Media Lab Studios Blog

The Road to Individuality Finalist #6

Friday, September 26, 2008 | 1:03 PM

 
The Road to Individuality Challenge
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Venice Boulevard by CJ Johnson

Venice Boulevard

by CJ Johnson

Two actors down on their luck and one brilliant filmmaker are three best friends trying to make their first film together. "Venice Boulevard" focuses on these best friends as they try to make their first independent film in Hollywood. "Venice Boulevard" introduces these three best friends as they explore their highs and lows.

CJ Johnson
CJ Johnson

CJ Johnson is best known for becoming a voice for young adults with his news articles reflecting teenage life on the island, Kwajalein. Johnson graduated with an AA and BA of Science in Video Production from The Art Institute of California in Los Angeles. Currently, Johnson and his production banner known as IP Films are promoting their shorts and shooting music videos.

 

13 Comments

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Although Mr. Johnson has a presence onscreen, and I enjoy his not-so-subtle critique of race in the entertainment industry, force of personality alone is not enough to make a great film. Where is the story here? All I see is a collection of soundbites that doesn't comment so much as conform to the soundbite culture that pervades our media today.

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Something is here. I don't know what. But I would like to find out more.

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LOL, this was funny as hell. I can see this as a web series. Nice potential.

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Good flow for the trailer. There's a lot you can do with this. Jaleel Whie, ahaha, good job guys!

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This was a great promo for only 3 minutes long.. I wanna see where they can go with this one

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funny and I'd like to see more!

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Quite a send up! Keep workin' it, guys.

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These guys are funny! I want to see more of them. I want to see how their story unfolds.

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Feels like a composite of several films that have already been made.

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The piece does kind of remind me of Entourage in premise alone. But that's not a bad thing at all. While the pitch is the same, the characters are not, and that's where this has the potential to shine. I'm not sure if I know all three of these characters well enough yet. But I do want to.

The star of the piece is obviously CJ, and I think he has a good presence but I want to get to know Channing and Andre more. Hopefully they can work out a better balance in the following episodes.

From the looks of it, I think this could be the "anti" Entourage. Rather than a group of sexist jerks happizardly living the dream, this seems like a series of bumbling wannabe egomaniacs doing anything to pay the rent. I laughed pretty hard at "funky breath." Good Stuff.

As it stands, it needs some polish and plenty of fine tuning. But that's what the 10 Gs are for right? This has potential. It just needs a good producer to oversee it.

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Very funny and very well done. Made me laugh out loud. Would like to see this idea expanded with more information about the characters. Has the potential to go in many different directions.

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I agree that the short tends to borrow from the show Entourage, but maybe this is the director's intention.
Perhaps taking a pre-exsisting concept of something that is widely popular and updating it to include another dynamic (race, note that all characters are African-American) could lead to an entirely different set of ideas and scenarios. The short itself was hilarious (who knew CJ could rap?), and the trailer did a good job of presenting the characters and plot behind the show without giving too much away.
I agree the story could use some tweeks, mainly to emphaize the characters indivuality and to further make the show unique. However how can somebody really develop a story fully in the span of 3:00 mins??
Furthermore, I disagree with Dasheed on the notion that "force of" personality alone is not enough to make a great film. After all pesonality is what gives us our individuality, and in doing so enables some actors / directors to better express their ideas and showmanship, in a way that is conducive to affecting the emotions of a wider variety of people. In short it was funny and very entertaining and I would like to see what happens in the life of these fellas.

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Decided to watch all of them over again, I am a big fan of web series and how they are created. Overall I still feel that this series has a better production and acting value over the others...I want to see more of this becuase not only is it funny, but it seems as if this would be something that could really happen in life. I feel its about behaving truthfully in imaginary circumstaces, and these guys have it all down...

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