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…)

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

From the title, you may think that I’m referring to a commercial about the iPhone 4. But actually, no.

The big buzz about the iPhone 4 was that it shot in HD (I hated hearing everyone say 720p Full HD, which, in case you don’t know, is an oxymoron.) I immediately thought about how professional and amateur videographers and film-makers could use the phone, but doubted anyone ever would, because its a cell phone.

But, then, a production house, FLF Films, was commissioned to produce a national television commercial. Director, Jerry Dugan, thought “Why not!” and decided to shoot the production with iPhones.

Wow.

I was skeptical, but then I saw the ad.

Watch it here.

This is the first work I’ve seen with the iPhone Steadicam, which actually retails for under $200! Steve Jobs has already convinced me to buy a MacBook Pro, they really need to start failing more, before I buy an iPhone… (And given its major issues, like the yellow screen, I won’t be buying it anytime soon. That would drive me CRAZY.)

The news was released today that Paramount Pictures is the first distributing studio to break 1 Billion dollar domestic gross. The success is being attributed mostly to Iron Man 2, Shrek Forever After, and Shutter Island.

The next major release of  the studio is The Last Airbender, which is sure to put another successful run (at least a successful opening.) on the top of the mountain.

Paramount has released five films this year, the lowest number in the top five. This is also the second fastest reach to the billion dollar mark, in only 175 days. (The fastest studio to ever reach one billion dollars is Paramount of 2008, in 174 days.)

Following The Last Airbender, which hits July first, is Grease Sing-A-Long, which, while has a built in audience, is a limited release. Which might give some other studios a chance to catch up. It seems that Paramount has less releases in the coming months then any of the other top five, but Summit Entertainment (Currently Number Eight) has the advantage of another Twilight film (which I need not remind you, are historically high grossing.)

Who will get the highest gross of 2010? Honestly, I think its anyone’s game (Except for my studio… we don’t really have a chance.) The overall gross for the year is currently 5.247 Billion.

Now for some housekeeping:

First and foremost, now that I have a second author on-board, the tagline From One Film Geek To Another stopped making sense. So I toyed around a bit and came up with Movies, Television, and Film-making for Geeks.

Also, I realized that I need to market the blog a bit more, so I added, just as a first step to the marketing plan, Frames of Film to Twitter and Facebook. If you follow us and like us, I’ll be your friend. (No pun intended.)

Doug Hanna is the founder and chief box office nut of Frames of Film, he is a film-maker under his own brand name, Blue Squid Productions.

One thing I’ve always wanted to for this blog is readers.

No! I’m kidding!

I’ve wanted to add on some more authors, people who could write about other things. Sure, I can write about the technical standpoint of film-making, and industry news, but what about other geeky things.

I am pleased to welcome to the Frames of Film team, Mr. Eric Manning!

Eric will be reporting here about one of his specialties, television!

No news on when Eric will make his first post, but when he does, you’ll know because instead of saying “By Doug Hanna” it’ll say “By Eric Manning” (Brilliant WordPress… Just BRILLIANT!)

This kind of makes me want to market the blog a little more… perhaps we can do a little bit about that whole readers thing…

The end.
What? You want more… okay then, here we go:

The film had some high expectations from me. I’ve been waiting for this film since it was announced nearly a decade ago, and I dreamed of the far-off year of 2011 (Later adjusted to 2010). Yet, while driving to the theater I made the comment “This could be a 90-minute walk cycle and I’d love it.” (In all honesty, I thought about writing part of my review before seeing the movie.)

I had high hopes and the film was twelve million percent better then expected.

Randy Newman signs back on the ticket to round out the trilogy, and man, definently some of his best work. This film better get an Academy Award Nomination for Best Song or Best Score or SOMETHING musical.

The film also featured four songs with vocals, We Belong Together, You’ve Got A Friend In Me, You’ve Got A Friend In Me (para el Buzz Español), and Zu-Zu (Ken’s Theme).

We Belong Together was excellent, and I think triumphs over even the classic You’ve Got A Friend In Me. It was cool to hear Friend in Me in Spanish, and the whole Spanish Buzz thing was very comical.

Moving on, the screenplay, penned by Michael Arndt (author of Little Miss Sunshine‘s screenplay), did not disappoint. One thing that was kind of bothersome was the constant jumping around. The story team presented a slew of different sub-plots, which must of required a crazy outline, but I think Arndt did succeed in tying them all together smoothly.

The characters also had complexities in this one. *Spoiler Alert* The feeling on Woody’s face (And Tom Hanks was genius in his delivery) when Rex comments that Bo Peep was gone. The story team also expanded on the Jessie-Buzz relationship, and actually brought attention to it.

The sequel aspect did not seem forced, something I was worried about. We also meet a torrent of new characters, which really contributed to the universe. One of my favorites was the *ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT – BIG ONE* villain, Lotso Hugging Bear. He looked so cuddly! And I was actually starting to get upset when Woody saved him, I thought “Darn it, he’s gonna turn good… I waited eleven years for a cliché ending?” but the team surprised me yet! Lotso and his “team” held such immense complexities, revealed and expanded upon by the story told by Chuckles the Sad Clown. Big Baby, despite being slightly creepy, had such feeling inside of himself… herself?

Toy Story has been the movie series of my generation, and it came to a close so perfectly. Leaving the theater, I thought two things – 1) Well… its over… it was awesome. 2) When can I see it again? The people in the theater, mostly teenagers, as it was a 9:30 showing, just held a deep respect for the film, I’m so glad the story of Woody and Buzz came to a happy close.

Random fun fact that I couldn’t fit anywhere else in the review – The top of the closing credits were written, I believe, in the same font as the opening credits of Toy Story. Closing it out the way it started out… in multiple ways.

You Can Also Check Out My Review of The Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3-D Double Feature, Click Here!

First – What I’m REALLY excited about, The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time has an official release date! Christmas 2011! I don’t usually go to movies on Christmas, but I already vowed to see this one on opening day. Disney has done a horrible job handling the Muppets, and judging by the names on the ticket, and the news we’ve heard, I think we can start getting optimistic.

Second – Disney Animation has been giving us some glances into Tangled. Honestly, I don’t like watching trailers, because I like going into a movie and being completely surprised. (I actually closed my eyes when the Princess & The Frog trailer came on before UP) From what I’ve seen (I’ve only watched half the trailer, and seen stills.) I notice that the film is going to be beautiful, and Rapunzel is officially the prettiest Disney princess.

I’m excited, now WHO’S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED WITH ME?!!?!

CHROMA-KEY IS HARD!

Really.

Don’t over-simplify it.

I saw myself get really good at it, (Minus fluffy hair.) but while watching a recent video of mine, I saw a horrible effect.

Why?

Because I was overconfident.

Granted – I should NOT beat myself up for it! I JUST watched a movie in which characters had green outlines. In the scene of The Muppet Movie where Kermit and Fozzie dance in the El Sleezo Cafe, THEY HAVE BLUE OUTLINES!!!! There’s a scene in The Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special where the exterior (visible through the window.) has a green splotch in it! These examples are coming from film-makers I adore!

So PLEASE to all of the film-makers reading out there understand this! It is hard! Don’t overestimate yourself, make your preview window LARGE, so you can REALLY see what’s going on! Perhaps I can get it through my skull now.

I’d also like to apologize for linking to my website a lot in this post (I don’t usually do that.)

I didn’t get to watch the event and after reading about I was glad I didn’t.

First– What are the Streamys? Their an internet video award show. (Like Oscars or Emmys) Apparently the Webbys aren’t good enough for some people?

So, last year this event started and it was really great! Honoring these people who make videos for the internet. This year– it sucked.

Read iJustine’s blog post to find out WHY they failed.

This show had corporate sponsors! This is really going to scare off future sponsorships. Not just to the Streamys themselves, but to all internet videos. THAT’S HOW THESE PEOPLE MAKE MONEY.

This doesn’t effect me personally, as much, just because I don’t quarry sponsorships, I create as a business. I don’t need sponsors, I sell DVDs. But as someone who supports internet videos, and is a big fan of the medium, it hurts me. This could of been an awesome event, but they ruined it.

Now– let’s go on to something else– The 2011 Streamy Awards.

The night of the show the executive producers released a statement via blog post. They apologized for the event’s mishaps, but also said “We have learned much from the mistakes of this year and look forward to returning to our roots for next year’s show and to accurately reflect the professionalism, pride, quality and spirit of this amazing community. We want you to feel proud, and we will not give up on making that happen.”

These people are asking us to support them next year. I’m not sure I will. I have an image to keep up with. I work in children’s entertainment, I can’t be promoting an award show that might feature two naked men.

iJustine said, “I know a lot of people’s time and hard work went into this event and I can only hope that if they do this again next year, that it will be completely different.” So it appears she’ll be supporting the show next year, if they (As the kindergarten teacher may say) “promise to behave.”

Rhett McLaughlin (of Rhett & Link) said, “Some of you were probably offended by the content. You know what? We had no idea that it was going to be of that nature. So if we told you to watch it, we did that in ignorance of knowing what it was going to be about. We’ll think twice… or maybe try to predict the future next time, I don’t know.” I’m unsure about what these guys will do next year, but I don’t think they’ll be supporting it.

Shane Dawson (Who was awarded Best Vlogger) said, “i [sic] had a BLAST at the streamys [sic] tonite! [sic] for[sic] those of you that dont [sic] know about it, its[sic] basically the oscars[sic] of the internet. it [sic] was so fun and i [sic] will make a video blog soooon! [sic]…” (Excuse me for all the spoken incorrectly notations, his grammar is atrocious.
So Dawson, who won an award, supports the show. Politics of internetainment… no comment…

It seems that sponsors of the show are remaining silent.

As for me? Better luck next year. I’ll tune in, but won’t blog or tweet about how excited I am until after the show.

But anydoodles, last night I finally saw Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.

The film held a great premise– It’s a sequel to the original Lewis Carroll novels. It  WAS NOT a sequel or remake of Walt Disney’s 1951 adaption of the book. The premise was delivered into a brilliant screenplay by Linda Woolverton (of Beauty & The Beast fame). It was clever, deep, had no holes, and was just an all-around great screenplay.

Then, of course, Danny Elfman brought us a wonderful score. I’m not that big of an Elfman fan, I think a lot of his scores sound similar, but Alice fell slightly out of his usual world, which sounded incredible. (I actually walked out of the theater humming the song Alice Reprise #5, which is a breath-taking piece. The film really sold me on Elfman’s abilities. (Gosh, what’s next? Hans Zimmer?)

We also saw, in my opinion, some of Burton’s best live action directing. The cinematography was genius, and the acting quirks were great.

The actor’s were also wonderful. There were only a few scenes I saw Johnny Depp sinking through the Mad Hatter. Mia Wasikowska held a wonderful performance as Alice, you could see a depth of character in the performance. Depp also held a depth of the Hatter. The Mad Hatter was actually very interesting in this film. He was out there. Really out there. He was half-way in between sanity and insanity, which put forth an interesting aspect, but a screenwriting and performing nightmare.

Another VERY interesting thing was the animation. It could of used slightly better lighting and textures, but was very stunning. The live-action integration was some of the best I’ve seen.

Now here’s the most interesting aspect of the animation– it was beautiful and, of course, was outsourced. But who did they send the animation to? Sony.

I know, that’s odd, especially considering the Sony Feature Animations are getting more and more threatening, but the really weird part was the quality. I think this film might of given Sony the assurance that they could make a high-quality film. I think we’re gonna start seeing more Pixar-like Sony Feature Animations. I’m actually okay with that, I like the Sony Features that I’ve seen (And the Sony Creative Suites practically own me.)

So, I throughly enjoyed the film, and was very glad it didn’t feature the latest Toy Story 3 trailer (I’ve heard it’s very spoiler-y, I was poised to cover my eyes.)