The nominees for the 2011 Academy Awards Ceremony were announced this morning at 8:30 am. I’m glad to see Toy Story 3 in the Best Picture category, even though it won’t win. The nominees are as follows:

Best supporting actress: Amy Adams (“The Fighter”), Helena Bonham-Carter (“The King’s Speech”), Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”), Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”), Jacki Weaver (“Animal Kingdom”) 

Best supporting actor: Christian Bale (“The Fighter”), John Hawkes (“Winter’s Bone”), Jeremy Renner (‘The Town”), Mark Ruffalo (“The Kids Are All Right”), Geoffrrey Rush (“The King’s Speech”).

Best actress: Annette Bening (“The Kids Are All Right”), Nicole Kidman (“Rabbit Hole”), Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”), Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”), Michelle Williams (“Blue Valentine”).

Best actor: Javier Bardem (“Biutiful”), Jeff Bridges (“True Grit”), Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”), Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”), James Franco (“127 Hours”)

Best director: Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”), David O. Russell (“The Fighter”), Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”), David Fincher (“The Social Network”), Joel and Ethan Coen (“True Grit”). 

Best original screenplay: “Another Year,” “The Fighter,” “Inception,” “The Kids Are All Right,” “The King’s Speech.”

Best adapted screenplay: “127 Hours,” “Social Network,” “Toy Story 3,” “True Grit,” “Winter’s Bone.”

Best foreign film: “Biutiful,” “Dogtooth,” “In a Better World,” “Incendies,” “Outside the Law.”

Best animated film: “Toy Story 3,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Illusionist.”

Best picture: “Black Swan,” “The Fighter,” “The Social Network,” “The King’s Speech,” “Inception,” “The Kids Are All Right,” “127 Hours,” “Toy Story 3,” “True Grit,” “Winter’s Bone.”

For the full list of nominees, you can check out the 2011 Oscar Nominee Page.

The 2011 Oscar winners will be revealed during the Academy Awards telecast on on ABC on Feb. 27th.

iPhone 4 versus Canon 7D from Take Zero Productions on Vimeo.

I haven’t had time to try it out yet, but people across the web have already started posting their finished projects, some even using the iMovie app to even edit it. To get a better grasp of what this phone can do other than making a call, I thought I would post a few of the recent short films created by people with an iPhone 4.

Here’s one of the first short films created using the iPhone 4. It’s pretty cool how they attached the phone to the sides of miniature trains. There’s an interesting piece at the end about how they made it.

Here’s a short racing documentary shot using the iPhone 4:

Here’s allegedly the first music video filmed using an iPhone 4 for the band Anix. They supposedly filmed it right after pulling the phone out of the box.

Here’s another of the first music videos filmed using an iPhone 4. It was made for the artist known as flakjakt:

Sure, there’s things I’d like to change about it. With every project I wish had a real budget. I wish I could film in all the places I want to film. I wish I could visually create everything that pops into my head, but there’s always restraints and restrictions to working on your own. To not having the best camera in the world or the best lighting or the best editing computer. But you do the best you can with what you have.

Luckily, I’ve learned over the years to be flexible in my approach to filmmaking. Being an improvisor has been helpful as well. I still get stressed, when things don’t work out exactly the way I want it to, but I make myself move forward, striving to figure out a way to work through the problems and create something comparable through a little creativity and ingenuity.

I also like working with talented people.  I’ve worked with Brian Thacker on several films so far and he’s always been flexible to my way of filming. This recent movie has really allowed him to do something different and I’m excited about his performance. I think people will be surprised. 

This is the second film I’ve done with Alena Koch and it’s been a joy working with someone who’s very passionate about her art. Her energy is infectious and her collaboration on this film as well as my last film has been very helpful in how I go about fleshing out the story and characters. She’s been a good soundboard. I look forward to doing more projects with her in the future.

By what I’ve read in the rules for the YouTube contest I should find out tomorrow if I’ve made it as a top 10 finalist in the contest. If I do, then it’s up to the YouTube community to vote on the films. The top 3 voted films can have their movies given to people at the Sundance Film Festival. The top video will allow the director to go to the Sundance Film Festival. At this point it would be nice just to be a finalist, but it would be even nicer to have my film seen by people outside of the confines of NC. Especially, if I can get my foot in the door of Hollywood as a filmmaker.

I guess we’ll see, but all I know is, my passion has grown stronger with each film I’ve done and this most recent entry in my filmography is my favorite so far. It makes me want to make more. It makes me want to create more. It makes me want to dream more.

As long as I surround myself with talented and creative people, I know I can do cinematic wonders. Cross your fingers for me. 

Check it out at the link below:

The Collection

The second film, “The Mummy Returns,” I didn’t like too much. Same film, same Mummy, same story wrapping but adding the 8 year-old son element. Not all the camera mugging in the world by Brendan Fraser could help this film be anything other than a recycled mishmash of the elements they thought worked in the first but with less punch, fun or humor.

Which brings us to this third entry in the “Mummy” franchise, “Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” A bloated mess of a film that is as lifeless as the mummified corpses that fight on-screen. It’s literally a bandaged up mess of xeroxed scenes from all of your favorite Indiana Jones moments with no heart, no soul or no weight to what’s happening. You don’t care about any of the characters. There’s enough plot holes to fit the Great Wall of China through it. Mario Bello(who replaced Rachel Weisz from the first two films) pulls a Kevin Costner with her accent that drifts in and out of British consciousness at certain times. Plus, maybe, it’s due to Fraser’s ageless looks, but his son looks like he’s only 5 years younger than him. Kinda weird.

As much as I hoped this film would be the Indiana Jones film that “Indy 4″ wasn’t, it’s not even in the realm of a good “Mummy” film. I thought Rob Cohen, director of “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story,” could infuse some new scarab beetles of talent into this production, but he’s made it too clean, slick and predictable for its own good. Of course, he’s also the man who brought us “The Fast and the Furious,” “Stealth” and “XXX.”

Even the special effects are hit and miss in parts. The very first major effects scene set the tone deafness of this production with Jet Li’s Emperor Han transforming into a clay terra cotta warrior that looked more like a chocolate metamorphosis of Willy Wonka proportions. Even his terra cotta army counterparts are less than genuine when they show up, because it’s obvious(at least to me) that it’s people in fake clay suits. I can understand trying to save some money on special effects, but this looked like something Roger Corman would throw together to come under budget. Even the CGI mummies came off looking like the undead relatives of the battle droids from Phantom Menace. Missing body part slapstick choreography included.

And again I can’t harp enough on all the Indiana Jones influences found in this film which show the less creative ways to pull off those scenes, characters or items. From people crawling underneath moving vehicles to having to save kidnapped girls in tents to the O’Connells wearing matching brown fedora-type hats, the poorly-executed references are there to show us that we’re watching a movie that can’t have it’s own identity or separate ideas.

Overall, “The Mummy 3″ is a amalgam of recycled ideas with bad dialogue, a scattered story and lackluster acting across the board. If they know what’s good for the franchise, they’ll nail this sarcophagus shut for good before they make another film that’s even more lifeless and boring.