But seriously, as continually proven there’s plenty of wiggle room in the genre for a genuinely surprising effort that manages to breakthrough the conventions and get at you on emotional and intellectual levels beyond the merely gross. For recent examples, think of last year’s Zombieland, or Yesterday from Fantasia ’09 in Montreal.

Or better still, think of the recently released Dead Genesis which was made right in our own backyard by Guelph’s Reese Eveneshen. Dead Genesis is the improbable – and once thought unlikely – follow-up to Eveneshen’s self-produced remake of Night of the Living Dead in 2007. And what’s more is the fact that Dead Genesis isn’t just a great zombie movie, but dare I say that it’s also well-made and thought-provoking.

Not to say that Evenshen’s NOTLD wasn’t well made, but what sets Dead Genesis apart is that it’s a rather adroit social commentary filled with vivid and believable characters. Surprisingly, the zombie activity is kept to a minimum in favour of exploring the more monstrous possibilities inside every one of us when we’re pushed to the limits. Not to commit sacrilege here, but from what I’ve seen, Evenshen has more interesting things to say about the media, modern society and the War on Terror using the zombie motif then the last three George Romero films combined.

That’s high praise, I know, but I was summarily unimpressed with both Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. Dead Genesis, meanwhile, cloaked in its down and dirty badass indie fatigues, impresses easily once you get over the preamble and meet up with the “Deadheads,” a roughneck crew of zombie hunters that’s kind of a poor man’s Blackwater in a world where private militias are seemingly drafted to help clean up the zombie menace and keep it in check. It’s all part of the “War on Dead,” which is as much a PR offensive as it is an actual, physical response to the zombie outbreak.

Our heroine is Jillian Hurst, played by Emily Alatalo. She’s a touch naïve, but no less dedicated and committed in pursuing her first documentary as part of a government-directed news (and propaganda) outlet. She sets off to meet up with the Deadheads with some fairly lofty expectations of people fighting the good fight, but finds that the reality of the frontlines of the War on Dead to be rather morally and patriotically indifferent. Alatalo gets the heavy-lifting being one of the few characters that is not a battle-hardened zombie fighter, but she paints Jillian in a way that’s strong and determined in the face of her evaporating perceptions.

The assorted Deadheads also acquit themselves well. Too often it seems that character is forgotten in a zombie movie, and if it’s remembered at all then the character is merely distinguished by the stereotype he or she fills; even some of the greatest zombies to not escape unaffected. Sure, in Dead Genesis you have characters like “Jarhead Mr. Clean” (essayed with incomparable skill by If a Tree Falls director Phil Carrer), but you also get more complex characters like Deadhead leader Korvin, played with pragmatic cynism by Colin Paradine, or Lionel Boodlal’s Flynn who grapples with holding on to some sense of self and sanity having long given up the idea of fighting for “the cause.” The baddest of the badasses award though goes to Erin Stuart who transcends lone wolf gun(wo)man with some genuine moments of humanity.

In the end, Jillian Hurst leaves the Deadheads to their fate, while she herself is a little wiser for her experiences in the field. As the credits roll, you realize how little of the film was about hunting zombies, or seeing the Deadhead crew get viciously slaughtered in an undead blitz, or 101 grossouts to get people to choke on their popcorn. This is a drama that happens to take place in a zombie-infested world, while at the same time having a social commentary that’s neither heavy-handed nor preachy.

For anyone expecting an indie splatter fest of gore where fake blood by the gallon subs for production value, there’s the door. Dead Genesis features a sure hand behind the camera and coherent vision in front of it. Sorry gang, but the bar has been raised.

Dead Genesis will be screened at the Original Princess Cinema on August 12^th. Stay tuned to princesscinemas.com for details

Reviewed By Adam A. Donaldson

How you look at the finale of Lost depends greatly on the type of person you are. If you’re a literalist, then you were left profoundly unsatisfied because of all the leftover questions. However, if you’re capable of a little more imagination, then the unanswered question score sheet is not as important as the fates of our characters.

What was the island? I don’t know. The light at the centre could have meant life, or goodness, or happiness. It could have been a Pandora’s Box where the “cork” kept hope bottled up lest the world descend into darkness and despair. But what it was isn’t as a consequential as what it did. It brought desperate and lonely people together and gave them a purpose.

And no, the island was not purgatory. It was amazing to me how that detail seemed to zoom by so many people. Everything that happened on the island was real. It was the Sideways world that was purgatory. But was it? No one actually called it “purgatory.” Remember that the point of the Jughead bomb was to stop Oceanic 815 from ever crashing. Hence, this was the reality they all constructed, as Christian Shephard explained, where they could meet, remember, and make peace before heading off into the afterlife. After all, what happened happened, right?

It makes me wonder what people dissatisfied with Sideways-purgatory were expecting. That they’d all gather in the Sideways Universe and then be magically transported back to the island by Desmond or something? Anyone who thinks they’d be satisfied by that ending raise your hand.

I was onboard with Lost from Day One, and I disembark satisfied. The pure poetry of the finally scene was beautiful and moving as Jack, dying from Locke’s mortal wound, makes his way to the bamboo he first woke in after arriving on the island. He lays down and watches his friends’ plane escape overhead, smiles, and closes his eyes. The circle is closed as the camera fades out from Jack’s closed eye. Vincent the dog found Jack and sat with him as he died, echoing the pair’s first encounter in the pilot. Could this ending have been more perfect? I think not.

The island story was more or less straight forward: stop Smoke-Locke from leaving the island. The implications were interesting because basically in order to defeat the monster, the island had to be brought to the brink of destruction. Turning off the light made the monster mortal in the form of John Locke, which resulted in the epic cliff side fist fight between Jack and Locke. Meanwhile, it’s proved that it’s not so easy to kill Lapidus as the pilot’s found floating in the ocean alive as Richard and Miles look to continue Operation: Blow-Up-Plane.

So while it’s true that Jack’s tenure as island guardian was incredibly brief, I get to lie in the smugness of being right. Hurley, as it turns out, is the man who gets to take charge of the island, and none other than Ben Linus is recruited as his Richard Alpert. I previously noted how Hurley’s new leadership role portended his serious status as a player for Jacob’s job. I liked that the big job went to the one guy that was always loyal, honest and true, or as Jack put it “You’ve always taken care of everyone.” Sounds like perfect island protector material to me.

As for Ben, what better fate could there be for a man that weaseled around trying to consolidate power but to spend the rest of his days being another guy’s first mate. More than that, it’s fitting for Ben, having never been allowed to be in Jacob’s presence, to be extended a hand by Hurley and offer his expertise on all things island to the new man in charge. That was a touching moment when Hurley humbly asked Ben to help, and the surprise and excitement in Ben’s voice when he accepted Hurley’s invitation. It was even more emotional, I think, outside the church in the Sideways world when Hurley tells Ben that he was a great “Number Two” as Ben reciprocates telling Hurley that he was a great “Number One.”

Overall, the tension, the emotion and the pacing was darn near perfect. Every reunion in the Sideways world had a cumulative effect so that by the time Locke “woke up” in the hospital and told Jack that he wishes the doctor could see what he sees, you don’t know how much more emotion you can take. The island world was left satisfactorily ambiguous. It’s implied that the survivors lived a long life post-island as Kate says she’s been waiting a long time to see Jack again. Richard Alpert, meanwhile, got a grey hair, although he remained mysteriously unseen in the church or the entirety of the Sideways world.

As for Hurley and Ben, well there’s spin-off material if you ever need it. In any case, I see a new group of castaways coming to island and being greeted by Hurley and his “little buddy.” Hurley, always the least reliable guy on the island with a secret, would tell them straight up that the island is special, that their pasts don’t matter and they’re welcome to stay or go. Then, after the first couple of times Ben’s glare scared people away, Hurley might do that part alone.

That’s the great gift of Lost. These characters were so rich, so refined, so wonderfully brought to life by the actors, that they can exist in your mind independent of new island adventures from the creators. Do you need every, single, last answer or are you capable of making intuitive leaps for yourself? Who wasn’t in the church finale, why was so-and-so special, why didn’t what’s-his-name do/tell this to what’s-her-face? Whatever you like. There is no plot unless it’s being driven by character, there is no emotion unless it’s being conveyed by a living actor (and I include dogs in this), and that’s what “The End” gave us: character and emotional resolution. If you want simple, over-and-done-with-in-an-hour storytelling, I believe there are still three hours of C.S.I. on TV every week.

So aloha Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Ben, Richard, Frank, Miles, Claire, Locke, Sayid, Jin, Sun, Smoke Monster, Christian, Jacob, Juliet, Rose, Bernard, Vincent, Michael, Walt, Charlie, Boone, Shannon, Libby, Ana-Lucia, Mr Eko, Penny, Daniel, Charlotte, Dr. Chang and all other castaways great and small, even Nikki and Paolo. And Desmond, I’ll see you in another life brutha.

Written By Adam A. Donaldson

Despite the weather and the construction that’s tore up much of the sidewalks on Quebec Street, the line-up in front of Ground Floor Music was as long as usual as local music fans tried for a limited supply of weekend passes for the Hillside Festival. In the last several years, Hillside weekend passes have always sold out in the first few hours of sale, and it appeared that this year would be no exception.

As of Saturday night, all weekend passes available for sale online and at the Hillside Office on Woolwich St in Guelph were sold out. Outlets like Ground Floor Music, Encore Records in Kitchener and Soundscapes in Toronto also sell Hillside tickets, but there’s no word yet on how their sales turned out. Day passes, as usual, are still available at all points of sale.

The line-up for this year’s Hillside will be led by The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie and will also feature Basia Bulat, Royal Wood, Los Lobos, Shad, Corb Lund, The Acorn, Hidden Cameras, Jason Collett, Sarah Harmer, Tannis Slimmon and Stars. More acts will be added over the next couple of months.

For ticket information and other news about the Hillside Festival, go to their website at http://www.hillsidefestival.com/

Hopefully, the weather will be better for this year’s show on Guelph Island.

5) Juiced

Granted, it may be self-serving to give one of these spots to a Synn Studios effort (Synn Studios, Inc. is the parent company of In Magazine), but director Tom Brown has successfully combined absurdist conceptualizing with pitch-perfect timing and execution. The plot of Juiced: an orange sets out to reap vengeance on the apple that killed his family, and it’s all acted out using real fruit. It takes a special kind of mind to look at a bowl of fruit and see a Bronson-esque tale of gritty, urban revenge, and fortunately, Brown’s got that kind of head on his shoulders.

4) Sneaky Business

The guys behind South Park may be in a touch of hot water as of late, but they might find good company in the pair of filmmakers behind Sneaky Business, a ball’s out comedic piece that’s part satire and part politically incorrect romp that will have you choking on the offense you’re taking while laughing yourself stupid. The plot involves a talking snake that’s acting as a coyote and smuggling desperate Americans into Canada on a cruise ship so that they might get a chance to have the benefits of gay marriage, free healthcare and low crime. Plus, to cap it all off, Celine Dion (as played by a man in drag) saves the day. Trust me, this has to be seen to be believed, and unbelievably it comes not from the mind of a couple of crazy Canucks, but the New York-based George Sanders and Shawn Curran

3) Heels on Wheels

Roller derby’s been steadily making a come back over the last few years, which was helped cemented in no small part thanks to Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut Whip It last fall. Our own local roller derby team, the Tri-City Roller Girls based in Kitchener, will get the spotlight in this new short documentary by filmmaker Pablo Perez. Focusing on how the team finds empowerment, camaraderie and self-expression through the sport, look for Heels on Wheels to put the emphasis on personality over game play.

2) Dear John

Director Mark Lammert takes a cue from Michael Moore’s Roger & Me days by packing up the van for a road trip to Moline, Ill., the home base of John Deere. The reason for his trip is to learn from company head honchos why and how they took away Welland, Ontario’s leading industrial employer after decades of loyal service. With the common touch Moore’s kind of lost in the 20 years since Roger, Lammert and his crew turn their quest into a full blown chronicle about the impact of the post-industrial age on the working men and women that are suffering through the current recession. Timely and insightful, Lammert also does the seemingly impossible by giving the viewer a touch of hope. A truly enrapturing indie doc.

1) Frozen

After making a splash at Sundance before chilling the bones of many a critic when it was released earlier this year, Frozen finally arrives in Guelph as the feature presentation of SharpCuts’ Thursday Thriller Night. The plot finds three young people (led by the original Ice Man, Shawn Ashmore) trapped on a ski lift and forced to decide between freezing to death together, or making tough choices so that a couple of them can live. It’s been said that seeing Frozen will do for the viewer and skiing what Jaws did for people and going into the ocean. See it with someone that does better under pressure then you do.

Written By Adam A. Donaldson

Kazoofest officially begain last night at the Ed Video Media Arts Centre gallery, and included a projected installation by Broken City Lab, music videos by Colin Medley, photography by Sean Richardson and a dance performance by Lindsay Roe. The action then moved to the ebar where the D’Urbervilles performed with Gregory Pepper & His Problems and Ben Gunning. Intrigued yet? Fortunately there’s still four full days of activities. Here’s the schedule:

Thursday April 22nd

Sean Nicholas Savage, Silly Kissers and Pop Winds
The Attic, 14 Northumberland St
7 pm

We start off this Royal City Beats with the early show from Kazoofest. This set’s all about Montreal with the duo of Sean Nicholas Savage and Pop Winds, who are currently touring Ontario together, with the additional charm of Silly Kissers.

Lullabye Arkestra, Brides and Soft Copy
ebar, 41 Quebec St
10 pm

For the late show, Kazoo is giving us the obvious complement to an all-Montreal band show: an all-Toronto band show. First, there’s the husband and wife rock duo of Lullabye Arkestra, which is followed up by former Guelphites Brides and wraps up with pop punks Soft Copy.

Friday April 23rd

Bruce Peninsula, Flowers of Hell and Katie Stelmanis
Dublin St. United Church, 68 Suffolk St W
8 pm

Any show anchored by Bruce Peninsula is bound to be a can’t miss proposition. Joining them are fellow rock orchestra, albeit with a transatlantic edge, Flowers of Hell and the artist formally known as Katie Stelmanis, Private Life.

PS I Love You, Diamond Rings and Rich Aucoin
Jimmy Jazz, 52 Macdonell St
10 pm

It’s experimental music from far-flung places as Kingston pop metal duo PS I Love You joins forces with Toronto real deal Diamond Rings and Halifax’s visual pop sensation Rich Aucoin for the Kazoo late show.

Saturday April 24th

Zine Fair
Ed Video, 40 Baker St
11 am

Kazoo’s regular zine fair will feature over 20 tables of locally-produced zines and small publications from all over the country covering the arts, comics, politics, and other assorted bric-a-brac. Also featured are guest speakers, Ben Dugas and Maggie Macdonald.

Bike In Film Screening
St. Georges Square
8 pm

You know what a drive-in movie is? Same difference, only with bikes.

Bocce, Noah 23, Green Go and Miles Jones
Albion, 49 Norfolk St
10 pm

Kazoo makes it a tough call tonight with both shows starting at the same time. First up though is a stellar collection of local favourites. Waterloo’s Bocce comes to town with a new CD to release, while Guelph’s hip-hop maestro Noah 23 and electro punks Green Go help them celebrate. Toronto artist Miles Jones joins the fun with his own hip-hop/soul/fusion.

Sarah Mangle Buys A Bear, Rat Tail, Cousins, and Weird Weather
Jimmy Jazz, 52 Macdonell St
10 pm

Only those prepared to two-step had better come to this show because featured artists Sarah Mangle Buys a Bear and Cousins will definitely make you want to. It’s all grunge from there though thanks to Toronto’s Rat Tail and the Guelph-connected Weird Weather.

Sunday April 25th

Rae Spoon and Ghost Bees
Breakfast House Show @ 32 Edinburgh Rd. S
10:30 am

If you’re not Kazooed out by Sunday morning, then come out and have breakfast with Calgary’s Canadian Gothic Rae Spoon and Halifax folk stars (and twin sisters) Ghost Bees.

Basketball Tournament
GCVI, 155 Paisley St
3 pm

A basketball toury on two courts complete with accompanying DJ, and there’ll be prizes for the winning team.

Richard Laviolette & the Oil Spills, Ryan Driver, Eric Chenaux and Lisa Bozikovic
ebar, 41 Quebec St
10 pm

Wind down Kazoofest with Guelph’s favourite son Richard Laviolette and his compatriots, the Oil Spills. The unique talents of Ryan Driver, Eric Chenaux and Lisa Bozikovic, one of CBC’s 10 artists to breakthrough in 2010, will round out the night.

For more information go to the Kazoofest website.

Written By Adam A. Donaldson

Polytechnique Wins Big at Genies

The dramatic retelling of the shooting at L’École Polytechnique de Montréal was the big winner last night at the Genie Awards. The film, simply titled Polytechnique, won a total of nine awards including best picture, best director, best original screenplay, costume, editing and cinematography.

Karine Vanasse, who starred in the film as survivor Valérie, won best actress and in accepting talked about what making this film meant to her as a young woman. “I’m holding this and thinking of the 14 victims of the massacre and also those who were injured,” she said. “I know this event had a huge impact on the lives of these people.” Maxime Gaudette won the best supporting actor Genie playing ‘The Killer’ and said that he wanted go deeper with his character than simply portray him as a “monster.” “I wanted to play a human being first,” Gaudette said. “He had a deranged mind, but we had access to his pain and I wanted to show it.”

Rounding out the top prize winners was Joshua Jackson, who took home best actor for portraying a school teacher with terminal cancer in One Week. To get the full list of winners, head over to the Genies’ website.

Coco Lands on TBS

In a surprise move, Conan O’Brien has secured a deal with basic cable channel TBS to host a late night, weekday program on their airwaves starting this coming November. In a deal closed within 72 hours of the start of negotiations, O’Brien signed a five year deal with TBS. As part of the deal, the former Tonight Show host have a stake in ownership of his new show, which could mean more money for O’Brien in the back end even though he’s taking a smaller paycheque up front.

But wait, wasn’t O’Brien close to signing a deal with a major broadcast network? “We assumed he had a deal with Fox,” said Turner Entertainment chief Steve Koonin as to why his channel had not publicly shown interest in pursuing O’Brien. According to sources, talks between O’Brien’s reps and Fox stalled when local affiliates expressed dissent about taking on the proposed talk show at 11 pm, where they already have rerun deals with pricey syndicated shows like Seinfeld and Friends in place.

In an additional note of irony, O’Brien’s berth at 11 pm on TBS will bump George Lopez and his eponymous talk show back to midnight. Lopez, apparently, doesn’t mind though and has already jokingly called the new line-up “Lo-Co.”

Hannah Montana Hosting MMVAs

As further evidence that they’ve sold out what little remaining shed of street cred that made the MuchMusic Video Awards so unique in the first place, the producers of the MMVAs have hired Miley Cyrus, AKA: Hannah Montana, to co-host this year’s show. “I’m so excited to co-host the MuchMusic Video Awards,” said Cyrus in a press release. “I can’t wait to get back to Canada and perform for all of my fans. It’s going to be an awesome night!” Cyrus will follow in the footsteps of fellow Disney channel alum The Jonas Brothers, who hosted the show last year. Call me conspiratorial, but I think that whole place has gone to hell ever since Ben Mulroney moved into the building. Look for the MMVAs to spill out over Queen St West in Toronto on June 20^th.

Vatican to Beatles: We’re Good

Perhaps in the hopes of generating some positive news around themselves, the Vatican, through their newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, have praised the Beatles for their musical contributions to culture, while reserving the right to frown on their lifestyle choices. “It’s true, they took drugs; swept up by their success, they lived dissolute and uninhibited lives,” L’Osservatore Romano wrote in its weekend edition. “But,” the newspaper added, “listening to their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless. Their beautiful melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions, live on like precious jewels.”

The response from the surviving Beatles? Meh. “Didn’t the Vatican say we were satanic or possibly satanic, and they’ve still forgiven us?” recalled Ringo Starr in an interview with CNN. “I think the Vatican, they’ve got more to talk about than the Beatles.”

But what about John Lennon’s 1966 crack that his band had become “bigger than Jesus”? Well, Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor in chief of L’Osservatore Romano, seemed to be in a forgiving 89ood and turned the other cheek. “In reality it wasn’t that scandalous,” Vian told the Associated Press, “because the fascination with Jesus was so great that it attracted these new heroes of the time.”

The article was marking the 40^th anniversary of the band’s dissolution.

On paper, Parker Lewis should have floundered right out of the gate. It was a high school comedy about a teenage slacker with a natural gift for serendipity and the chutzpah of a seasoned confidence man that often put him in conflict with school officials. The basic concept came dangerously close to ripping-off of John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and as fate would have it, NBC launched a TV series based on the Hughes film the same season that Parker Lewis debuted. But Ferris Bueller the series was cancelled after 13 episodes and replaced by Blossom.

By comparison Parker Lewis lived on for three seasons thanks to the unique tone and style that was brought to the show by co-creators Clyde Phillips (Dexter) and Lou Diamond (The Tick). Decidedly zanier and more over the top than Bueller, Parker Lewis had more in common with The Simpson then Saved By the Bell. Santo Domingo High School was a veritable Pythonian stage where anything could, and usually did, happen.

At centre of it all was Parker Lewis, played with amiable guile and charm by Corin Nemec, whose dual philosophies summed up in the words “coolness” and “not a problem” helped him navigate the sorted world of high school. Parker does his best to avoid trouble be it at the hand of the grumpy giant Larry Kubiac (Abraham Benrubi), the prying nose of his little sister Shelly (Maia Brewton), or the swift, decisive thumb of Principal Grace Musso (Melanie Chartoff). But a man is only as good as his friends, and Parker’s got the best buds, laidback rocker wannabe Mickey (Billy Jayne) and the versatile though exaggeratedly nerdy Jerry (Troy Slaten).

One of the key elements that set Parker Lewis apart was its dedication to surrealism. Kubiac (played by the six foot seven inch Benrubi) would always be heralded by the impact tremors of his monstrous footsteps, Jerry would pull random objects from his oversized lab coat, and Musso’s assistant Frank Lemmer (played by Taj Johnson) seemed to be able to teleport at will. From cartoon-style sound effects to occasionally snide references to movies, politics, and pop culture, Parker Lewis was one of a kind.

Parker Lewis was effective counterprogramming for another Fox Network, teen based show that also started in 1990, you might have heard about it, Beverly Hills, 90210. And though they may not be as well known as the kids from that famous zip code, Parker Lewis has something they never will: a Fall Out Boy song named after them. “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose (But I’m Gonna Give It My Best Shot)” was the ninth and final track from FOB’s 2005 album Fall Out Boy’s Evening Out With Your Girlfriend.

The Complete First and Second Seasons of Parker Lewis Can’t Lose are available now on DVD.

Written By Adam A. Donaldson

The first question to ask is this: where will this film be going? Will you be selling the film to a distribution company? Posting it to YouTube? Making DVDs to sell yourself? Although these questions all pertain to the final steps of your film’s process, and the answers to these questions inform what your first steps should be.

So let’s talk tech.

Back when TV was invented in its cathode-ray tube incarnation (long before plasma displays, LCD monitors and DLP projectors), the idea of interlacing was developed to allow for smooth video with a rapid refresh rate and many of today’s standard-def camcorders use formats based on this half-century-old technology.

But as the line between television and computer monitor have blurred in the last few years and many of our screens became progressive scan, we’ve started to look at our interlaced media in a new way. Now, we can now see the horizontal lines that the cathode-ray tube used to hide, and it can be pretty ugly.

But virtually every editing system worth its salt has a de-interlace filter, which erases every other line of resolution in a video to eliminate those pesky horizontal lines. However, when you’ve only got 480-lines to start with, de-interlacing takes your true resolution down to just over 200 vertical lines, which can even look rough on YouTube.

The thing about interlacing is that if you’re making a film, you’re making something that has historically been a 24 frame per second progressive scan medium, no matter what Michael Mann tries to do about it. That’s what an audience is expecting. So if you want your film to feel like a film, you’ll do best to shoot with a camera capable of progressive scan, and a framerate of 24fps. That century-old 24fps film framerate does something quite subliminal to the human mind, making it perceive the visuals as a dream instead of reality. It’s a powerful place to come from with your story. Plus, when you watch it on a computer, upload it to YouTube, or watch it on a TV made this century, a viewer won’t be distracted by the interlacing.

Next up is resolution and you have a few choices:

Without delving into Red Cameras (we’ll talk about those another time) there is a range resolutions you can get a video camera for these days: Standard Definition (720×480), 720pHD (1280×720p), and 1080HD (1920×1080). The decision here will dictate the resolution of your finished film, which is called the “Master Tape” or “Master File”. Sure you can do an up-convert after you’ve shot, but you can be in real trouble in the quality control step (when the fine tooth comb hits your film); they can always tell and your distribution deal may fall apart if you shot a 720p film but sold it as 1080.

If your film is for the web than 1280×720 is ideal since it’s progressive scan already, YouTube and AppleTV don’t show full 1080. Also, most consumers don’t know the difference between the two different sizes of HD and when you cut the resolution down to one quarter, you’ve got perfect widescreen iPod resolution (640×360) and it looks fantastic.

But if you intend to sell a feature film to a distributor, then your best bet is to go with 1080p, since virtually no distributors will take films with standard def masters anymore and Blu-Ray is a 1080 format. (Be careful though, 1080i exists too, and it’s got that interlacing problem, too. Definitely to be avoided by filmmakers.) Just don’t be surprised when the distributor insists on an HD Master, but only ever sells standard def DVDs; they just want the ability to sell a Blu-Ray if they choose to. It’s protecting their long-term investment in your film.

By extension, you can get away with a standard def master if you’re planning to self-distribute DVDs of your finished film, most people still have standard def DVD-players, so you’ll be able to sell more old style SD DVDs than Blu-Rays for years to come, and they’ll cheaper to make for at least another five years. The final step is the codec, which is short for compressor/decompressor. A common codec for years was the Mini-DV codec, an evolution of the interlaced format from a half century ago, and has been widely available as inexpensive tapes and cameras since the 90s.

But since the proliferation of consumer HD cameras in the last decade, a format called HDV has become popular. It essentially squeezes HD info onto the old Mini-DV tapes with a heavy DVD-style compression. It may be cheap for tapes, but that compression makes it hard to pull a green/blue screen key in post production. I’ve tried and it’s messy. TV-stations also won’t play this format of HD and call it “Dirty HD” because of how bad it looks when it’s being compressed again for television transmission. That can make it hard to sell to a distributor, as well.

That leaves the popular DVCproHD and HDCAM formats. Both were originated as tape formats for big shoulder mounted cameras, but Panasonic has assaulted the pro-sumer market with a solid-state solution called P2. These cards cost insane amounts of money, but the cameras are relatively cheap, so with a good workflow you can shoot 1080p broadcast quality with a camera solution for under $10,000.

Which gets us back to the most important aspect to any indie film’s budget: do you really want to buy a camera for your film? Sure there’s the pride of ownership and all that, but you’ll find that is quickly off-set with the “d’oh” of owning an outdated multi-thousand dollar piece of technology that you used for 8 weeks of shooting and is now gathering dust.

Which brings us to the concept of rental. You can rent a camera pack for around $250 per day, or $700 a week, and some places allow you to put that rental cost toward purchase if you fall in love with the camera (or you go so far over your shooting schedule that you may as well have purchased it).

Once you know the format you want to shoot, and you’ve picked the camera you want to use, do the math on rental vs. purchase and do what is most cost effective. But remember: if a camera you own stops working, you need to repair it or replace it; when a rental goes on the fritz you wash your hands of it and they give you a new camera. I personally shoot upwards of four shows a week with my camera, so buying my gear was a sensible option; the return on investment has been favourable, making it a good business decision to buy.

At the end of the day, it’s show BUSINESS that we’re talking about and the books need to be in the black if you want to be in a position to make the next movie. So spend smart. And remember, Best Buy has a two-week return policy.

Matt Campagna is a director, writer, editor and new media producer from Toronto, Canada. He is known for his film Six Reasons Why as well as his work on web series BSGcast, Your Geek News, The Naked Wine Show and WHIRtv.

First, there’s the superhero sequel Iron Man 2. Scheduled to be released on May 7th, Iron Man sees Robert Downey Jr. return as the Armoured Avenger (and his alter ego Tony Stark) as he faces a showdown with the U.S. government over possession of the Iron Man armour, while dealing with the revenge-minded new villain on the scene, Whiplash (an electro-whip bearing Mickey Rourke).

This trailer gives us an expanded look at several of the film’s new characters, including Tony Stark rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Russian spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and the War Machine armour donned by Col. Rhodes (Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard from part one). And, if all that isn’t enough to convince you, the action looks pretty cool too.

Next there’s Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, a film that has been unable to get any real buzz going since the first trailer for it premiered last fall. It seemed just a little too much like King Arthur meets Gladiator for the taste of many, and not helping that comparison is the fact that it stars the Gladiator himself Russell Crowe. The jury’s still out on this Hood, but the new trailer certainly makes the film seem more engaging than the teaser did. At the very least, we should get something better and more faithful than Prince of Thieves.

One can be forgiven if they don’t get excited about The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, all things Twilight are, after all, an acquired taste. But while the New Moon trailer took the lousiest book of the series and made in seem wicked with werewolf transformation, bare-chest vampire brawling and music by Two Steps from Hell, the Eclipse trailer takes what is arguably the best book of the series and gives it the Twilight pout. At any rate, let’s hope the finished film is better than the trailer

Best Picture

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

It was a worthy experiment, but me thinks there’s a reason why no one thought to put forth 10 Best picture nominees on the same ballot in 48 years. Looking at the one’s that don’t have an adjoining Best Director nomination, you have five selections that are basically pandering or are cynical, saving face moves. You have the art house pick (An Education), the lip service to recent winners pick (A Serious Man), the sentimental pick (The Blind Side), the token blockbuster (District 9) and an animated movie (Up) to silence critics who say the awards don’t take animation seriously.

So let’s deal with the five “real” nominees, and as we all know, this is a battle of the exes. James Cameron’s mega-blockbuster Avatar, and Kathryn Bigelow’s haunting war drama The Hurt Locker. As the wags have noted, if Hurt Locker is victorious it will be the Best Picture winner with the lowest ever box office earnings, which to me only heightens the “David vs. Goliath” dynamic of this race. Cameron, with $350 million and the entire Hollywood technocracy at his fingertips, created a visually arresting movie, but one whose narrative is flawed and derivative. Bigelow, on the other hand, created what is perhaps the greatest subversive war film since Robert Altman made M*A*S*H, and she did it for a fraction of the price.

Now some have speculated, including Cameron himself, that the Academy may split the difference by giving Bigelow Director and Cameron Picture. But this is the same Academy that’s still smarting from whips by the critical elite for doing the same thing with Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan. Avatar will win plenty of hardware; this Best Picture’s going in the Locker.

My Pick: The Hurt Locker

Best Director

James Cameron - Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels - Precious
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air

Everyone here is worthy in my opinion, but again it comes down to Cameron and Bigelow. If she wins, Bigelow will have broken one of the thickest glass ceilings in Hollywood. But more importantly, she will have won because her film was a masterpiece of dramatic tension and a study of the psychological effects of war.

My Pick: Kathryn Bigelow

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker

To me, the two leaders of this pack are Colin Firth and Jeremy Renner. Firth’s portrayal of George in A Single Man is a seething cauldron of grief and self-loathing beneath the practiced patient exterior of this 1960s college professor; he thinks his mind’s made up but he learns that there are still surprises in life. Renner meanwhile plays Staff Sgt. William James as a man in love with and loathing of danger. He thinks he’s one thing, counting down the days till he can go home, but once he’s home he realizes he’s become in love with the potential of his own annihilation. Too bad then that after four times at bat, Jeff Bridges is going to come in and collect the run on this one.

My Pick: Jeff Bridges

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds

In an unusually weak slate for this category Chrisoph Waltz stands head and shoulders above everyone else. Waltz’s Col. Landa wasn’t just great villain, but he was a fascinating character no matter the uniform he wears, as well as being the least ideologically motivated Nazi of all time. A wonderful character cast in the Tarantino mould.

My Pick: Christoph Waltz

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia

Few mainstream actresses are as galvanizing in people’s opinions as Sandra Bullock, yet somehow, the Oscars have set her up to be the winner by default. The veterans – Mirren and Streep – will cancel each other out; so to will the two new kids Mulligan and Sidibe. It’s a tough field because no one stands right out in my opinion. So, paradoxically, Bullock will stand alone for her years of service (especially for being a good sport about that whole Speed 2: Cruise Control thing).

My Pick: Sandra Bullock

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz - Nine
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious

It’s a tough call between the ladies of Up in the Air and the Worst Mom Ever from Precious. Farmiga with her natural sultriness and Kendrick as the uptight workaholic in the making both turned in fine performances. However, I’ve got to give the prize to Mo’Nique for her truly earth-shattering portrayal of the title character’s mother, visiting one frightful incident of emotional or physical abuse on her child after another. A 180 degree reversal for the comedienne, and a masterful one at that.

My Pick: Mo’Nique

Best Animated Feature

Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

The animation crop was quite a bounty this year. I think all these films are worthy of consideration but to my mind Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog and Up stand out. Mr. Fox is simply masterful as both a film and a work of art, it’s old school stop motion is so vivid you can touch it. Then again, Up was pure poetry with the beautifully depicted relationship between soulmates Carl and Ellie. Plus there was adventure involving zeppelins, flying houses and talking dogs. As much as my sensibilities detest me to give up the animation Oscar to yet another CG ‘toon, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due.

My Pick: Up

Best Original Screenplay

The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger - Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman
A Serious Man - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Up - Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Thomas McCarthy

What we have here is a five car pile-up, as in I can’t think of a single one of these scripts that’s not worthy enough to win. The Coens are recent winners so maybe not them, and as mush as I would like to see Basterds take this one, I think it more likely that Mark Boal’s Hurt Locker script may be part of an overall sweep by the film. It’s definitely the safe bet.

My Pick: The Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screenplay

District 9 - Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
An Education - Nick Hornby
In the Loop - Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
Precious - Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

I’m afraid this category will depend on the mood of the voters: a more upbeat though timely dramedy (Up in the Air) or a piercing character drama that keeps getting worse for the main character even as things get better (Precious). Then again Jason Reitman has been critically lauded for his past three films, perhaps he’s due for a little love from Oscar, and this category is probably his best shot.

My Pick: Up in the Air - Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

Best Original Song

“Almost There” - Randy Newman (The Princess and the Frog)
“Down in New Orleans” - Randy Newman (The Princess and the Frog)
“Loin de Paname” - Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas (Paris 36)
“Take It All” - Maury Yeston (Nine)
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart”) - T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham (Crazy Heart)

While it’s nice to see Disney dominate this category again, of the five songs nominated I don’t think there’s another that conjures mood better than the theme from Crazy Heart.

My Pick: “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart”) - T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham

Best Visual Effects

Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

In a just world, the film that managed to create Oscar-worthy effects for under $50 million would be more deserving of awards than the one with the limitless credit card. But then again, Avatar would be hollow without its state-of-the-art CG blue people and military vehicles. For pure spectacle, the choice is obvious.

My Pick: Avatar

Best Foreign Language Film

Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophète (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

I always have the toughest time this one, mostly because it’s hard to see all the nominated films. I guess my instinct is leaning towards the one whose trailer I found the creepiest. So the gold goes to Germany.

My Pick: The White Ribbon

Best Documentary Feature

Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

This is a pretty outstanding collection of docs that the Oscars have assembled to nominate this year. I think the top two picks are going to be Burma VJ and The Cove, both of which excel at mixing social activism with compelling and emotional stories. For the bonus prize, The Cove is about animals being slaughtered by mean humans. Plus it has a strong Hollywood connection as former Flipper trainer Roc O’Barry lobbies to undo some of the damage he did on that show as a dolphin trainer. But besides all that, The Cove is easily one of the most emotional documentaries in recent memory; PETA and Mission: Impossible rolled into one powerful message film.

My Pick: The Cove

Written By Adam A. Donaldson