Black Hole

At this point in time, I've finally caught up to the present date! Huzzah! Black Hole is another short narrative piece for my film class here at NMU centered around the use of cross-cuts and by far the most challenging and highly successful piece I've done. Currently, this film is being featured in the Student Art Gallery in the Student Union at NMU (if you're in the area, be sure to go check it out in person!) Black Hole tells the story of an actor at the end of his rope after his career fizzled out following his divorce.

CAST
Man--Ross Baughn
Woman--Mariah Rosado
Reporter #1--Meghan Marquardt
Reporter #2--Coop Bicknell
Reporter #3--Amanda Harrington

Mondays Make Me Sad

This semester at NMU I finally get to dive into my major with my first ever college film class. The first project of the class was to create a single action and I chose the action of getting ready for a long day of classes on Monday morning. And also for the first time in Pyxis Films history, I decide to use myself in a film!

Michigan 20/20 scholarship contest

My senior year of high school I entered the Michigan 20/20 video scholarship contest. Submitting a commercial style video about free college education for Michigan students. Out of hundreds of submissions, my video came in 3rd place earning me the $1,000 scholarship presented to me by Senator Vincent Gregory

Official Press release:

Senator Vincent Gregory (D–Southfield) announced today that high school senior Natalie Berger from Ferndale has won Third Place in the #mi2020 Scholarship Competition good for $1,000 towards her college education next year.

“Natalie's video was full of passion and creativity and perfectly captured the excitement of preparing to go to college and the worries students have about how they are going to pay for it,” said Senator Gregory. “Natalie is a prime example of the talent and promise our young people in Michigan and Oakland County have, and I hope her video helps get the attention of my colleagues in Lansing to pass the Michigan 2020 Plan and make a higher education accessible for all Michigan students.”

In the #mi2020 Scholarship Competition, students were asked to submit a short web video that explains the importance of investing in higher education and how the Michigan 2020 Plan to offer free college tuition to all students is the right investment for our state to make. More than 75,000 votes were cast by people across Michigan, and the public's vote in the finals was combined with the votes of a judging panel to determine the winners.

I can't even begin to explain how thankful I am for each and every vote my friends and family and even people who don't know me personally gave to me every day. This scholarship has helped me out so much! 

And the best part is they're doing it again this year and how awesome would it be if one of YOU readers got it? Pretty awesome. 

Go check out http://www.michigan2020.com/how-to-enter to look at all the rules and submission guidelines and even look at the three winning videos from last year including mine! 

Let me know if you enter because I will be sure to promote you and vote for you every day!

Never Let You Go

Never Let You Go marks the third major collaboration of Pyxis Films and Harmonious Productions in July of 2012 and the second narrative piece for Pyxis Films after Madison's List. And a huge, HUGE thanks to Nello's Restaurant in Royal Oak, Michigan for helping us out!

CAST
William--Michael Partyka
Gloria--Samantha Schurg
Beverly--Katie Ackers
Waitress--Samantha Berger

CREW
Director, editor, screenplay, camera--Natalie Berger
Assist. Director, screenplay, makeup--Harmoni Sargent-Copeland
Original Score--Samantha Berger
Makeup--Dianne Schurg
Properties--Mark Berger and Michael Partyka

view full video here.

teaser trailer

The Real Detroit

In April of 2012, I was taking a film class at my high school when we were assigned a documentary project. Together, Marie Perrault, Mia Morey, and I traveled through Detroit camera in hand to see what might happen there, documenting what Detroit was, is, and will be and produced this four part film...

view part one here

view part two here

part three

part four

Ferndale Musical 2012

Ferndale High School put on the musical "Grease" in March of 2012, giving me the task of creating a drive in movie sequence in the stylings of a cheesy 1950s horror film. The dialogue was already given within the show script but the shots and actions were determined by myself and the actors.

Starring
Sheila--Avery Gaden
Scientist--Ross Langley
Hero--Dalton Hann
Beast--Donavan Williams

Directed, edited, and filmed by Natalie Berger

view whole video here


Then, beginning a week or so after casting around January, I started filming the two part documentary "The Real High School Musical", showing how much work really goes into a production from casting all the way until opening night in March.

view part one here.

view part two here.

Fullkominn

Originally filmed in July of 2011, Fullkominn (translating into "Perfect" in Icelandic) features women suffering because of their "imperfections" inspired by Demi Lovato's campaign, "Love is lounder than the pressure to be perfect". Fullkominn is the second collaboration between Pyxis Films and Harmonious Productions. 

Starring

Victoria Mayberry

Kat Diehl

Samantha Berger

Mariah Lieckfelt

Sharie Branch

Crew

concept by Harmoni Sargent-Copeland

filmed and edited by Natalie Berger

watch full video here. 

Madison's List

Summer of 2011 Pyxis Films joined forces with Harmonious Productions to create our first ever short film "Madison's List"

The queen bee of the school (Sarah McElroy) and her boyfriend (Trevor Wilkie) are in for more than they bargained for when bullying an innocent misfit girl (Samantha Schurg) when she decides to seek revenge after meeting a mysterious stranger (Brandon Rosenblatt) in an alley one night...

CAST
Madison---Samantha Schurg
Andrea---Sarah McElroy
Chris---Trevor Wilkie
Alley Man---Brandon Rosenblatt

Clique
Ali Schurg
Jessi Schurg
Mariah Lieckfelt
Stephanie Schurg

Extras
Sierra Onickel
Lydia Salogar
Dianne Schurg


CREW
Directed by Natalie Berger and Harmoni Sargent Copeland
Editor, camera, blood effects---Natalie Berger
Costuming, makeup, casting---Harmoni Sargent Copeland
blood effects--Stephanie Schurg
general crew--Samantha Berger

Check out the full movie! 

promo #1

promo #2

And of course, I can't forget this marvelous blooper reel...

The first videos

Well these couple of videos are certainly a blast from the past! These four are some of the first videos I uploaded to Pyxis Film's current youtube page when it was made in 2011...Check out these oldie but goodies!

This one originally uploaded in March of 2011 documented the final performance of Ferndale High Schools musical "Oklahoma!"

Also uploaded in March of 2011, I started messing around with some of the effects in post production using footage from a CASA dance recital.

In October of 2011, my camera took a field trip with me to Ferndale High School's homecoming dance, the video being featured in The Ferndale 115 online news website

About Pyxis Films

Well ahoy there! Welcome to Pyxis Films!

Choose Pyxis Films for:
-events (parties, weddings, day camps, ect.)
-documentaries and narrative art pieces
-Live stage performances
and much more!

As of right now, Pyxis Films is solely owned and operated by myself since 2009.
Ever since then I've been growing and expanding to bigger and better things, the projects becoming more advanced and well executed every time including periodic upgrades in equipment.

Education
Starting fall 2012, I began working towards my BFA in digital cinema with a double minor in theatre and creative writing and am currently a Sophomore at Northern Michigan University.

Equipment Used
Currently I am editing primarily with imovie '11 but I do try to get my hands Final Cut Pro X from time to time and last year I switched over to using a 2010 HD middle-grade prosumer camera and shotgun microphone for all of my projects. As for graphic design projects, I use Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Rates
Every hour dedicated to filming and editing is roughly $30.00 but prices are negotiable.
I can give an estimate at the beginning of a project to give an idea of how much it will cost.
Rate increases for rush projects. Graphic design projects also run $30.00/hour

Contact
email at pyxisfilms@yahoo.com
or visit my facebook page

Area of Operation
September-April: Marquette, Michigan
May-August: Ferndale, Michigan