - Movies about drug addicts. Three very different takes. A good question to ask is which one is the most realiztic and why?
Scarface - If you have to ask, you'll never know.
To Be and To Have - A beautiful documentary about a group of schoolchildren and their teacher in rural France. In filmmaking, many times simple is better.
Visions of Light - Documentary about the job of the Cinematographer/Director of Photography. Dials in detail that students didn't realize was there.
The Warriors - Cult classic. Everything old is new again.

Be sure to screen all of these films in advance, many of them contain adult language or themes that may not be appropriate to your school/program. However, you can also show a less offensive scene or portion of the film for discussion.

A little tutorial on our old friend GIMP

Image Editing: Apply Antique Color Tones to a Photograph: "Antique photographs have a certain warmth to them imparted by the development process that can't be replicated by simply dumping the color data from a photograph. At wiikiHow there is a tutorial on using GIMP, a free Photoshop alternative, to take the rich tones from an old photograph and apply them to a brand new photo. The process works with both black and white and sepia toned photographs, and can easily be adapted from the given steps to work with Photoshop too. The above image is a blend of the before and after sample photo from the tutorial. If you don't have any antique photos handy, the tutorial covers where to find public domain images to lift tone samples from. If you're looking to take the opposite route and inject color into a black and white photography check out how to color black and white photos and isolate colors for emphasis."

Cool Photo Contest (Film, not Digital)

Brian Auer is running a very cool contest over at the Epic Edits Weblog that could be of interest to both Teachers and Students.

The $50 Film Camera: "My main objective for the project as a whole is to show other photographers that film photography can be very inexpensive and exciting. For whatever reason, there’s a popular belief that film photography is expensive and tedious. But through your participation in this project, we can disprove that point and show everybody just how great film can be."
1. Buy a Camera
2. Shoot & Develop Your Film
3. Write a Review of Your Camera
4. Publish a Photo of Your Camera
5. Publish an Entire Roll of Photos
6. Submit Your Link on the Form
...and, if you're lucky, WIN!!!

The Deadline is September 12, 2008