Froshlife 2007

All of this year's movies have been uploaded to Duke's iTunes U page in the iTunes Store. Navigate to it through iTunes, or click here to open it automagically. Now you can carry your Froshlife movies on your iPod or iPhone wherever you go.

Also, Duke has just launched its own new application for the iPod Touch and iPhone, DukeMobile. Right now, DukeMobile has maps, directories, campus events (from the student calendar and Events@Duke), up-to-date Sports news, course catalog, and more. But most importantly, it has all of this year's Froshlife Movies as well. If you want to download this app on your iPod Touch or iPhone, search DukeMobile in the App Store, or visit this link (opens iTunes).

As many of you may have found over the last week, we've had some issues with our web servers over here and the site has been down intermittently. We are now back up and functional and you can watch all this years' movies to your heart's content.

Yesterday, Duke's online newsletter published a story covering the Froshlife Festival this past weekend. Their story "The Award goes to 'This is Crazie'" is now featured on the front page of Duke Today. Check it out!

Well the Premiere is all said and done, and here are your winners from this years successful Froshlife competition:

Congrats to our First Place Dorm : Aycock - This is Crazie

Congrats to our Runner up : Wilson - Common Room

Best Actor: Kyle Glackin (Giles)

Best Actresses: Danielle Genet and Larissa von Lockner (Bassett)

Best Story: John Kline and Ben Soltoff (GA)

Best Director: Cameron Albin (Pegram)

Best Editors: Arjun Knanna and Insun Chong (Aycock)

Congrats to all the winners and feel free to check out all the movies here.

The 2009 movies are now available online! Just click 2009 in the left navigation bar or click here to check out all the movies screened tonight at the Premiere!

Unfortunately, due to the increasingly bad weather tonight, our webcasting guru won't be able to make it tonight to host the webcast. We're terribly sorry for this; we had all been looking forward to being able to broadcast this event to friends and family. If you want to keep up with who the show, we will be twittering the event over at www.twitter.com/froshlife. So feel free to check in there for updates and winners as they come.

I just wanted to drop a quick line to everyone and mention that you should plan on coming to the Premiere this weeekend a bit early. We will have pre-show entertainment with music and photography and we'll be starting our live webcast prior to the show to catch all the action on the red carpet. So don't forget to grab your roommate, shine your shoes, pull out that nice dress, and be there EARLY for the best seats in the house on Sunday night at Richard White Lecture Hall.

Also, don't forget to tell your family and friends far and wide to tune into our live webcast starting around 7:30 on Sunday night.

Now that all the movies are in and ready to go, the next big event is the Big Event itself - the Froshlife Premiere. We have left no detail or decoration behind this year. The event will be complete with red carpets, studio lighting, and balloon towers, entertainment before the show by WXDU, and during the show by Duke University Improv, and a guest list to rival the Oscars. So be sure to shine your shoes and don your finest for the paparazzi on the red carpet because, who knows, you may be up on stage at the end of the night giving your acceptance speech!

This year, the Froshlife Premiere will be webcasted across the inter-tubes to all corners of cyberspace for all of your friends back home or at other colleges and families to enjoy. So come back here on Sunday night, and starting around 7 or so, we'll be livecasting the event at http://live.oit.duke.edu/froshlife. They can click that link or just click the big image below. Make sure you tell all your friends and family so they can witness the world premiere of the Froshlife movies and hopefully get to see you collect your awesome prizes and glory.

Well the films are all in and now it's time for the waiting game. Yesterday the Froshlife Planning Team screened all of your movies and picked the individual winners from the group. There are some really creative and well-done movies this year. Topics ranged from electoral politics to roommate disagreements, from asking Who is a Duke Student to what is a Crazie?, from bad days to awkward encounters, from discussing perfection to achieving it on the big screen. What tied them all together though was how they were able to each shine light on a particular, real, and raw aspect of what it's like to be a Freshman here at Duke. So nice job Froshlifers, and we'll see you all on Sunday.

Well it's been a quick 18 days for the team since we've last seen you guys, and no doubt a quicker 18 days for you guys. But today is the final day of production, and in no time, the movies will have to start trickling in.

So wrap up that final edit and export your movie to quicktime (full quality). Then bring all of your equipment in the box and the tripod (use the enclosed checklist to make sure you have everything) over to the Lilly Library Multimedia Project Studio (room 115) today between noon and four and I'll grab your video off your laptop. Also, if you want to keep your project for your own posterity (which I recommend), you should copy your original project files and your exported movie to your own computer, external hard drive, or burn it on a DVD. All of the laptops will be boxed up and returned to Apple this evening.

If you need help with any of these things - a couple final edit tweaks, exporting your movie, or copying your files to another computer - come by the lab EARLY! I need to have exported movies and all equipment in my hands by 4 pm, so don't come at 3:30 with a couple edits left to do and no exported movie. It can take quite a bit of time to do that final export, so please give yourself ample time. Also remember to bring consent forms for anyone intentionally included in your film. Extra forms are available here.

Then, finally, you can sit back, relax, and catch up on that Chem assignment you've been putting off for two weeks while we prepare for the big Premiere night on Sunday, March 1, at 8:30. I'll send more info your way about that later this week.

Congrats everyone!! See you this afternoon. Feel free to email me with any questions.

Just wanted to drop a note with a friendly reminder that this is the final weekend of production! Man that goes quick. So no matter if you are just putting the finishing touches on your completed masterpiece, or if you've been using that equipment box as a makeshift pizza table, these are the final days, so make 'em count. Many an impressive Froshlife movie has been created in the waning days of the production period, so don't worry if you haven't started yet (but start now!).

And remember this weekend when you're enjoying the Oscars that your Premiere night is just 9 days away, complete with all the red carpet and paparazzi to rival Los Angeles. Good Luck everyone!

Hey Froshlife-ers,
Hope the movies are going well! I'm sure by this point you've story-boarded, rehearsed, filmed, and edited most of your project and are totally prepared for that deadline leisurely approaching next week.

Or maybe right now all you've got are some potential participants, a mysterious box of equipment that you've been using as a footrest for the last two weeks, and a kind-of-sort-of-maybe idea of what your movie is going to actually be about.

Not that I speak from personal experience or anything like that.

But wherever you fall on this spectrum of organized time, this is going to be an awesome week. Nothing is crazier or more rewarding than watching your movie come together under pressure. Believe me, it's all worth it in the end.

In the meantime, here are a couple of tips to get you through the final week:

• There's no copyright on an idea--if you're still looking for ideas, browse the froshlife website and watch some of the past winners. I'm not telling you to steal a concept someone else already used, but just seeing the wide variety of genres and topics (drama, music video, documentary, film noir, cartoon, comedy, spoof, etc) that people have pursued in the past may spark some good ideas. In Wilson last year for instance, we saw that there had been several froshlifes made as parodies. So we took this idea and transformed it by making every scene in our movie a spoof of a different famous film/TV show (a karate fight scene, a silent film duel, a Rocky victory lap, an Easy Rider motorcycle ride?you get the picture).
• Be creative, but don't go overboard--Remember that this is a 3-week long competition (and that we're now in week 3). Your movie can't be everything. Last year I ended up cutting scenes from my movie because I realized they just weren't feasible to film and edit in the time I had. There's a lot you can do with a simple concept, and if you try to do more you may just end up confusing your viewer and yourself.
• Editing takes time--if you've never edited video before, you might expect that it will be fairly quick to throw your project together once everything is filmed, but this is rarely the case. It takes a staggering amount of time to assemble all the elements of a film (different shots, music, titles, etc) so that the whole thing is organized and has a good flow to it. Expect to devote several hours to this part of the process, even several days. I would guess that between myself and my co-editor we devoted about 20 hours to the editing of our 8-minute film. Part of that was that we were having too much fun to be totally efficient, but it's also just a really time-devouring activity.

And of course, enjoy yourself. After all, this isn't just about the sweet flip-video cameras you get if you win (although they certainly don't hurt).

Good luck!
-Ryan Brown
Wilson 2011

P.S. Feel free to contact me with any questions: rlb30@duke.edu

All of the equipment, along with your team's destiny, is not in your hands. It's now up to you in the next 12 days to put together your Froshlife masterpiece.

If you were unable to attend the kickoff last week, you can still participate. Just contact the team leader from your dorm, listed below, and find out what you can do to help. Teams need everything from videographers to storywriters to actors and actresses to moral support, so even if you've never made a movie before, now is your chance to get involved.

Here's the list of Team Leaders from Each dorm (apologies if I get your name wrong here, I'm trying to decipher some tough handwriting here :)

• Gilbert-Addoms - Ben Soltoff - ben.soltoff@duke.edu
• Alspaugh - Trevor Narayan - tmn7@duke.edu
• Epworth - Danny Lin - lndnny@gmail.com
• Jarvis - Will Dennis - will.dennis@duke.edu
• Aycock - Austin Elliott - ale10@duke.edu
• Giles - Christine Ko - christine.ko@duke.edu
• Brown - Philip Lin - pjl14@duke.edu
• Blackwell - Meng (Amy) Xie - mx5@duke.edu
• Southgate - Keewon (Effie) Kim - kk105@duke.edu
• Wilson - Stephen Zhu - ssz3@duke.edu
• Bassett - Shayna Pekala - sbp16@duke.edu
• Bell Tower - Eric Russman - ear29@duke.edu
• Pegram - Emma Miller - edm6@duke.edu
• Randolph - Sophia Dunworth - sad17@duke.edu

Remember, final movies in quicktime format are due on Monday, February 23 between noon and four in the Multimedia Project Studio in Lilly Library. Good Luck!

I'd like to officially announce a new sponsorship for this year's Froshlife Film Festival. We will be partnering up with Flip Video this year to provide their iconic pocket-sized cameras in this year's equipment kit. Flip has graciously offered us 14 Flip MinoHD cameras, which can shoot up to an hour of HD footage in a form factor that can fit in the palm of your hand.

So this year, for the first time ever, we will be including two cameras in your kit. The normal miniDV camera from the Duke Digital Initiative - good for capturing audio with our external mics, and the new Flip minoHD, which can be used for anything from supplementary shots to incognito filming. You could even film your entire movie with the Flip.

We're really pleased to have this partnership with Flip video and are excited to see what you guys can do with it.

Remember, the Kickoff is Thursday evening between 6 and 8 pm at the Upper East Side of the Marketplace. See you then.

One week from today, one of the best events of your Freshman year will begin. Froshlife kicks off next Thursday, Feb. 5 at 6pm at the Upper East Side of the Marketplace. Take the stairs up by Trinity Cafe and we'll be in the big room upstairs. At the kickoff, you'll be able to connect with other students in your dorm via a signup form, pick up your residence hall's equipment box with all the goodies you'll need for production, visit our experts in the VIP room to pick their brains, and grab a free t-shirt in the process.

So get excited first-years, Froshlife is just around the corner. Did I mention the part about free t-shirts?

In just about one week, the Froshlife competition will kick off.

But what are you going to do with all that great equipment? Come by our Production Workshop, put on by Freewater Productions and Froshlife 2006 winner Shang Gao to find out how to put that equipment to use. They will be discussing (hands-on) ways to maximize your equipment and create a Froshlife masterpiece with nothing more than the equipment that we will provide. Zero budget? No problem, Shang and co. will show you tips for translating your great ideas into great movies.

Froshlife Production Workshop
Monday, February 9, 5pm
The Coffeehouse, Crowell Building (Behind Wilson Dorm)

More information will be provided at the kickoff.

Froshlife has gone all web 2.0.

There are now two new ways for you to get your Froshlife fill. Today we set up a Froshlife page on Facebook, where you can become a fan and grab updates on events or connect with other Froshlife Fans. Also, we are now using Twitter as well. So if you want to get your up to the minute updates on what your humble Froshlife planning team is up to, start following us on Twitter.

Updates will be coming more regularly as we get closer to kickoff...

Welcome back everyone - it's time to start thinking about Froshlife.

With the start of the Fall semester comes the high-gear planning period for this year's Froshlife film festival. Your humble planning team has been hard at work getting everything together for this year's competition, and we've got a couple new twists in the mix for this year. So start brainstorming, because the kickoff is less than three weeks away and you want to hit the ground running.

Remember, the kickoff will take place on Thursday, February 5th between 6 and 8 pm in the Upper East Side of the Marketplace. Just take the stairs next to Trinity Cafe up and join us in the big room. We'll be there handing out all of the equipment each residence hall will need to complete their films. This will consist of a camera, tripod, microphone, Apple laptop, headphones, tapes, and a secret new item to be named soon (check back next week!). Once you have the materials, you'll be on your own until the movies are due on February 23rd. Then, of course, you'll just have to show up at the Premiere, sit back, and enjoy your Froshlife masterpiece.

So get excited class of 2012, Froshlife is right around the corner.

Once again, the talented folks from Sweet and Sour Productions have created a trailer for this year's Froshlife festival. Sweet and Sour started out a couple of years ago as none other than the 2006 Wilson Dorm Froshlife Team. They have spun their Froshlife success into an even more successful production company and are poised to hit the movie industry by storm when they graduate. So without further ado, head over to the Trailer page to check it out!

Reminder! The first night of study breaks is tonight. Check below for your dorm's specific night. Each night we'll be at the commons room of the dorm's listed below. Come by and grab a donut, check out some previous froshlife movies, and sign up to receive reminder emails about future events.

• Mon, Dec 8 - 9-10pm - Aycock, Epworth, Giles, Jarvis, Wilson
• Tues, Dec 9 - 9-10pm - Alspaugh, Basset, Brown, Pegram
• Wed, Dec 10 - 9-10pm - Blackwell, GA, Bell Tower, Randolph, Southgate

The Froshlife team is proud to announce the 2009 Froshlife website. I'll be posting new content up here as we move along throughout this year's competition, so check back regularly for new content. You're welcome to poke around, but if you'd like a quick rundown here goes:

• About: Don't know the first thing about Froshlife? Get the low-down here.
• Rules: We try to make it as open as possible, but everything needs some limits.
• Calendar: Mark down the important dates.
• Resources: Guides, tips and tricks to making your movies.
• FAQ: A list of frequently asked questions and their frequently provided answers.
• '09 Trailer: COMING SOON! Stay Tuned.
• Rewind: Watch all the movies from the previous six years.

The 2009 Study Breaks are coming soon! Drop by your commons room during your residence hall's study breaks for some donuts, some movie-watching, and some Froshlife lore.

• Mon, Dec 8 - 9-10pm - Aycock, Epworth, Giles, Jarvis, Wilson
• Tues, Dec 9 - 9-10pm - Alspaugh, Basset, Brown, Pegram
• Wed, Dec 10 - 9-10pm - Blackwell, GA, Bell Tower, Randolph, Southgate

Get psyched kids - Froshlife is around the corner. The Kickoff event is scheduled for Thursday, February 5th. Come by the Upper East Side of the Marketplace to pick up your equipment box and get started on your Froshlife masterpiece. You'll then have just 18 short days to complete your masterpiece and submit it by 4 pm on Monday, February 23. Then, the anticipation will build until the big 7th annual red carpet Premiere on Sunday, March 1 at 8 pm.

Check out the full calendar here.