Feature & a short – Details, episodes & analysis

Episode #44 - Welcome to the fifth Fresh Air Award! Four cinephiles continue a Fourwind Films tradition of awarding a film that pushed cinema forward the most as an artform during a particular decade. To be nominated, a motion picture has to have advanced cinema in some way and made a lasting impression on how movies are made. This episode delves into the decade that saw the first full decade with sound becoming mainstream in film and the introduction the Technicolor three color process, 1930-1939. To start the episode, our host, Justin Joseph Hall goes through a quick history lesson on what was happening in cinema business and technology in the decade. The four cinephiles who select the nominees in this panel are cinephiles Elizabeth Chatelain, Justin Joseph Hall, John Robert Hammerer and Kevin Hinman. Any moving images that came out in the appropriate decade is eligible for nomination. Nominations spanned documentaries, shorts, animated films, and feature films. They featured cinema with thoughtful use of sound design, the first feature animation, films with the Technicolor three color process, the template for romantic comedies, and maybe the most famous film of all-time. Here is the link to all the nominations: 1930’s Fresh Air Award Nominees - Letterboxd list There were several overlaps, but here are the main nominations made by each panelist: Elizabeth Chatelain nominees Rules of the Game (1939) M (1931) Colour Box (1935) Sisters of the Gion (1936) It Happened One Night (1934) Justin Joseph Hall nominees The Wizard of Oz (1939) Gone with the Wind (1939) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) Land Without Bread (1933) Lampião, o Rei do Cangaço (1937) John Robert Hammerer nominees Duck Soup (1933 ) Freaks (1932) Porky in Wackyland (1938) Rules of the Game (1939) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) Kevin Hinman nominees M (1931) Flowers and Trees (1932) King Kong (1933) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) The Wizard of Oz (1939) To find the 1930’s Fresh Air Award winner click on this link! We hope you enjoy this episode! Share with us your own lists, comments, arguments, and films that we left out via social media @fourwindfilms. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Thanks for listening, Season 8 to come shortly! Thank you to our cinephiles who did joined this out of their passion. To hear more from them, visit links below: Elizabeth Chatelain Quatre-Vents Post-Production Movie Directing & Writing Justin Joseph Hall Quatre-Vents Post-Production Fourwind Films John Robert Hammerer Director's site Kevin Hinman Magnum Opus Spesh to Death Credits for podcast: Production Company - Fourwind Films Fresh Air Award Contributors for 1900s Decade - Elizabeth Chatelain, Tracey Goessel, Justin Joseph Hall, & Kevin Hinman Host - Justin Joseph Hall Editor - Billie Jo Laitinen Sound Mixer - Hans Bilger The theme song of Season 6 is New Tires by Silent Partner. Additional Music - The Beat Goes On by Backyard Wrestling & As the Stars Turn by Pandelion.

Episode #43 - Riki McManus began with her own talk show on KQRS Radio in Minneapolis while still in high school. She went on to the commercial industry in Minneapolis as On Camera and Voice Over Talent. McManus continued as an agent and then became the Director of Plaza Three Model and Talent Agency. She opened the first casting company in Minnesota, where Purple Rain was the first feature she casted. Since then, she has cast approximately 20 feature films. She won a Clio Award for a self-promotion piece she did with The Fallon Agency in Minneapolis for her company. Our screening took place at the Minnesota Discovery Center the largest museum the largest museum complex in Minnesota outside the Twin Cities. For her short, Riki brought Rated Directed by John Fortson with his directorial debut that won 14 Best Short FIlm Awards at Festivals. We have to say our audience would have given it award as well. The subject matter of the film is so relevant in our technilogical world, it’s a short about social media commenting how kind we are in our society. We had The Rustic Pig pack a school lunch for each of our audience members to enjoy during the screening. The feature Riki brought to screen was Purple Rain, which was not only Prince’s debut feature, but also the first feature Riki worked on as well. She tells stories of when she met Prince, the difficulties in casting the film, and experiencing one of Prince’s famous free concerts. So check this out and don’t forget to drink some champagne and celebrate Prince as we did on this very memorable night at the Minnesota Discovery Center. Credits: Host - Justin Joseph Hall Production & Event Space - Minnesota Discovery Center Food - The Rustic Pig Post-Production - Quatre-Vents Editor - Billie Jo Laitinen Sound Mixer - Hans Bilger Production Assistant - Elizabeth Chatelain Production Company - Fourwind Films The theme song of Season 7 is New Tires by Silent Partner.

Episode #34 - Justin Joseph Hall love sifting through mounts of footage to carve out the most interesting aspects of what he discovers in a short amount of time. Today he honors Downtown Community Television where he learned to cut their style of vérité footage by showing his favorite movies they’ve made.

Episode #33 - Ilaria Polsonetti is an Emmy nominated Editor of documentary films. She creates smooth edits in her edits and enjoys creativity in her work. She is kind and collaborative in her process which she goes through today in our episode. Ilaria brought the New York Times OpDoc Dulce. It’s an ideal documentary for Ilaria that has patience, fantastic locations and subjects, and great sound. It’s an example of the documentaries she would always love to work on in a Direct Cinema style slice of life. The feature Ilaria chose is VICE’s Black South Rising: Inside Charlotte's Mostly Black and Brown Government. Ilaria and her VICE team put together the time after the killing of Keith Lamont Scott by the police in Charlotte, North Carolina documenting the change in the government as more people of color ran for office. It was an emotional screening that shows what it is like when new people take place of old governments. Learn more about Ilaria Polsonetti and her work on her website. In the forecast to look forward to please check out host Justin Joseph Hall on With Nothing to Say chatting about his entry into film and how he shaped his career.

Episode #32 - Meet Rebecca Stern, a producer, and director of documentary films. She has absolutely soared in her career since one of her first jobs as a Production Coordinator on the Oscar-nominated feature documentary Cartel Land. Her directorial debut Well Groomed is now streaming on HBO. Rebecca is open, humble, and just a delight to be around. Our appointed contributors for Feature & a short are asked to choose one short and one feature, and they have to have been involved with one of them but not the other. Rebecca brings the sleeper success Snowy. This documentary short is about a pet turtle named Snowy whose owners embark on a journey to find what would make him happy. We have a discussion about funding short films, and what Rebeca thinks needs to evolve about that process. The feature is The Thin Blue Line, a film Rebecca had never seen - though she has worked on films about the legal system and incarceration in the US.

Episode #31 - Welcome to another COVID Feature & a Short episode: Mastering File Differences. In this workflow process share, Director/Editor Justin Joseph Hall explains how to export the proper master file for your archives or for delivery. This is important in order to future-proof your final file and what you’ve invested all of your time and your money into. Justin shares how to preserve the best possible quality for your project’s posterity by covering: equipment, creating a master file for a short film versus for a feature, high resolution, why you should avoid letterboxing, suggestions for finishing codec (not H.264!), JPEGS, for example, JPEG 200 files or Targa files for animation, incorporating audio and graphics into your master file, subtitles (don’t include them), and file labeling.

Episode #30 - 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.

Episode #29 - 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.

Episode #28 - 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. Prologue is a multiple award-winning short film charged with secrets and terrible communication skills. It follows Julie, a young Italian immigrant living in Northern California who is perfectly happy in her marriage until she stops being able to go along with what her husband wants. With the unexpected help of an elderly stranger who thinks Julie is someone she is not, the young newlywed navigates how to live her truth. Starring - Claudia de Candia, Shawn Thomas Diefenbach, Shirley Venard, Ariel Woodiwiss Screenwriter - Piper Werle Assistant Director - Kate Branom Assistant Producer, Set Photographer - Daria Huxley Producer - Ricky Rosario Cinematographer - Gary Jaquez Director, Editor, Colorist - Justin Joseph Hall Justin Joseph Hall is an award-winning, multilingual Director and founder of Fourwind Films and Quatre-Vents.  His work has been acquired by major television networks such as HBO and he’s worked as a lead creative on projects that received awards at The Emmys, TriBeCa Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, and more. His many years in the industry allowed him to guide audiences through unforgettable thought and emotional experiences working primarily as a Director and Editor.  He has held positions as Editor for networks such as HBO, NBCUniversal, and PBS.  At Downtown Community Television he helped pitch and develop the show Axios (2018-2021), the Emmy-winning documentary series.  Abuela’s Luck (2018) was picked up by all HBO’s streaming platforms and slated to be adapted into a full-length feature movie.   His mastery of post-production and the visual arts has awarded him opportunities to work with Major League Baseball, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, National Geographic, Discovery, and BMW, to name a few. Justin’s work as a Director has procured awards.  Prologue (2020) is a superb, surreal exploration of relationships and miscommunication winning Best of Awards at Manhattan Film Festival and Worldfest Houston International Film Festival.  His docu-series on creative careers, Artist & the City (2021) won 6 awards including the Audience Award for Best Series at YoFiFest. Justin believes in two things: diverse perspectives help solve complex problems and that first rate execution of an idea matters more than the idea itself.  That’s why since he hit the ground running into his career in 2008 and he has directed and managed a talented workforce from New York to Paris to Tokyo.   Since 2014 under Justin’s direction, Fourwind Films creates high fidelity media exploring statistically underrepresented perspectives.  It’s sister company, Quatre-Vents was created in 2022 to help create a greater Episode #29 - Post-Production industry in his home state of Minnesota.  He disrupts the redundant motion picture industry with relevant, fresh perspectives, including his own.

Episode #27 - 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 justinjosephhall@fourwindfilms.com or check out Fourwind’s blog page for helpful tips in creating media.