2023: A Film Odyssey

2023:

A Film

Odyssey Spring 2023

Dra wing it in Ad-ding to Cinema

The Cataclysmic Cr itic Setting the Stage

Letter From the Editors

Dear Readers,

The creation of our magazine, 2023: A Film Oddessy, was always talked about everyday deciding what to add to the magazine. We have always talked about something before publishing or adding something to it, and we also gave each other ideas that improved the final work.

Our magazine will be about the major parts of creating a film and releasing it to the public. Cain Darling’s feature is about storyboarding and pre-production, and Quinn Carcasi writes about set design and production. After production, Adrian Resendiz’s story is about advertisements and how advertisers feel. Finally, Morgan Flickinger discusses critics and what they say.

We are proud of the way our magazine is organized and how it has come together, and we are also proud of our teamwork and help towards each other. However, all of our Infographics and feature stories with the elements in it took a lot of time and effort.

Thank you for choosing our magazine to read. We had such a good time creating this magazine and thanks to it, we have made one of the best memories we will ever have in the school year. It was so much fun making the magazine and we hope you have a good time reading it.

Sincerely,

Adrian Resendiz

Morgan Flickinger

Quinn Carcasi

Cain Darling

Cain Darling

By Morgan Flickinger

One of the authors of this magazine is Cain Darling. He is a student of LASA High School As for his role in Ezine, he is writing about the behind the scenes portion of the movie making process, for example the storyboarding aspect of film. Cain’s favorite hobbies are playing instruments, most notably the saxophone. He loves this because, for him, it is fun. Cain wants to be in an orchestra after finishing his academic career here at LASA but no matter what, he hopes to not have to pursue a career in math due to his disdain towards pre-calculus.

Adrian Resendiz

By Cain Darling

Adrian Resendiz hopes that he can achieve great things in Lasa High School. He is the mastermind behind the fine lines of the showing part of our Ezine, which focuses on the advertising and marketing that goes behind a movie. One of his favorite hobbies is playing video games which calms him down and entertains him. He is interested in going to college to get a degree in math or coding. He got a 100% on the Algebra STAAR which is a lot more than what most people can say.

Cover Page Design by Adrain Resendiz

Table of Contents by Morgan Flickinger

Quinn Carcasi

By Adrian Resendiz

Quinn Carcasi, a proud freshman at LASA high school, is a brilliant mind and an amalgamation of video game knowledge. He is currently training in tennis to level up his game. He also took Algebra in 6th grade, which was a bit of a challenge for him., but despite that he wishes to do something in the field of math after graduating. Finally, for the magazine, Quinn is working on the creation of the atmosphere in movies like actors and set design.

Morgan Flickinger

By Quinn Carcasi

Morgan Flickinger is currently attending LASA High school. For the Ezine magazine this year, he is writing about the critics' eyes of the movie, for example how critics look at movies and decide if they are good or not. He is a sophisticated Latin speaker and enjoys playing the trombone. He finds relaxation in running and was a member of the track team. After completing high school, he hopes to do something that relates to psychology.

Photos Courtesy by Cain Darling and Morgan Flickinger

Drawing It In

How Storyboarding Is Used In Movies

By Cain Darling

death splits the table in half with his sickle, revealing Puss in Boots. They exchanged a flurry of blows, pushing the suave cat closer to the wall. Suddenly, everything slows down as the shadowy wolf goes for the killing blow. The villain just barely missed the hero

but a sword was dropped in the process. This iconic scene from the recent Puss in Boots: The Last Wish movie would never have been made without storyboarding.

Anthony Holden, who has storyboarded movies

such as Peabody and Sherman, Mitchells vs the Machines, and Puss in Boots 2, explained Storyboarding is creating a series of drawings that help people see what the movie is going to look like before they shoot the movie.

“You take an idea or

script,” Holden said, “and you do the very first version of what that might look like on screen.”

The first storyboard was made all the way back in the 1930s. At Walt Disney Studios, an animator named Webb Smith had an idea to draw a sequence of images and put them on a board.

“It’s really like the first chance for you to do those rough drawings,” Holden said, “ and see characters on screen interacting with each other and see if you like the camera angles and see if you like the way that the action flows,” Jim Byrkit, a storyboard artist and director, has worked on many films including the original Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, Rango, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Some storyboards have more details than others, he explained, depending on the

needs of the director and the film.

“There is no rule about this,” Byrkit said. “They could be stick figure drawings made in ten seconds or extremely detailed.”

Creating a storyboard usually starts by looking at the script or outline given by the director.

“I make sure I understand their point of view, what’s important to them, how detailed they like storyboards. Then I go away and draw,” Byrkit said. “Then I send them in and the director sometimes asks for adjustments once they see them.”

The artist will create images called thumbnails, which are small, quick sketches of the scene. They give a rough idea of what things will look like in a scene. This also includes determining

Storyboard of Movie Poster of the movie “Rango” made in 2011.

Image Courtesy of Jim Byrkit

“And seeing somebody else’s idea and getting inspired by that, I think, is probably one of the coolest parts.”

Anthony Holden, Storyboard Artist

how many thumbnails will be needed for each scene that they are doing.

The artists make more detailed sketches for some of the shots, so they can get a more accurate representation of what the scene should look like.

Revisions that can be given from a team of storyboard artists, a director, a writer, or even other storyboard artists. This helps the storyboard become the best it can be. “Have access to opinions from people who know better than you do,” Holden said, “When you’re making lots of work, you’ll make tons of mistakes, but you’ll learn from your mistakes.”

When a storyboard is finished, it can be used for many different things. One of the biggest things

storyboards are used for is to see how a scene is going to look and to make notes on what it should look like and why it does. Byrkit said, “For complex action scenes, they are crucial so that the director can communicate to the crew what they are trying to create,” Byrkit said. “Stunts, special effects, camera position, action, composition. … All of these are communicated best by storyboards, whether they are quick sketches on a napkin or an elaborate presentation.”

Sometimes storyboarding can be used to convince a director of an idea to add something to the movie like an extra event, prop, or

even character that may be expensive to make.

“You know the producers are going to talk you out of it because that sounds very expensive.”

Byrkit said, “but first you sit with the script and think how that might go.”

A storyboard is a very effective tool in creating media and can be very helpful, according to Holden, who has been storyboarding for studios likeLaika, Sony, and Dreamworks. Holden discovered storyboarding in college.

Jim Byrkit(right) talking to Gore Verbinski, who worked on the 2011 movie Rango

Image Courtesy of Jim Byrkit

Storyboard of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End glacier with notes for details of the storyboard.

Image Courtesy of Jim Byrkit

“I was in a class and somebody was like, oh, you know, it’s kind of like storyboarding,” Holden said. “It’s kind of like drawing like the comic version of the movie.”

Holden said that there are a lot of good parts about being a storyboard artist. However, he said his favorite part of storyboarding is

“Anytime you work in a team with other people.” Holden said, “Somebody’s going to come up with an idea that you just didn’t think of and probably you never could have thought of.”

Holden said that if somebody wants to become a storyboard artist, they should make storyboards.

“If you want to get good at basketball, you could either

read a bunch of books about basketball, or you could go out and shoot basketballs, right?” Holden said. “And it’s kind of the same in storyboarding.”

Holden said that if someone don’t know where to start, they could do a reverse storyboard, “Where you take the movie, and you look at it, and you draw like a storyboard sketch of the thing,” Holden said.

Holden said someone can make a reverse storyboard of any genre. A reverse storyboard is where someone looks at an already existing movie scene and make a storyboard for it.

“Some people like action movies, some people like drama, some people like romance, some people like comedy,”

Holden said. “It doesn’t really matter what kind of movie or storytelling or whatever you’re into, if you see a scene, and you’re like, That scene was awesome.

Holden’s love of storyboarding really shows in all of the hard work he puts into them and his love for the process and individual parts in making a stroyboard.

“I love the energy where you’re trying new things, trying ideas.” Holden said. “ What if we did it this way? What if we did it that way? And like, you can try it quickly with sketches just to see if it works. I think that stuff is super cool. And is one of the things that makes I think storyboarding a really valuable part of the creative process.”

Poster Image of Tomorrwland movie, a movie that was never finished.

Image Courtesy of Jim Byrkit

TOP FIVE BIGGEST FILMS OF ALL TIME

Graphics By Quinn Carcasi

Why You Should Care

FIlms Featueed on the podium are popular for a reason, these movies are masterpecies in one way or another. Some feature great set design while other feature emotion bringing acting

Without Adjusting For Inlaftion

Avatar - $2.92B

Avengers: Endgame - $2.79B

Avatar: The Way of Water - $2.30B

Titanic - $2.26B

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens - $2.07B

Source: Box Office Mojo

Titanic is based off of people’s stories of the sinking of the mega cruise dubbed the RMS Titanic. In The film two people from different social and economic classes who fall in love aboard the ship doomed voyage.

Highest Grossing Movies (Adjusted For Inflation)

The musical tells the story of Maria, decides whether to become a nun. She falls in love with Captain von Trapp. He is ordered to accept a commission in the German navy, but he dislikes the Nazis.

Gone with the Wind is a film that tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, following her love interest of Ashley Wilkes , who is married to his cousin.

Luke SkyWalker dreams of adventure and a princess. The fate of the galaxy permantly changed when he discovers his powerful connection to a mysterious Force, and races into space to rescue Princess Leia.

It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, named E.T., who is left behind on Earth. Along with his friends and family, Elliott must find a way to help E.T. find his way home.

Introduction Scene to the Christmas Chronicles 2. This is when the kids arrive to the North Pole.

Setting the Stage

The Importance of Set Designers in Great Movies

By Quinn Carcasi

Photo Courtesy of Netlfix

For film production designers, finding their dream job is a lifelong journey, but for production designers, the path is a little more straightforward. Jon Hutman, who was interested in theater which made him want to do production design,said the field combines his love of art and storytelling.

“I had to learn how to do everything from building sets to painting props,” Hutman said. “But it was all worth it when I saw the film come together,”

Hutman’s interest in theater

led him to study set design at college. After graduating, he got a job as an art director on a television show. There he first learned about the art of production design.

“Suddenly, I was an art director, who’s the person under the production designer. And then I got into the Union as an art director,” Hutman said. “But while I was doing these big union shows, I designed, you know, I was doing like music videos, and I designed a little movie called Heather’s, which is the first movie that I ever designed, which I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that movie. But it was a small film that got a lot of attention.”

Hutman enjoyed working on Heathers and put his skills to work in The Christmas Chronicles and The House with Clocks in the Walls. Similarly Bruce Biermann, a retired production designer for Texas Parks and Wildlife, worked on segments, long and short throughout his career, an example his work is “Birding in The Bushlands”, which was a short video interviewing a

birding class.

Biermann’s interest in photography led him to study television production in college. After graduating, he got a job as a production assistant on a television show. There he first learned about the art of production design.

“I had to learn how to work with a small budget and a limited amount of time, but it was a great learning experience,” Biermann said. “I switched. I just started taking classes. And I saw that there was a television production. … By the end of that class, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Set and production designers don’t always find themselves on land, sometimes they delve into the deep and vast ocean. Biermann found himself making longer and more specialty segments like an Aquatic life segment. He also mentioned scuba segments were his favorite type of production to make.

A lot has changed over his career. From new technology to evolving processes. Most of the change is found between the change from analog to digital.

“Nowadays, everything’s digital, your cell phone takes better pictures, and the iPhone takes better pictures than any camera I’ve ever used and you see it instantly,” Bierman said. ”If you don’t

“Whole life experience to bring it to life as a creative story and put it on the string I think would be amazing.”

Bruce Biermann,

Production Designer

like it, you can change it, and that’s a radical change, to be able to have that instantaneous feedback. Sound Recording, of course, now is digital.” The uprising of technology in Biermann and Hutman’s career did not come in the same way. Hutman’s career found himself using computer’s, while Biermann’s came in the form of smaller and more usable technological innovations.

“I got on a computer

when I did little mandate. So that was a long time ago. I mean, that was 35 years ago that I started, very early CAD, and obviously that’s evolved over time,” Hutman said.

The shift towards digital technology has made set designers like Hutman and production designers like Biermann more efficient.

“If you look at it from a production, design point of view,”

Biermann said, “the basic concepts of how you come up with a design that supports the emotional response, meaning all the elements within the story, It’s the same whether it’s theater, a documentary, television, film, they all rely on the same production design elements.”

Just because they have had decades of experience there are still things they desire to do. Biermann found himself after some thought wanting to make another segment

Set designers work with VFX crews in order to make a composite shot.

Photo Courtesy of Netlfix

Park

Set designers decorate houses in order to set a modd of differewnt scenes.

keeper putting out food for birds.

Photo Courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife

Photo Courtesy of Amazon Sutdios

M vie urveys

Graphics by Adrian Resendiz

TheResultsofaSurveyThat Includes69HighSchool Freshmenstudentsresponses

What AreStudents’

What type of movies do students like?

What are the top 5 students’ favorite Movies of 2022?

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

The Batman

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

1 2 3 4 5 Top Gun: Maverick

Avatar: The Way of Water

Would students watch at home or at a movie theatre?

What are students’ favorite movie...

Snack? Drink?

The enterance of the Violet Crown Cinema. It consists of multiple posters and an elevator that are cut from the image.

Courtesy of David Gil

Ad-ding to cinema

The experience of advertisers working in a theatre

ByAdrianResendiz

Marketers in Hollywood want to see what movies could be popular with audiences, and it’s no different in Austin. Javier Ramirez, a director of marketing at Paramount Theatre, says “it’s my job to create marketing plans for all of the shows that come through to make sure that they sell out and the same for our Comedy Festival. … It’s putting together a marketing budget and executing it to make sure we sell as many tickets and dances that we need.”

People in Austin gather

to see new movies to have a good time watching a film they like. Hundreds of movies come out every year, but before those movies get released, they have to get advertised to get the audience hyped up, encouraging the audience to watch the movie once it releases. The advertisers’ role in the movie industry is to bring in the factor they aim for, the audience that spends their money to watch the movie. Movie theaters hire marketers and directors of marketing to achieve this goal and push movies towards audiences.

Ted Low, vice president of brand and marketing, says “I oversee both the brand side, which is called the creative and ad placement side if you will, and then the marketing side, which is called the business intelligence and strategic planning side.”

Many people like their job because there are so many different things to explore and experience in it. Javier Ramirez said that is why he loves his job.

“I think my favorite part about this job is that with so many different types of shows

The interior of the Paramount Theatre Courtesy of Grey Wanderer

coming in like music, comedy, podcasts, and movies,” Ramirez said.

Similarly, Ted Low said that he likes almost everything about his job.

“What don’t I like? I’ve always loved movies and entertainment,” Low said. “I’ve always had an affinity for the entertainment space, and went over to studio movie grill in 2010,” and his favorite part about working in a theater is “in a post pandemic era is really repositioning the brand to take into consideration the competition from streaming”

With the impact of the audience, David Gil, director of marketing and programming at Violet Crown Cinema, said that he enjoys seeing the reaction of the audience towards the movie.

“It’s great to see the reaction, not just with a filmmaker, but the audience itself, who may not otherwise have had an opportunity to see that film if we hadn’t played it,” Gil said. “Really enjoyed doing that when I can find those films, and that really demands to be seen on the big screen with an audience and giving it that opportunity.”

When doing professional work, companies and workers use sites to create their work with quality, and build up skills for them. Low works a lot with many different types of Adobe apps to work professionally.

“I taught myself Adobe Creative Suite, so I can do actual design work myself,”

Low said. “We call it ‘pushing pixels’ So I’ve honed those skills in Adobe Creative Suite, so I’m proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and a little in After Effects. … The biggest thing for me probably was learning the graphic design skills and then website UI UX. At this point, I’ve developed a dozen or so websites or been a part of mapping the customer experience online. So I think those are skills that just come

add his screenplay work and adapt it into marketing. These kinds of instances are similar to Ramirez’s strategy to solve problems.

“It’s a lot of creative problem solving is having to think creatively,” Ramirez said, “and kind of and logically about how to put together plans and strategies to kind of get the most out of an overall goal.”

This means that there are constant problems while working, but people like Ramirez can solve them quickly and plan strategically on what to do next

When it comes to work, there are some easy things that workers can get done quickly. Some of it is Gil watching movies to see if it is worth showing and advertising the film towards audiences.

with experience, not necessarily an understudy.”

Gil started developing skills during filmmaking and implemented that into his marketing work.

“I initially started working on film sets, working in locations and, and casting and that kind of thing, but then I interned with the Austin Film Festival when I was in college,” Gil said. “I worked and I interned with the screenplay department, and I kind of started getting into the marketing aspect in that way. Then when the crowd opened, I had the skills again. It was parted with a love of film.”

Gil said that when he was in the screenplay department, he got introduced to the marketing aspect and discovered that he could

“Watching the movie is probably the easiest thing,” Gil said. “I go to a movie theater, watch the movie, and think about it and see if we want to play it. … Ultimately, We attend trade screenings, which are the screenings that the studio sets up for exhibitors to watch, in advance to see if they’re interested in booking the film.”

Ramirez went to a school to learn about copyright and other things about advertising to help him during his work.

“I feel like for me, taglines and copywriting come pretty quickly,” Ramirez said. “I went to school for a lot of different types of writing, so I feel like I can think of that stuff pretty quickly in my head.”

Low organizes his work for

“We take our job very seriously, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously.”

Javier Ramirez, Director of Marketing

himself and others to get the most done within a day and make it easy to see what to do next.

“My goal is to take things that we’ve been doing and things we have to do every week, and come up with automated ways to get them done, so it requires less manpower,” Low said. “So anytime that we can come up with systems that allow us to either execute more or faster, those are the areas where we look for ease.”

Although with the easy things, there are going to be hard ones as well. Ramirez deals with this by having a lot of deadlines that have to be met.

“I think the difficult part sometimes can be managing a lot of different timely things,” Ramirez said. “With my job because of certain show dates, and everything, there’s a lot of deadlines and since we run a comedy festival and two different venues, there’s a lot of deadlines that fall on the same time. … So sometimes, the more difficult things are just keeping track of everything and making sure everything is executed on time.”

Gil says that watching the movie is easy but going in depth and analyzing it could be challenging.

“Booking a movie, marketing the movie, trying to find an audience for a movie, sometimes can be challenging,” Gil said. “Ultimately, We attend trade screenings, which are the screenings that the studio sets up

for exhibitors to watch, in advance to see if they’re interested in booking the film.”

Low has to deal with all of the different movie companies that also have screenings coming soon and can take away his target audience.

“Probably the most

share a love of cinema and movies, and those kinds of things.”

Low said that people don’t have to take their job too seriously, which is a great way of explaining that people don’t have to push themselves too harshly.

“Take what you’re doing seriously, Don’t take yourself seriously,” Low said.

Like

Low, Ramirez spends a lot of time with his coworkers and has a good relationship with them.

“Thankfully, I’m friends with a lot of my co-workers, so we have a good time at work,” Ramirez said.

challenging thing in the movie business is that there are so many different movies that come out every single weekend,” Low said.

“The goal is not to create some type of bait and switch kind of thing but authentically show up with a product that we think these groups are interested in.”

People like Gil said he wants to see his company grow and is a reason why people take their job seriously, but not too seriously.

“I want to see this company succeed in a big way,” Gil said.

“I do take my job very seriously. I also have fun with it. I enjoy the people I work with. … I’ve worked for 10 years or more and we all have a good time. We laugh and all

“But once again, you have a goal and you have to get there. So, we take our job very seriously, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously.”

These directors of marketing work to push a lot of movies to thousands of people in Austin. They explore different types of movies and are showing them everyday to make a profit for the company and having a good time with their co-workers that are always in contact.

“It’s a really cool job, and what I really love about The Paramount is it exposes you to so many different types of things,” Ramirez said. “It also expands your worldview when you get to talk about things that you’re not too familiar with.”

Javier Ramirez sitting in the auditorium.

Courtesy of Javier Ramirez

Where do People W a tch Their Movies? 20.8%

This is a poll taken by 100 High School Students in Austin, Texas about movies.

Graphics by Cain Darling

Most Watched Streaming Services

Watching movies at home is a lot more convient and cheap for families wanting to watch a movie and not spend a lot of money. A downside of this is that there are a lot more interuptions that could happen at home and that the experience might not be as immersive.

At home

79.2%

The Catalyst Critic

How the internet has shaped film criticism

By Morgan Flickinger

This image shows an empty movie theater. It only shows a portion of the screen.

Photo Coutesy of Christie Guevare

ritics try to inform audiences about film, the internet has done this effortlessly by changing the way people view movies as a whole.

Even if people intend to enter into the profession of film criticism for different reasons they all ultimately enter due to their love of film, according to Eric Webb, film critic for the AustinAmerican Statesman.

“There is so much to write about and so many stories to be told, and the best way I believe to change the world is to write about film,” Webb said.

he decided not to become a filmmaker himself.

the only way I knew how, by writing,” said Baumgarten. Contrary to Baumgarten’s want to change the film industry, Darryl Mansel, a film critic for the North Carolina Film Critic Association, entered into the profession because of his enjoyment of films.

Eric Webb, Film Critic

Over the past few decades, film critics have found themselves facing a complete change in movies they consume, and also movie reviewing as a whole because of the internet. This has forced many film critics to change along with it.

Adam Long, a film critic for the North Carolina Film Critic Association and a correspondent for the podcast Movie Geeks, decided to try his hand at film criticism after

“As I got older, I had thought that maybe I could forge a career ahead in making films,” Long said, “but I started a family and that dream just kind of disappeared. But at the urging of several of my friends, I started writing for a local newspaper, in my hometown, and that kind of got me started.”

Other movie reviewers entered for different reasons such as Marjorie Baumgarten, a film critic for the Austin Chronicle, entered into the film criticism industry due to her disdain for the type of cinema she was witnessing.

“I started to see the film industry slip into something that I thought was not ideal, so I decided to take action

“I love talking about [movies] and how all of the different things weave together to create a story and a narrative,” Mansel said. “I love movies and art. And for me, movies are the combination of a number of art disciplines. It’s the only place that you can find acting as an art form, writing as an art form, carpentry as an art form, in sculpting the sets, costuming, and makeup.”

This diversity in film is what many film critics see in movies, and believe that by criticizing these movies they can better them.

“I believe [film criticism] is important because I believe talking about art is important,” Mansel said. “It’s good to be able to look at something with a critical eye, and break down and evaluate what makes something good or bad, or just fine, or somewhere in the

“There is so much to write about and so many stories to be told, and the best way [we] believe to change the world is to write about film.”

middle.”

Film critics have also entered into the industry simply due to the fact that they love watching movies.

“It is a communal experience, it’s a shared experience,” Long said. “When you’re sharing this communal experience, you feel it. And that’s something you don’t get in these other music and books and things of that nature.”

Much of this idea was shared by other film critics.

“There really is something very special about being in a room with people where everyone is quiet and paying attention to this huge, larger than life thing,” Webb said.

Although these film critics no doubtedly love film to a great extent some feel that the median of film is shifting, and not necessarily for the better.

“I think things are obviously changing,” Webb said. “I think we’re in a transitional time, I think the pandemic kind of just put like a big asterisk on anything.”

Due to this, many people are starting to

use the phrase, “the death of cinema,” a statement that has become increasingly popular on the internet. “The death of cinema” is typically used to describe the recent shift in films that pushes more towards profit and less towards artistic merit, not every film critic agrees.

“While it is a valid claim, many movies are still being made that are

Long agrees with this idea of the death of cinema, but thinks there is another reason as to how the idea of the death of cinema is affecting films.

“I think there’s some validity to that,” Long said. “They’re becoming formulaic.”

While people agree that film is changing, the thing that they are pointing towards for this phenomena is the internet. Many movie reviewers firmly believe that the internet has changed film criticism, most say for the worse.

“The internet has shaped what the internet has done for not just film criticism, but for pretty much the world in general is give a voice to anyone and everyone,” Mansel said, “I don’t think all of those people are very thoughtful or educated.”

exceptional,” Baumgarten said. “It’s just disheartening to see great movies be forced in the shadow of decent ones.”

While this opinion may seem harsh it is certainly rooted in some truth with the internet undeniably allowing for anyone and everyone with the ability to gain a possibly large voice despite their qualifications. “It has shifted film

Adam Long is posing for the camera at the Texas Film Festival. It is not known to invite critics.

Photo courtesy of Adam long.

criticism away from newspapers,” Baumgarten said. “When everyone is able to be a critic, no one really is.”

Baumgarten is not the only film critic to find themselves changing from writing to a print audience to writing for a digital audience. An oversaturation of people being able to very easily review movies, for better or worse, has made it so those that are actually film critics are seen as just another face in the sea of people, despite them being technically more qualified to express these movie reviews. It has allowed for people to basically become film critics with only the press of a button. The easiest way of doing that is through movie reviewing sites such as Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB.

“It seems like people use Rotten Tomatoes. As both their sword and shield,” Mansel said. “They use it and manipulate how they want to use it. And that part’s going back to the internet discourse.”

This use of Rotten Tomatoes has twisted the company’s arm into

something that it did not set out to be. The company is now used to become a near universal sign of whether a movie is good or not.

“[Rotten tomatoes] has caused movies to try and appeal to that audience because they know they will be judged by them,” Baumgarten said. This is certainly true when you compare the numbers. Films that have a higher score are much more likely to convince a family to go to the movies and see that film over another that has a considerably lower rating.

“Family outings might cost you somewhere around,

with popcorn, drinks, and snacks,” 100 bucks to go see a movie,” Mansel said. “Which means it is not something that a family is going to do often, they’re not going to make the trip. So they need some kind of factor or indicator.”

Film critics play a role in the world of art and the vastly changing modern world that we find ourselves in. The role of the film critic has been drawn into question repeatedly and is fiercely defended by movie reviewers. This is due in large part to their love of film and how they hope to better the movies they love so much through criticism. They have faced a drastic change in the films they watch and film criticism as a whole with the rise of the internet, nevertheless film critics, such as Eric Webb, have recovered and intend to do so for as long as possible simply because, “There is so much to write about and so many stories to be told, and the best way I believe to change the world is to write about film,” said Webb.

Adam Long (right) is interveiwing Michelle Yeoh at SXSW. Many filmmakers, actors, and critics attend this film festival.

Photo Courtesty of Adam Long.

GAMES

Special thanks to everyone who took their time to get interviewed

And to everyone who helped us create the magazine, especially Mr. Gracia.

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