Flat Sorcerer’s Apprentice

I just read an article about Disney executives not wanting the upcoming Sorcerer’s Apprentice in 3D. Jon Turtletaub, director of the film, says, “We said ‘This is a perfect 3D movie,’ And they said, ‘Oh, that’s silly. No one’s doing 3D. And it’s a waste of money.’ True story.”

Media around the film is saying that Cameron’s Avatar had not released, and as such, 3-D was not yet popular. That is a giant heap of BOLOGNA!!!!! 3-D films were growing in popularity already, Avatar didn’t do anything to contribute to the field, it just showed that you can make money with a 3-D film, but, guess what, WE ALREADY KNEW THAT!!!!!!! (He screams, while citing The Polar Express, Fly Me To The Moon, G-Force, Spy Kids 3…)

The 3-D TV was being developed before Avatar. It makes me so ridiculously angry that people are contributing the return of 3-D to Avatar, which I believe was extremely overrated. Its visual effects weren’t even that good, the computer animation didn’t have the best textures or lighting, and it looked like a video game. The story wasn’t even original! It had been done forty thousand times before!

This is just puffing up at Cameron’s ego, and that’s why were seeing stuff like the re-release of Avatar in theaters with… (Get this.) an additional, never-before-seen EIGHT MINUTES of footage. The grounds for that, however, are that since Avatar, and I will give it this, more screens are playing 3-D, because of Avatar‘s high-demand, but that was not just Avatar.

In all honesty, I doubt many directors’ take on 3-D, I think the most brilliant 3-D director is John Lasseter. He doesn’t use the technology to shoot bubbles into the audience or make a monster stick its head at a crowd, but he uses the technology to give depth to the scene. That’s how 3-D should be, because no one wants to watch America’s Funniest Videos in 3-D.

Recap – Avatar didn’t do much, but increase screen counts and make a lot of money. Disney executives apparently have not looked at the box office numbers in the last three years. John Lasseter should teach 3-D film-making lessons to everybody else.

So until next time, keep rolling those frames of film! (Unless the movie is Avatar…)

Film Review: Apple of My Eye (2010)

I reported last week about a commercial being shot on the iPhone 4, but a team of film-makers at Majek Pictures have shot and edited a film, entirely on the iPhone 4, and get this, they did it in 48 hours.

Watch, The Apple of My Eye: An iPhone 4 Film, by clicking here (Also check out the behind the scenes.)

Now, my thoughts on the film:

It has some beautiful shots, thumbs up to director and lead cinematographer, Michael Koerbel. I can see Koerbel, with his team at Majek, really pushing the boundaries of what this camera can do, and I think that’s the key here.

The score, composed by Corey Wallace, is a great piece of music, but was not produced on the iPhone, and I think that’s what’s coming next.

Blue Microphones, a leader in microphone innovation, and my brand of choice, already has a wonderful selection of iPod/iPhone microphones, and I know there are already a few audio production apps (I’m not aware of the amount of power iMovie for iPhone has with audio.)

The important thing to consider, when setting out to make an iPhone film, is that iMovie for iPhone is not for special effects, and is rather limited in such things, it is not the most powerful software (Duh, it’s on a cell phone.)

Thumbs up for the film, check it out!

Written By Doug Hanna.

Doug is Frames of Film’s Founder and Resident Film-Making Geek. He creates is own films at BlueSquidProductions.com