Documentaries offer filmmakers a chance to influence opinion and in many cases, bring attention to an overlooked subject. By their very nature, good documentaries can be both controversial and extremely enlightening. This is definitely the case for Davis Guggenheim whose latest film Waiting for Superman hits theaters this weekend.

In Waiting For Superman director Davis Guggenheim reveals how bad American students have fallen behind — among 30 developed countries, U.S. students rank 25th in math and 21st in science.

Waiting For Superman tackles the very real issues currently facing America’s public school system (lack of funding and low graduation percentages, just to name a few) and is sure to get people thinking and debating the topic for months to come.

Thanks to people like Micheal Moore, over the past decade the documentary film has truly become a regular fixture in local theaters – no longer taking second or third billing in some local art house cinema or Sunday matinee.  Now we live in an age where society wants information served in a bowl of multimedia and because of that, documentary films are ready to take an even more prominent place in our lives and theaters.

So while you’re Waiting for Superman check out our picks for the ten of the best documentaries:

1. Fahrenheit 9/11

Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t argue with the numbers Michael Moore puts up at the box office — and this one is probably one of his best and most talked about films. Moore may be known for his liberal views, but he brings some pretty brutal facts to the screen as he digs into the political motivation behind the Iraq war.

Jaw-dropping fact: With a worldwide gross of $222,446,882, it’s the highest grossing documentary of all time. It’s also the most commercially successful documentary or feature film based on the events of 9/11.

2. Religulous

Bill Maher, armed with logic and objective view points, travels the world playing devil’s advocate while discussing world religions and some of their more outlandish beliefs. If you’re a religious fanatic of any faith you might want to skip this one, but if you’re open minded and interested in dissecting some of the strange beliefs various faiths hold close to their hearts, then by all means, hit play.

Jaw-dropping fact: Bill Maher doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.

3. Super Size Me

Man versus food, and food almost wins.

Morgan Spurlock puts his health on the line in an attempt, and rather successful one at that, to reveal the true consequences of America’s fast food diet. This doc follows Morgan on a 30 day mission as he eats only at McDonalds, morning, noon and night. If you consider yourself a fast food connoisseur watch this before your next drive through the the drive thru.

Jaw-dropping fact: You have to walk for seven hours to burn off the calories from a Supersized Coke, Fries and Big Mac. 

4. An Inconvenient Truth

Called by one producer “the clearest explanation of global warming” he had ever seen, this film follows former vice-president Al Gore around the nation as makes his case for global warming. It’s informative, well organized and in places, downright frightening. It’s worth watching regardless of your stance on the vanishing ozone layer.

Jaw-dropping fact: Ice flows are melting and seas are rising at an alarming rate – and if we don’t do something about now we’re all going to be living on Waterworld.

5. Food, Inc.

In Food Inc. Old McDonald uses modernization and Barcode Betsy to make a faster and cheaper hamburger.

This one is not for the faint of heart (or stomach). If you watched Super Size Me and wanted to kick up the queasy meter then throw this one in your movie queue. Troubling facts and extremely disturbing imagery will literally make you sick as you find out how the food business mass produces our groceries. Go into this one assuming you’ll come out a vegetarian – we’re not kidding, it’s that scary.

Jaw-dropping fact: The film’s producer contacted 50 of America’s largest food producers, including Tyson and Smithfield Farms, none of them would allow interviews or let cameras anywhere near their food factories.

6. The Corporation

Looking for more reasons to stick it to the Man? This documentary will make you shake your head in disbelief as it demonstrates there’s no stoop too low for a corporation stand on if it means making a buck. The film follows the rise of “corporations” and why megaliths like Fox News are interested in only one thing – themselves.

Jaw-dropping fact: IBM supplied machines to Hitler that helped him keep track of the millions of Jews he held and ultimately executed in concentration camps during World War II.

7. Who Killed the Electric Car?

Actor and electric car advocate Ed Bagley Jr. makes a plea to save the electric car.

This documentary investigates the birth and death of the electric car….in the 90′s. That’s right, over a decade ago. If you’re looking to get fired up about the automotive industry, especially after GM’s recent bailout, then see this documentary – in it you’ll learn how oil companies afraid of losing trillions of dollars in potential profits encouraged GM to destroy the first generation of mass-produced electric cars.

Jaw-dropping fact: A visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan reveals not only electric cars but also cars that ran on soybeans.

8. Why We Fight

This doc outlines the rise and ongoing cost of maintaining the machine that is the United States military. The documentary explores the idea of American Foreign Policy and why its driven by an appetite for military supremacy. After spending nearly a decade in two wars that were increasingly difficult to define our reasons for being there, this film will certainly make you question what mission they’re talking about when Washington’s politicians say “Mission Accomplished.”

Jaw-dropping fact: Billions of taxpayer dollars go toward maintaining the U.S. military every year.

9. 11th Hour

At one point Leonardo DiCaprio was “King of the World!” as he rode high above the Atlantic on the deck of the Titanic. Times of changed. In this doc, produced and narrated by Leo, finds him trying to save the world by sharing with us both visionary and practical solutions for restoring the ecosystems of our dear Mother Earth.

Jaw-dropping fact: Global warming, mass species extinction, deforestation and damage to our oceans are just a few things we have to be proud of as a civilization.

10. Gimme Shelter

“Who’s fighting and what for?” Mick Jagger addresses the on-edge crowd at Altamont.

This rocking Rolling Stones doc from their 1969 tour captures the intense magic of a live Stones show against the backdrop of the historic and tragic concert at Altamont. No narrator is needed as you are immersed in a movie that gives you a eerie “you are there” feeling. The concert highlights? Great Rolling Stones songs, guest appearances by rock band legends like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and concert security provided by, uh, the Hell’s Angels? This won’t end well… and it doesn’t.

Jaw-dropping fact: A young George Lucas was a cameraman at the show – unfortunately due to a camera malfunction, none of what he shot made the cut.

Have you seen a great documentary that didn’t make the list? Then tell us about it or share with us something you learned from it.

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It doesn’t matter if you’re headed back to high school or college, having a helping hand with a homework assignment can mean a world of difference. That’s why we assembled a list of ten of the best homework helpers. Now you don’t have any excuse to turn in that homework – well, unless the dog ate my homework still qualifies as an excuse – and get cracking on those studies.

10. Sheldon’s Shirts

“I am shocked and honored that my cutting-edge fashion sense has made your list.”

Looking cool while studying is pretty high on the list when starting a new year of school. And who looks cooler than geek extraordinaire Sheldon “Bazinga” Cooper from CBS’s hit comedy The Big Bang Theory? OK, Brad Pitt, George Clooney – lots of people. Still Sheldon’s vintage shirts are all the rage with students and anyone who wants geek fashion cred. Thanks to the folks at Sheldon’s Shirts (who watch each TBBT episode and then track down the shirt maker of, you guessed it, Sheldon’s Shirt) you can order and wear the same T you saw in the episode.

9. Open Culture

Open Culture offer a website and iPhone app that give you free access to a massive media library of educational podcasts. Pick a topic or literary classic in the form of an audio book and before you know you’ll be taking in Mark Twain or a university lecture from a Stanford professor. Need to brush up on a foreign language or review a science lesson? They’ve got those too and all without having to brave the cold to get to the campus library or media center.

8. iStudiez Pro

Need help juggling your assignments? Then iStudiez Pro is for you. The app uses a color-coding system that keeps track of assignments in different classes and will remind you when they’re due. One of the most impressive features is a schedule organizer that has a ton of great options. This award winning app does it all.

7. Aviary

This powerful media editing suite is free online!

Need to crop an image? Edit an audio file? Just need some quick inspiration? Then fire up Photoshop or Logic 9 and – no wait, that software is loaded on your laptop, which you left in your room, and you’re studying in the library – DU’OH! Don’t worry, Aviary offers a full suite of robust media editing software. Just visit Aviary to use Phoenix, a powerful Photoshop-like image editor, it’s one of eight tools, including a music creator that are all free and available online.

6. Twitter Shortcuts

Who can blame you – you’ve got a paper due tomorrow and four chapters of Tolstoy to read by next Thursday – who has time to post a comment on Twitter? You do silly! That is if you’re wise to the ways of using Twitter Keyboard Shortcuts to help make it shorter and sweeter.

5. Free Books

The days of lugging around a textbook are over.

While Free Books isn’t free you will definitely get your $1.99 worth. In fact for less than the price of a paperback you can get access to over 23,000 literary classics right at your fingertips. Search for a book by title or browse through the classics by genre or a collection. The app also allows you the ability to e-mail a copy of the book you’re reading to yourself or download it to an e-reader – so you aren’t constantly straining your eyes using the iPhone. Nice!

4. Discogs

Music is just as much a part of a student’s life as Ramen noodles are. Discogs is a website that will help you discover what album the track your roommate just shared with you and you can’t get out of your head. Like Wikipedia, the site offers user generated content from devout music followers set on setting the record straight.

3. Yelp

If you’ve just moved away from home for college finding your way around can be extremely nerve-racking – and that can certainly take your mind off your studies. Fear not freshman! Yelp is your personal concierge and it will help you find the closest (and best reviewed) pizza joint in your new neighborhood. Reviews are written and submitted by users and a social layer adds neat features like check-ins and a leaderboard.

2. BuddySchool

Need a real helping hand with your homework? BuddySchool will put you in touch with a live online tutor – you just pick the teacher and the time, BuddySchool does the rest. There is a fee but isn’t it worth five to ten dollars to get an A in Latin?

1. Goggle Scholar

You’ve used Google to help with your homework, but have you used Google Scholar? What is Google Scholar you ask? Well to quote the worlds biggest know-it-all, Google, “Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.” Well, that might be pretty helpful with homework…

Did you find these helpers helpful? What did we miss? Any great apps or websites you’re using to help with your homework? Tell us about them!

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Larry “Pinto” Kroger and Kent “Flounder” Dorfman, know what you’re going through. They’re the two guys whose lives were changed forever after living in an Animal House their freshman year. But summer’s over and it’s time to get back to school. We just wish it was like when Rodney Dangerfield went Back To School in the 80s.

“Read? Who has time? I see the movie. I’m in and out in two hours.” Rodney Dangerfield as college freshman Thornton Melon.

Animal House and Back To School are our picks for two movie classics that can give you a glance at life as a freshman. Still, there’s nothing like that “freshman feeling” of heading back to school… Making new friends, showing off new threads, remembering where math class is… Sure, going back to school can be a bit stressful and no one knows this more than future freshman.

This past summer teenagers in Digital Media Academy’s Film Making Summer Camp made this hilarious movie trailer for the film FRESHMAN FRIDAY. It’s a mock-u-mentary about what you might face if you’re heading back to school as a….FRESHMAN.

The chance to write in his new 3 ring binder for the first time was just right around the corner.

All joking aside, film making is a serious business, and if you’re serious about a career in it, Digital Media Academy offers several courses in Digital Film Making – like learning Final Cut Pro or Documentary Filmmaking, DMA’s 2010 Fall/Winter Schedule.

Plus Digital Media Academy offers incredible deals to DMA Alumni and great rates for return enrollment in 2011! Don’t wait, sign up now and take advantage of the DMA Alumni special.

What do you think of our picks for best freshman movies? What DMA courses are you signed up for for Fall/Winter 2010?

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Here at DMAC we love Apple gadgets and can’t wait to get our hands on anything Apple are cooking up. So after living off for months off rumors and speculations fueled by fans and insiders, we were more than ready to hear Apple announce a new line of updated hardware, new services and updated OS’s, and they did just that on Sept. 1.

The event, which Apple held in San Francisco was highly anticipated by Apple followers and techies alike and gave Apple a chance to unveil a new line of iPods and much, much more:

iPod touch

The updated iPod touch is now thinner and features Facetime, Apple’s video calling service.

The focus is on video for the iPod touch, with an improved display of 960 x 640 resolution and built-in video editing software and HD video recording. Capture video on the go and post it to your YouTube channel when you connect with a wireless network.

The coolest feature about the iPod touch though was something most people won’t even think about or physically see – the processor. Apple announced the new touch would use the Apple A4 – the same chip that powers the iPhone 4 and the iPad.

Why is Apple’s A4’s mobile ARM processor so important to Apple’s touch? Well, Apple sold 275 million iPods to date, while 1.5 billion games and entertainment apps have been downloaded the the iPod touch. This announcement and the Game Center feature show Apple is very committed to mobile entertainment (and the touch being a big part of that). It should make handheld game makers Nintendo and Sony think seriously about Apple’s iPods (if they haven’t already) as an heir to their respective DS and PS handheld thrones.

iPod nano

iPod nano’s also got a slick new design and touch screen.

The nano was updated along with the shuffle. The new nano 8GB sells for $149 and the 16GB sells for $179. While the nano has always been cool, the new design and touchscreen really make the device shine.

Apple TV

Use your iPhone as a remote control with Apple TV.

As more consumers move to online or streaming services to get their media, Apple took the chance to revamp their existing Apple TV service. The tiny black box now sells for $99 and supports Netflix streaming. Users can also rent HD movies starting at $3.99 and TV shows form the Apple TV media library for 99 cents. The device also now sports HDMI and optical outputs.

PING

Now you’ll know when Lady GaGa buys that Monkey’s Greatest Hits album.

Apple’s new social music network Ping is integrated into iTunes 10 and it allows you to follow artists and your friends, like Facebook.

IOS 4.1

Apple also announced it’s releasing the eagerly awaited iOS update 4.1 for the iPhone. The update will fix the bugs many users have been experiencing with the last iPhone software update – proximity sensors, sluggish performance, Bluetooth – but also adds new features for the iPhone as well:

- HDR Photos - Apple has added an HDR photography feature to the iPhone’s camera in iOS 4.1 which lets you easily create HDR images. High Dynamic Range Photos combine three exposures to create a single image with a greater amount of detail in the highlights and shadows.

- WiFi HD Video Upload – Now iPhone users can upload HD video from their iPhone without an app using Wi-Fi.

- TV Show Rentals – TV shows have always been available for purchase in iOS devices, but now you can rent them to save a little money and storage space on your device.

- Game Center – Like Microsoft’s XBOX Live, Apple’s Game Center (available soon via the App Store) lets you play friends, inviting them to games, or be matched with other players when your friends aren’t available.

iPad

Apple is also bringing the iOS 4 features to the iPad in November. That includes features like app folders and multitasking, here’s what iPad users can look forward to:

- Wireless Printing. A few third party apps offer the feature but Apple is building print functionality into the iOS itself. The Print Center can be accessed from the multitask drawer and will allow users to choose printers and manage printing wirelessly from the iPad.

- AirPlay. Wireless streaming lets you stream audio, video and photos over a Wi-Fi connection. Along with the new Apple TV you can shift stream between devices, so you could start a movie on you desktop Mac and finish it on your iPad.

And of course all these great devices are compatible with Apple’s current top of the line gear – like iMacs and Macbook Pros. Are you looking for a great deal on Apple hardware? Then check out DMA’s Apple Hardware & Sony Gear Special.

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It’s time to put to rest a media production dinosaur – videotape. Filmmakers have long held onto the dying format, in fact a good percentage of current generation filmmakers and tech educators come from a tape and film background. Many though, have made the switch to digital. Interested in digital HD production? A camera like the Sony NX5U can help get you there. The NX5U can integrate tapeless workflow into your studio or even a classroom.

Using Sony’s amazing NX5U HD tapeless video camera.

Tech educators and filmmakers know how to use Final Cut Pro X and other production tools to cover a lot of material. Film production (like digital media classes), are fast paced environments. From a production standpoint, technical or support issues with non-linear editing systems can serious impact your work. Sony’s NX5U is easy to work with and can help improve your production in several ways:

Saves Time
Processing video captured on mini dv tape has always been time consuming, with digital media the transcoding process is much faster than real time. Adding a tool like Final Cut Pro X can save even more time in logging and transfering video.

No Dropped Frames, No Buying Tape
One of the great features of the high-end NX5U is that the camera happily accepts SDHC cards. The SDHC format is one of the cheapest types of memory on the market and it works flawlessly. No dropped frames while shooting 1080p. The NX5U was also more stable than tape based formats. Plus, we didn’t have to worry about dirty tape heads or buying more tape stock – money saved by not having to buy tape adds up over time. A tapeless, digital workflow even resulted in improved picture quality.

See the results for yourself in this wonderful short film called La Blanc, created by students in Digital Media Academy’s Teen Filmmaking summer camp.

Easy To Use – Even In The Field
To avoid breaks in time code with tape based systems it’s usually discouraged to review footage in the field. With a digital system, it was invaluable to be able to quickly scroll through the index and watch anything shot from the day. This also proved to offer much better results in the videography. For example, if someone is acting in a film and directing as well, this allows them to quickly review the shot. And, if it isn’t up to standards they can quickly re-shoot it.

By going digital you create a more efficient workflow every step of the way – from initial setup, right through to final post production. Of course we couldn’t have done it without the camera, which made the whole process smoother and faster, even for first-timers. The camera even sports GPS and loads of other features. Sony NX5U is quicker and more efficient – and dare we say it, could make you a better filmmaker.

It’s a short film about a boy, a girl and bench.

On Location
The camera was used in Digital Media Academy’s summer filmmaking camps and digital studios. DMA are selling gently used  Sony NX5U‘s for a great price. Want a prosumer level HD camera? Then check out DMA’s great deals on used NX5U & Sony video camera’s.

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