State of the Website: eBook Sales

My book for the 83rd Academy Awards is back in the Top 100 best sellers for movie review and reference guides.  This is the third time the book has jumped into the best sellers in the Kindle store.  When it went to number 1 early this year and stayed there are almost six weeks, I know it was likely because I launched it during the height of Oscar season.  Once the Oscars ended though, it was time to move on and go back to buying review books from Roger Ebert.  Then it went back into the best sellers and I got it excited.  Then it dropped out.  Then it was in and out.  Now it's in again.  I know it will go out, but the fact that it keeps going in means people are recommending the book and people are buying it based on those recommendations.

I don't know who's doing it, but that gives me hope.  See, I'm currently taking pre-orders for my book on the 84th Academy Awards.  Since there were a certain number of people who wanted it in paperback, I figured I'd give Kickstarter one more try for those people.  At the moment, the project has only raised $20, which means a new paperback book is looking unlikely.  But you know what...that doesn't really scare me.  Because since my book is a success in eBook form, that means I have an audience to grow with less overhead cost.  I've found a niche and am exploiting it for all it's worth.  After this Kickstarter project, who knows if I'll even try it again for older books.

I'll just make the books available through online retailers.  I tell you, I've come a long way from reviewing movies on MySpace to publishing books that are starting to bring in a little bit of profit.  I'm pretty exited to see where this will all head in five years.  Also, I've decided as a result of this, that I'm going to shut down my Movie Wizard.com Updates blog and instead use my Oscar blog as the place for my updates.  No use in splitting up the audience if this is where the future of the site is headed.  Speaking of which, I'm going to the theater today to see the last film I need to see for my next book and it will be DONE!  And while I'm not as concerned with it succeeded, if you want to help make at least one more paperback book a reality feel free to do so:

"The Lorax" Is The Best Musical You Didn't See Coming

Thneedville

Despite now being able to say that "The Muppets" finally bagged a Best Song Oscar for a Muppets film, last years pitiful Best Song nomination count was pathetic.  It's not like there weren't any good songs to nominate, the voters of that category just seemed out to lunch or something.  Provided they pull their act together, then chances are one of the catchy songs from "The Lorax" seems like a good early contender for Best Song.  My pick for a likely nomination is "Thneedville" (which you can listen to on Spotify above), but other people have soft spots for "How Bad Can I Be" and "Let it Grow."  As usual we'll just have to wait and see.

Brad & Me: Our MI:4 Aspect Ratio Debate

This scene was stunning in IMAX.  Too bad people seeing it for the first time on BluRay are going to be missing roughly 40% of the image.

I’ve recently been in a little bit of a back-and-forth with director Brad Bird concerning the BluRay release of his film “Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol.”  For those who haven’t read my review, it can be found here.  For those who don’t have time to read it (or simply don’t want to) I’ll let you know that it’s a positive review and I love Brad’s films (does having a Twitter conversation put us on a first name basis?).  He hasn’t made a bad film yet and like all directors I don’t wish him to ever start.  However, I find his choice to release “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” only in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio on BluRay.  No, don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for a full screen release.

The practice of cropping films for TV is a relic of the past and has no place with todays educated movie lovers.  That said, “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” had some scenes shot with IMAX cameras, which is a 1.44:1 aspect ratio.  Obviously if those scenes were to be retained it would look rather…strange, on a TV, because the aspect ratios contrast each other heavily.  So Brad has decided to just keep the whole film in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio.  The problem is that this is going to result in 40% of the picture for these scenes missing.  And it doesn’t need to be this way.  Christopher Nolan shot several scenes of “The Dark Knight” with IMAX cameras and faced the same problem when that film came to BluRay.

His answer was to keep the IMAX scenes, but to crop them SLIGHTLY to a 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  This would keep most of the image as well as the intensity of those scenes.  The same thing was done with “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (at least on the Wal-Mart BluRay) and “TRONL Legacy.”  I think this is an ideal compromise because when a director shoots a scene with an IMAX camera as opposed with a regular camera, there’s usually an effect they’re trying to achieve.  For “TRON: Legacy” the change in aspect ratio (combined with shift to 3D) represented being transformed to another reality.  For “The Dark Knight” it was to emphasize the scope of danger involved in the scenes.

For “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”…alright, I don’t know what the point of that was, but that movie was pretty much noise to me anyway.  For “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” the change in the aspect ratio represented a heightened sense of danger.  Without the ratio change I think some of that sense is going to be lost.  Now, Brad explained this to me:

BradBirdA113 Brad Bird @KevinTRod What I'm saying is that the effect is NOT like seeing it in an IMAX theater, which forces you to sit forward. So I chose 2.40:1

Now, maybe he’s right.  I mean, he’s the director, it’s his film, and he has spent more time with it than anyone else besides possibly Tom Cruise.  I don’t want to undermine him with this post because chances are he knows how his film should look.  That said I’m a lover of film.  I own over 4,000 movies on DVD, BluRay, and BluRay 3D combined.  I can say confidently enough that I think keeping the aspect ratio change does more for the film than keeping it to just 2.40:1.  Sure, it won’t be like watching it in an IMAX theater.  But then, when are watching movies on your TV the same as the theater at all?

The aspect ratio change creates a certain effect for those screens whether they are on an IMAX screen of a 47 inch LG 3D TV (for example).  For years George Lucas keeps tinkering with his Star Wars films and insists that the changes represent the way he envisions the film to be.  I would like to argue that by releasing the “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” BluRay this way, Brad is doing an alteration to the film.  And while both these men may be in their right to make these choices, I just have to say I disagree.  I prefer watching movies as close to how they were originally shot as possible.  I think most people do.  And for that reason, I’m not sure I can buy the BluRay release of “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.”




Update


Because I like being fair, Brad did say this to me after I published the above article:

Brad Bird‏ @BradBirdA113

 Follow

 

BTW, @KevinTRod, I'm not opposed to a part IMAX Blu ray, it's just not the way I chose to have it seen @ home. If enough ask, it may happen.

So, there you have it.  If enough people ask it may happen.  So I end this article saying that I respect his point of view, thank him for conversing with me on this issue, and politely say that I think I prefer to wait for that release.

What’s Wrong with Academy Voters

This is a few weeks late into the game, but in the February 24^th issue of Entertainment Weekly, EW did their annual “let’s ask the voters what they’re thinking about voting for” feature (it’s actually called “How I’m Voting,” but you’ll understand my apathy towards this article in a minute).  Basically the idea behind the article is that they interview several (anonymous) Academy voters and ask them for their opinions on how they’ll be voting for the upcoming Oscars. 

The thing that was most reveling in this particular issue is that the voters showed such a lack of understanding behind the awards, voting process, or even entertainment, that they (almost) all said something so colossally stupid that they just ended up making strong cases for why some members deserve to have their voting cards taken away.  The full article can be read here, but I’m going to single in on the most offensive comments from the voters and what category they said the offensive comments under (sometimes they said more than one insulting thing).  Well, there’s a lot to say so let’s get going, starting with:

The Actress

Picture: Moneyball

Now…before I get to this I have to say that whatever actress they interviewed sounded like a real airhead who doesn’t even like movies.  Here are some of the highlights in just this ONE section:

It's ridiculous having 9 or 10 nominees. That's too many movies for anyone to have to watch.

REALLY?!  Nine movies is too much to watch?  Lady, most of those movies came in at under two hours.  Most people with blogs who have limited cash income can make a top ten list of best films of the year and can EASILY watch about three dozen films on a fixed income!  You get free screeners and the most you have to do is put aside two hours a day over a week and a half to watch some (for the most part) GOOD movies!  This should not be your biggest problem.

Hugo was a children's film — and children's films shouldn't win Best Picture.

What?  Says who?!  Don’t give me this crap that “Hugo” shouldn’t win because it’s a children film.  Children’s films can be GREAT!  “The Wizard of Oz,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” “Beauty & the Beast,” “Toy Story,” and (get this) the Best Picture-winning “Oliver!” are ALL films that were made for children that are now considered classic movies!  If “Hugo” was a BAD children’s film then of course it shouldn’t win.  But it was a GREAT children’s film that had some of the best reviews of a film last year PERIOD!

I truly don’t understand what this thinking is.  If you think it’s the best film of the year (and yes, I know she doesn’t say that) then you should vote on it REGARDLESS if it was made for children or not!  This is real ignorant thinking.

The Artist was amazing, but I felt like it was an aberration. I don't think it represents Hollywood in the 21st century. I mean, a Best Picture should have sound.

Is the next thing you’re going to tell me is that a Best Picture winner needs to be in color or it shouldn’t win (which would mean “Schindler’s List” wouldn’t have had a chance)?  Again, it comes down to whether or not “The Artist” is the best film you’ve seen this year.  Whether it has sound or not should be a non-issue.

Best Actor: Jean Dujardin

But I'm voting for Jean Dujardin. He has this quiet dignity when everything falls apart. He has these little gestures with his hands. You could see the sense of loss. It was the quintessential film performance — it's all about his face.

There is nothing wrong with this comment, but what about “The Artist” shouldn’t win because a Best Picture winner should have sound?  Now you turn around and vote for a silent performance though because you can appreciate the acting more?  Am I missing something here?

Actress: Viola Davis

Rooney Mara had this quiet intensity and rage.  But she's young and seemed kind of arrogant in interviews, and it really does matter how you campaign for an Oscar.

Um…no, it shouldn’t matter how you campaign.  You’re voting on her PERFORMANCE in a MOVIE!!!  Not how she carries herself in real life.  How you campaign for an Oscar (despite popular belief) should NOT matter AT ALL!!!  It should be about the performance, end of story.

Meryl Streep gave a lovely, nuanced, heartbreaking performance, but she gets nominated every year.

Yeah…she gets nominated every year because she’s consistently great.  So what?  Isn’t that the point?  Does the Academy hold consistent greatness against Pixar?  If not, why should they single out great actors giving consistently great performances from receiving Oscars?

The Writer

The writer said nothing stupid that warrants discussing here.

The Producer

He was pretty sensible too.

The Executive

Director Michel Hazanavicius

I'm voting for the Artist guy. If Marty Scorsese had not won already for The Departed, I would have voted for him for Hugo, but he won too recently.

What does winning recently have to do with anything?  If you think Marty did a better job than the guy you’re voting for (who impressed you so much you can’t even seem to remember his NAME) then you should vote for him.  Whether he won or not is beside the point.  If someone is great, let them be great consistently.

Alright, so mostly it was The Actress who was being the stupid one, but this constant thing with having a mind set for what “should or shouldn’t” win needs to go for these voters.  If someone is always turning in award worthy work, then it’s the voters job to HONOR that award worthy work, and not vote for something of lesser quality because the person won recently, or because there’s no sound, or because the movie is a children’s film that adults just HAPPENED to find magical!  Oh, and I know people are busy, but ten films is EASY to do within the span of a month!  Heck, I see close to nine films a week on my own time, and my real job doesn’t even INVOLVE movies!

My Ideal "Best Song" Nominations

Here are the songs I would love to see be nominated for Best Song.  Whether they do or don't, I guess we'll see.

Albert Nobbs - "Lay Your Head Down" by Sinead O'Connor

Captain America: The First Avenger - "Star Spangled Man" by Alan Menkin

Gnomeo & Juliet - "Hello, Hello" by Elton John

Happy Feet Two - "Bridge of Light" by Pink

The Muppets - "Life's A Happy Song" by The Muppets

My Ideal 'Best Original Score' Nominations List

The title says it all!  Enjoy the score samples:

Ludovic Bource - "The Artist"

Alexander Desplat - "The Tree of Life"

Harry Escott - "Shame"

John Williams - "War Horse"

Alan Silvestri - "Captain America: The First Avenger"

My Ideal Oscar Nominations List

We're a few weeks away from the nominations for the Oscars, but I think that makes it a good time for me to round up what my ideal nominations list will look like.  Now keep in mind there are a few award favorite films out there that I haven't seen, but I've seen most of them, and this list is based on what I've seen.  Because it seems like a seven picture nomination year, that's how many films I'll list for Best Picture.

Best Picture

• The Artist
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• A Separation
• The Tree of Life

Best Director

• Michel Hazanavicius - "The Artist"
• David Fincher - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
• Martin Scorsese - "Hugo"
• Woody Allen - "Midnight in Paris"
• Terrence Malick - "The Tree of Life"

Best Actor

• George Clooney - " The Descendants"
• Jean Dujardin - "The Artist"
• Michael Fassbender - "Shame"
• Ryan Gosling - "Drive"
• Brad Pitt - "Moneyball"

Best Actress

• Viola Davis - "The Help"
• Rooney Mara - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
• Felicity Jones - "Like Crazy"
• Elizabeth Olsen - "Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene"
• Michelle Williams - "My Week with Marilyn"

Best Supporting Actor

• Albert Brooks - "Drive"
• George Clooney - "The Ides of March"
• Jonah Hill - "Moneyball"
• Nick Nolte - "Warrior"
• Christopher Plummer - "Beginners"

Best Supporting Actress

• Jessica Chastain - "The Help
• Shaileen Woodley - "The Descendants"
• Melissa McCarthy - "Bridesmaids"
• Octavia Spencer - "The Help"
• Carey Mulligan - "Shame"

Best Animated Film

• The Adventures of Tintin
• Arthur Christmas
• Chico and Rita
• Kung fu Panda 2
• Rango

My Book Is Coming Out Soon (So Now What?)

My faithful readers: I have written the final review I needed to write for "The Complete Unofficial 83rd Annual Academy Awards Review Guide" yesterday!  That means all I need is for my editor Emily to wring it through a shredder, help me fix any sentence structure problems, and we'll begin formatting the book for Kindles, Nooks, and even have some hard copies available.  This is the start of what I hope to be a long term goal of having a review guide for every year for the Oscars.  I can't wait until everyone have a chance to buy the final product so they can see what a huge deal this is going to be and why it's taking so much work.  But the year for 2010 is in the bag and I have two more books planed for release early next year (maybe three!).

So with that said, let's talk about this blog.

I think its no surprise I haven't updated it much.  I'm not good on the predictions chart.  I don't like to predict things I haven't seen (adds to unmounted hype I believe) and some of the films that become front-runners I see late in the game.  I do enjoy writing occasional commentary though, so its nice to have this site for that, but I think many will agree there are FAR better Oscar prediction websites out there!  So I'm here to announce that this site is officially going to change in that it won't be so much about Oscar predictions, but this series of books I'm writing.  Which will make this something of a personal journal only...better, I suppose.

I'm going to share experiences I have with actually having to watch a ton of movies I've never heard of just because I need to write the review for an Oscar book.  I'll write some editorials on changes I'd like to see about the awards themselves, but those will be material for a future book really.  Right now I need to find my niche in an online world that has lots of blogs to choose from, and my blog just isn't cutting it.  I'm better at reviews than news anyway, so this will be a good thing.  Now then, let's start now with my news on the books. The aforementioned book will be released in a few weeks.

The books for the current Oscar year and 2009 are in production now and should be ready by next year.  However I also know that a key factor for some of these movie books are the history.  And 2009-2011 isn't...well, history.  Not yet anyway.  So I'm turning back the clock and will also be working on "The Complete Unofficial 1st Annual Academy Awards Review Guide."  However, I should note something: This book will likely be an eBook exclusive.  For awhile anyway.  Why you ask?  Well, because I've compiled a list of the movies I need to see.  Here's what I compiled:



1. Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
2. The Circus
3. The Crowd
4. The Devil Dancer
5. The Dove
6. Glorious Betsy
7. The Last Command
8. The Jazz Singer
9. The Magic Flame
10. The Noose
11. The Patient Leather Kid
12. The Private Life of Helen of Troy
13. The Racket
14. Sadie Swanson
15. Seventh Heaven
16. A Ship Comes In
17. Sorrell and Son
18. Speedy
19. Street Angel
20. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
21. Two Arabian Knights
22. Underworld
23. The Way of All Flesh
24. Wings (VERY first Best Picture winner)


Now, this looks great because it's roughly HALF of the movies I need to see for the two other books, so this should be easy right?!  Well...here's the list with notes:



1. Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
2. The Circus
3. The Crowd
4. The Devil Dancer (Lost Film)
5. The Dove (Library of Congress)
6. Glorious Betsy (Library of Congress)
7. The Last Command
8. The Jazz Singer
9. The Magic Flame (Lost Film)
10. The Noose (Museum of Modern Art)
11. The Patient Leather Kid (Lost Film?)
12. The Private Life of Helen of Troy (British Film Institue)
13. The Racket
14. Sadie Swanson
15. Seventh Heaven
16. A Ship Comes In (Lost Film?)
17. Sorrell and Son (Partial Restored)
18. Speedy
19. Street Angel
20. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
21. Two Arabian Knights
22. Underworld
23. The Way of All Flesh (Lost Film)
24. Wings


What this means is that most of the films are lost or housed in museums.  Now, lost films I can't review because they're lost.  There's no crying over it, they're gone, and so that fact will have to be noted in the book.  What I'm looking at are the films that survive in museums only.  Is there a way to view those films?  I have no idea.  So what I'm going to do is write the reviews for the movies I CAN get and publish that as an eBook!  The paperback and hardcover copies of this book will be held back until I am absolutely certain there are no other ways I can see the stuff in the museum.

This will be to insure that I get some of the older years of the awards started, but I'll hold back on hard copies of those early years until I can max out my options to make the books as complete as possible (eBooks are easy to update if you can't get something right away).  And all of this is going to be captured on this blog.  Strap in folks, it's going to be a new experience!