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WHO ARE THE JONAS BROTHERS?
The JONAS BROTHERS hit the big screen in a high-energy Walt Disney Pictures rockumentary feature film event filmed in Disney Digital 3-D™. The film blends excerpts from the brothers' red-hot Burning Up concert tour, including guest performances by DEMI LOVATO and TAYLOR SWIFT, with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, off-the-wall segments, a never-before-heard song ("Love Is on Its Way"), swarming fans and a lot of JB-style humor--giving fans never-before-seen insights into the lives of KEVIN, JOE and NICK.
Filmed during their 2008 Burning Up concert tour, which drew more than 1 million fans, "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience" delivers unbelievably crisp imagery via Disney Digital 3-D™, which proved to be a great medium for transporting audiences directly into the center of Jonas Brothers' dynamic and fun performances and highlights why the three brothers--Kevin, 21, Joe, 19, and Nick, 16--are America's newest superstars. As the motion picture reveals, the Jonas Brothers have the talent, the character and the drive to stay on top, entertaining audiences and enthralling their fans for a long, long time.
The film, which also features "BIG ROB" FEGGANS, the Jonas Brothers' head of security, is directed by Bruce Hendricks and produced by Art Repola, who previously served in the same capacities on Walt Disney Pictures' "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" film and Touchstone Pictures and ESPN's "Ultimate X." Producing with Repola are Johnny Wright, Philip McIntyre, Kevin Jonas Sr. and Alan Sacks. The executive producers are Doug Merrifield and Vince Pace. The directors of photography are Mitchell Amundsen ("Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert," "Ultimate X") and Reed Smoot, A.S.C. ("Ultimate X"), and the editor is Michael Tronick, A.C.E. (Walt Disney Pictures' "Bedtime Stories," "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert").
"I think this is a brand-new kind of experience because it's a feature-length rockumentary in 3-D," Joe says. "People come to our concerts and see it from the audience's point of view, but this movie really makes you feel like you're on stage performing with us. We had multiple cameras running on stage, so it really feels like you're part of the experience."
For the brothers, seeing the 3-D film is a novel experience. As Kevin says, "It was a shock. I had always been on stage during the performance, but to actually see what our performance looked like from outside ourselves was really cool."
"But it's not just the performances that are important," Nick adds. "It's the things we show behind the scenes that really stood out for us and we hope will give our fans a better idea of who we really are."
For fans, that means seeing various facets of each of the brothers. Kevin says: "Nick's the leader type. We call him Mr. President for a reason. He's very precise. He knows what's going on. Joe is comic relief. He's constantly making me laugh, and he's always on top of his game." "And Kevin's the fun one," Joe adds.
The Jonas Brothers' meteoric rise has been nothing less than a pop culture phenomenon. They have been recognized for their impressive talents with several awards as well. They were Grammy®-nominated as Best New Artist in 2008. The same year, they won six Teen Choice Awards, including Summer Song for "Burnin' Up," Male Hottie, Music Breakout Group, Red Carpet Icon, and Music Love Song and Music Single for "When You Look Me in the Eyes." In August of 2008, the brothers' latest album, "A Little Bit Longer," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 during the filming of the movie and quickly went platinum. During the same week the album debuted, the soundtrack to "Camp Rock" featuring the Jonas Brothers was at No. 8 on the chart and Jonas Brothers' eponymous CD was at No. 10, marking the first time an artist had held three titles in the top 10 in Sound Scan history. They also appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, which became the top-selling issue of 2008.
"The Jonas Brothers are a phenomenon with their generation," director Bruce Hendricks says. "It's quite extraordinary how talented they are: They write the songs, they're all multi-instrumentalists. They put on an extraordinary show and are very polished. There's almost nothing that they can't do. All of the choreography, the outfits and the look of the stage in the film were designed and created by the Jonas Brothers. But I think the kids can relate to them on a very personal level and admire them as people as much as musicians."
Nick says: "We hope to get the message across that as busy as we are, as much fun as we have, that at the end of the day family's really important to us. You'll see that we really are a family with our band and our crew and everyone who works on this with us, and we want to invite the audience into the family and come have a good time with us on stage and off stage."
CAPTURING THE INTENSITY OF A CONCERT TOUR
Shot primarily in Los Angeles, New York and Anaheim, the film conveys the intensity and craziness of the Jonas Brothers' jam-packed days while on tour.
Joe says: "We love, as a band, being able to show everyone what our day is like. The film crews were there when we woke up in the morning to when we were going to bed really late at night. You get to see the full day's schedule and see how crazy our album release week was."
Scenes range from the brothers being woken at 4:30 a.m. by "Big Rob" to being chased down streets by screaming fans and making their escape by helicopter. They are also seen performing in arenas and in Central Park, and being mobbed by frenetic admirers in Times Square.
Additional behind-the-scenes footage captures the boys eating breakfast, discussing their upcoming day, hitting golf balls in an empty arena, riding around on Segway electric scooters and otherwise having fun between performances.
"Basically we had two units," Repola says. "We had our main shooting unit and then we had what we called our Jack unit because the unit was headed up by Jack Kney. Jack followed the brothers from city to city filming them, though obviously not everything could be included in the final film."
"Those three months on tour were crazy," Joe says. "You wake up and immediately do interviews. Then you get to see really cool cities, you get to do amazing things. We'd rehearse, then at night we go to the venue around 4, do our sound check, eat, get ready mentally, warm our voices up and go on stage. Then we'd jump around like maniacs for three hours, playing our music, doing gymnastic moves, spraying the audience with foam and just trying to give the fans the best show and the most fun possible."
"Big Rob" Feggans says that in the film, "you see how hard life on the road is. And you also see how much they appreciate what the fans are giving them and how hard the brothers work for them. They're really fan oriented."
And those fans return the love, sometimes in crazy ways. "I've seen everything," Feggans says laughing. "They'll try to come in to the brothers' rooms in room service carts and laundry hampers. I've even seen them trying to come in wearing police outfits. I've seen it all."
Feggans isn't limited to security work. He's a star in his own right, rapping on stage with the Jonas Brothers during their performances of "Burnin' Up."
Intercut with the film's concert footage are behind-the-scenes and off-the-wall sequences, one of which features a group called the Fake Jonas Brothers, whom Nick Jonas discovered on YouTube. Producer Art Repola says: "We flew them in and they ran around interacting with the fans. It's just a big bunch of fun. Their thing in the movie is, 'If you can't see the real ones, why not see the fake ones?'"
The brothers found the Fake Jonas Brothers hilarious, particularly their refrain, "The Jonas Brothers are living the dream, and we're dreaming the life."
Nick says: "Every moment for us is just kind of amazing, the fact that we're here right now, doing what we love, and that people love what we do. I mean it's kind of a crazy experience, and to see our amazement in the film I think is really going to stand out for the movie's viewers."
FAN-DEMONIUM-- Release of CD Takes Brothers to New York City
The release of their new album, "A Little Bit Longer," which debuted August 12, 2008, during the filming of the movie, took the brothers to New York City for four days. In addition to concerts at Bryant Park in Manhattan, Madison Square Garden and Jones Beach, they hosted MTV's TRL for four days, staged a surprise performance at the Apple Store in Soho, and created more chaos in Times Square as they arrived to be the first to buy their CD at the Virgin Mega Store at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, August 12. They were greeted by an estimated 25,000 screaming fans.
"They basically closed down Times Square," Repola says. "It looked like New Year's Eve."
For the "Good Morning America" concert in Bryant Park, "fans lined up for days," Repola says.
"One of our fans said, 'We've slept in the rain for 72 hours to meet you guys,'" Joe says, marveling at their dedication.
"There's this kind of mutual-love relationship between the fans and us, and we really do appreciate each other," Nick says.
The Bryant Park concert broke all attendance records with a crowd of 18,000. The performance was followed by three quickly sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, then one night at Jones Beach.
They also filmed a music video in Central Park of their never-before-heard song "Love Is on Its Way."
"This is a song that we wrote with our dad," Nick says, "so it's very personal to all of us. We got to shoot the music video in Central Park the day after our album released, and it was just an amazing experience."
In the course of the music video the cameras cut away from the boys performing to them having fun in costumes. Joe appears as a mustachioed New York City policeman, Nick plays a hackney cab driver and Kevin appears as a hot dog vendor.
"A lot of what the Jonases are is their connection with their fans," says Hendricks. "So what we were able to do here is ask the fans on the street if they wanted to be part of the video. For the end shot we pull back and reveal Central Park and the grassy area with all the fans. The song and the video and the film are really for them."
"There were so many fans that came to help us film the music video," Joe says, "and lots of them were couples, so it was a really cool part of the movie."
MAIN CONCERT FILMED OVER TWO DAYS
The main concert footage in the film was shot in Anaheim, California, at the Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks, which sold out its approximately 7,000 seats for two shows on two days. Three giant "dinosaur-like" Technocranes (as Nick describes them) were constructed, each carrying a 3-D camera rig. An additional two 3-D camera rigs were on Steadicams and one was on a dolly. With a final 3-D rig, the total came to eight. To handle all the equipment and capture the excitement of the performances, director Hendricks marshaled a huge crew of 172.
"There's a lot of logistics to filming a concert in 3-D," Hendricks says. "It was probably one of the largest concert operations ever pulled off, and we had to do it all in two days."
Making special guest appearances in the concert portion of the film are two of the hottest young talents in the music business: Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift. Lovato and the brothers perform "This Is Me," reprising a duet she first sang with Joe Jonas on the "Camp Rock" soundtrack and which reached No. 1 on the iTunes Top 100. Lovato opened for the Jonas Brothers on their Burning Up tour, and she and the brothers collaborated on writing several of the songs on her debut album. Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers share the stage on "Should've Said No," a hit single from Swift's platinum debut album. Swift wrote the song when she was 16, and it became a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
FILMING THE TOUR IN 3-D
Filmmakers Deploy State-of-the-Art Cameras
The mission of the film is to provide the audience with an experience unlike any other, projecting each and every viewer directly into the heart of the Jonas Brothers' dynamic performance. Disney Digital 3-D™ is the Walt Disney Company's term to describe three-dimensional films shown exclusively using digital projection. The technology provides sharp, crisp imagery and lifelike appearances.
Bruce Hendricks recognized that utilizing 3-D inevitably involved challenges, particularly for the Jonas Brothers, who would have to perform several shows with an entire team of cameras getting up close and personal and following their every move.
"Unlike the normal 2-D process," explains Hendricks, "3-D is best served shooting close and wide. So the performers can't be too conscious of the cameras, no matter how near they are. That's not easy for anyone, but the guys were terrific."
"In the '50s 3-D was very gimmicky," Hendricks says. "Now it's far more mainstream and there's new technology that makes it a little bit easier to make 3-D films. A number of major filmmakers now like Jim Cameron and Robert Zemeckis have embraced it, and it certainly lends itself beautifully to concert films.
"In many cases in this film you feel like you're on the front row," Hendricks continues. "We've put the cameras up there on the stage with the guys, so it's like you're a band member, you're there on stage with them, you're their guitar tech handing them their guitar, you're part of the orchestra section with the band. We immerse the viewer so they not only get a better view but actually feel like they're on stage with the band."
With the show specially crafted to be experienced in three dimensions, Hendricks needed the latest state-of-the-art equipment to capture every inch of what was happening on stage…and beyond. That's why he turned to Cameron/PACE Designs, the world's leading innovator in advanced 3-D and digital cinema systems, and Vince Pace, who developed a photographic system that would help translate the show onto the screen with its live-wire atmosphere intact. This was not their first time working together, for Hendricks, Pace, and director of photography Mitchell Amundsen had collaborated on the "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" film, utilizing the groundbreaking Fusion 3-D camera rigs recently invented by PACE to film the movie.
Pace originally designed the Fusion 3-D camera rigs with the Academy Award®-winning filmmaker James Cameron, who has been a leading pioneer in expanding the creative possibilities of 3-D. Fusion 3-D camera rigs, which work on principles similar to human eyesight, are able to provide a depth of field and perspective never before seen in movie theaters. Cameron first utilized them to create acclaimed underwater documentaries, but more recently, filmmakers like Hendricks have started exploring how the Fusion 3-D camera rigs can bring hard-to-capture events, such as sports and concerts, to life in a way that harnesses the full emotional thrill of an in-the-moment experience.
Pace says: "James Cameron and I set out to change entertainment as we know it by designing the tools necessary to shoot a new form of 3-D, one that is based more on experience than effect. These cameras operate much like a person. They have two eyes, in this case two high-definition cameras mimicking a left and right eye, and a very powerful brain that for us is the computer in the system. In a sense, our cameras capture the image just like a human person witnesses an event. Our images give the viewer the ability to experience exactly what it was like to be there."
In the end, the choice to film "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience" in 3-D was not a gimmick; it was about letting audiences experience the immediacy and charisma of the Jonas Brothers and the joy they take in their work and fans. "We love being out on the road," Kevin says. "We love seeing our fans. We love the craziness. It's really fun to be able to portray our lives in this film. I think you get a really great grasp of who we are as the Jonas Brothers and the dynamic of our family."
FUN FACTS
*During filming for the movie, when the Jonas Brothers arrived to be the first to buy their CD at the Virgin Mega Store in Times Square at midnight, Monday, Aug. 12, 2008, they were greeted by an estimated 25,000 cheering fans, who briefly shut down the square. "It looked like New Year's Eve," says producer Art Repola.
* In New York, some of their fans waited 72 hours in the rain to meet the Jonas Brothers.
* The concert scenes for the film were shot over two nights at Anaheim, California's Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks, as well as an additional day of shooting at New York's Madison Square Garden.
* The band broke attendance records when they appeared in a "Good Morning America" summer concert in Bryant Park in Manhattan that drew a crowd of 18,000. The concert was part of the kickoff of their new album, "A Little Bit Longer," released in August 2008.
* The Jonas Brothers wrote "Love Is on Its Way," a never-before-released song in the film, with their father Kevin Jonas, Sr., and recorded a music video of the song in Central Park, which they invited their fans to participate in as the audience.
* Youngest brother Frankie Jonas, age 8 (also known to fans as "the bonus Jonas"), does a cameo walking across the street at Columbus Circle during the "Love is on Its Way" video.
" Making special guest appearances in the film are two of the hottest young talents in the music business: Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift. Lovato and the brothers perform the hit song "This Is Me," reprising a duet she first sang with Joe Jonas on the "Camp Rock" soundtrack. Lovato opened for Jonas Brothers on their "Burning Up" tour, and she and the brothers collaborated on writing several of the songs on her debut album. Taylor Swift and Jonas Brothers share the stage on "Should've Said No," a hit single from Swift's platinum debut album. Swift wrote the song when she was 16.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
As a filmmaker for over 25 years, BRUCE HENDRICKS (Director) has been associated with some of the most prestigious, top-grossing films in motion-picture history. He has a unique position in the entertainment industry, working as both a studio executive and as a producer and director. "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience" is the third feature-length film Hendricks has directed. His directing credits also include the IMAX film "Ultimate X" and last year's blockbuster hit "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" as well as music videos, television programs and commercials.
As president of physical production for Walt Disney Studios since 1992, Hendricks oversees all aspects of live-action feature-film production at the company. In this capacity, he has supervised the making of over 200 motion pictures and filmed in more than 30 countries. Among these films are the blockbusters "The Sixth Sense," "Armageddon," "The Rock" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." His credits as executive producer are the Jerry Bruckheimer "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy and the WWII epic "Pearl Harbor."
Hendricks is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild and the Directors Guild of America. He received an Emmy Award® for his work on the ABC telefilm "The Wave."
A native of Dallas, Texas, Hendricks holds a bachelor of science degree in film production from the University of Texas. He received the university's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007.
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