Bottom Line: Brent’s ability to develop original character sketches is profound, whether you are looking for a laugh or something deeper he has something for you. Also, the profound amount of work he puts into these sketches should be an inspiration to independent filmmakers everywhere.

Put simply, this is the concept: create fifty unique characters in fifty weeks. Each week, I upload a video of said character. That’s pretty much it. It is intentionally being left extremely open-ended, so there are very few rules (I’m not a big fan of rules). That’s half of the project. The other half is I’ll be blogging about my process (how I create each character, how I’m managing with this project, etc), to shed some light into an actor’s process (which most people don’t know a whole lot about, I think). A video may consist of a monologue, an improv, a scene with one or more people (written or improvised), an interview, a music video, whatever. In the creation of characters, again, I’m leaving it wide open (I may even try an impression or two). There are only three major rules:

1. I am never allowed to half-ass it.
2. I have to fully commit to my choices.
3. I have to do it every week.

Details

Cast: Brent Rose
YouTube Channel: 50 in 50
Website: 50in50
Support the Show: Donate To The Show On Kickstarters

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RSS Feed: Feed
Facebook Page 50in50

Ratings

Style 3

There is a mixed bag of comic and dramatic characters here. The upside is that you’re never bored, you can tell that Brent has significant range and he wants to show that off to you. The downside is that some of the characters drag a little. When I say things like “drag” I usually mean that they are boring, but in this case I simply mean that if you view 4 or 5 videos in a row each one will be dancing to the beat of its own drum. If you are used to a more consistent pacing, this might throw you off. (Pacing 4)

Storytelling 4

Polish 3.5

Each sketch comes in at under ten minutes and each one moves at a pretty fast clip. If anything, you’ll wish that he had more time to expand on some of the funnier characters but that’s only until you fall in love with the next one. (Watchability 4.5)

50 characters, 50 weeks and all of them incredibly different. This is a ride and hands over fist better than most of the YouTube experiments you’ll see floating around the Intertubes. (Novelty 4.5)

Overall Rating: 3.91 out of 5 stars

ABIMBOWE is a playful look at problems of race and immigration. It’s a simple, evocative story written by Alex Montoya. The plot is driven in such a matter of fact way, from Maria’s “revelation” to the climax that I was left smiling throughout. The only thing that could have been improved is that the first time I saw it, it took me a while to realize that Maria’s mother-in-law was actually blind. There are a few seconds near the middle when Maria is helping her into the chair that it’s implied, but a little more clarity there might have helped make the point stronger.

At just over 3 minutes, this is a clever little film well worth investing some time into and deserving of the 60 film festivals it has been selected for internationally.

Creator’s Description

English subbed version of this awarded short film that playfully addresses issues such as racism and immigration.

Written and directed by Alex Montoya.

Cinematography by Jon D. Domínguez.

Featuring Irene Anula and Aurora Villanueva.

Details

Cast: Irene Anula, Aurora Villanueva
Vimeo Channel: ABIMBOWE
Website: Alex Montoya

Ratings

Style 3

Pacing 4

The only issue was that it was never made clear that the mother-in-law is blind. (Storytelling 3.5)

Polish 4

Watchability 3.5

Novelty 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.58 out of 5 stars

Carnival of Cultures is visually stunning look at the 2009 Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin. The problem I usually have with these types of travelogues is that after about 30 seconds you “get the point” and you spend the rest of the video hoping for a Bayplosion to get things moving again. Matzeb manages to avoid this through the judicious use of cuts and a good eye for choosing the clips that move the story forward.

He also keeps it at a reasonable length, I’m sure he had hours of footage to choose from but instead of giving us 20 minutes of the same basic concepts rehashed he makes the hard choices and leaves us with 3:20 of gold.

I also loved the music that he choose, French artist Camille’s “Ta Douleur.” It works better here in this clip than it does in Camille’s actual music video. Don’t believe me?

in every shoot, Matzeb spends almost a minute absolutely fascinated with juggling. I’ll admit it was really interesting to watch the street performer but it felt like there was not enough there to warrant taking up such a large percentage of the film.

Like any video that amounts to shot after shot of people dancing around enjoying themselves you need to be in a certain kind of mood to really appreciate this. If you are fascinated by travel or you were considering taking in the Karneval der Kulturen this is the video to see.

Details

Creator: Matzeb
Vimeo Channel: Carnival of Culture
Shot Using: Lumix GH1

Ratings

Style 3

Pacing 4

You get a sense for it visually but there is a certain lack of context (Storytelling 2)

It’s absolutely brilliantly shot, edited and put together (Polish 5)

Fantastic for a travelogue (Watchability 4)

There is only so much you can do with this sort of footage (Novelty 3)

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars