BYU-TV's First Look series

BYU-TV's First Look series is a weekly show that showcases student films in an effort to get them more recognition. The show usually showcases 2 or 3 student films and contains clips from each movie as well as interviews with the filmmakers. I really enjoyed watching this because I have never really had the opportunity to see all the work that goes into making a movie. I could assume it takes a lot of work, but I never really saw the actual process.

For instance, I liked how they showed pre-production and how they have different people in charge of art, story boards, locations, camera, etc.

The first film on this episode was called 285: The Movie. This film I didn't really get. It was basically a film about a film class making a film. The interviewer once asked the filmmakers how it was received at BYU's Final Cut Student Film Festival and they said that not many people there got it either. The interviewer then remarked that perhaps it was "so inside that nobody outside got it." I think that's so true. I felt like one of those "outsiders" and I just didn't get the movie. However, I believe the First Look series did their job in at least getting the film seen. I most likely would never have given this movie a chance had I just watched it without any commentary. The interview and the way they explained certain portions of the movie and the effects they were trying to get got me emotionally invested in the film and kept me watching.

The second student production on this episode was called "Hoagie's." I thought this film had a lot of potential. At the beginning of the interview the filmmaker summarizes the movie and how he thought of the idea. It's based on a website called www.ncmo.com, where people can get on and sign up to meet with someone of the opposite sex at a certain time and place for a...well, you can guess fromt the title. He then says the premise of the movie is to show just what some people are getting themselves into when they sign up for these things. You could get matched up with someone that's...well...repulsive. I became really excited; I thought it would be so funny. However, as I watched the movie I felt like I was watching an amatuer FHE video. Anyone could have made that film. It wasn't extremely clever either. I was a little upset that the filmmaker ruined that much potential.

Overall I think the First Look series put on by BYU is a positive thing for up and coming filmmakers because it gets their films out in the general public, and the commentary gets viewers emotionally invested which keeps them watching.

Missionary Films

Watching God's Army and The Best Two Years in the same night enabled me to see differences that I otherwise might not have seen. These two movies are completely different in their portrayal of missionary life and it made me really think about how I think it should be depicted on screen.

Having never served a mission maybe I'm in no position to judge a films portrayal of it, but I felt like in God's Army they were straining to show every single bad situation a missionary could find himself/herself in. I didn't feel like God's Army was inspirational at all. Sure there were certain isolated inspirational moments and lessons to be learned in the movie. For instance when the senior missionary rips into the missionary who is reading anti-Mormon literature and planting doubt in the greenie. I found myself cheering, "Yah! You tell him! Read OUR stuff for a change!" And when the senior missionary told the greenie that he could choose whether or not he really wanted to believe, and that while he could teach him the rules and what to say, "what gets you up in the morning, talking to strangers, I can't teach you that. That you have to learn on your own." And the story of Benny being healed and then baptized was very touching. However, while these incidents were inspirational, I felt like they were just trying to hold their head above water in a sea of doubt, despair and negativity. I felt like the non-inspirational aspects of the movie overshadowed the inspirational ones. Now, I realize that for a movie to sell it needs a certain dramatic effect, an effect you probably won't capture if you stick to solely the mundane tasks of every day missionary life, however I do wonder how much of and what kind of drama we need. I thought The Best Two Years captured the same rigors of mission life without all the doubting, negativity and sadness.

I felt like The Best Two Years was truly an inspirational story. The part where the wayward, lazy missionary finally realizes that he really does have a testimony was so touching. And I love how they showed that a hard working, even if naive, greenie can change the lives of those around him. I also really liked how they demonstrated that office, status, and numbers isn't everything in life or on in the mission field.

In other words, I think both films have their good points, however if I were to choose which one I would want my 18 year old soon-to-be-missionary to see, I think I would choose The Best Two Years. I agree that you don't want to give future missionaries the impression that missions are a piece of cake and they'll never have any problems, but you still want a mission to be seen as a positive thing rather than a trial of faith in every case.