While I truly enjoyed the movie, I found it daunting that no one else would pay to see it. But why? So let me review some theories:. More than half the audience simply vaporized — due to an earlier golden age of TV. What happened next is well recorded. Audiences rejoiced at a new excuse to buy tickets.
It seemed as though a new cinematic community had been born. To be sure, the major studios were not solely responsible for generating this revival. Home Voices Columns. Nov 19, am PT. I then spent a weekend shooting my first short. After that, I spent the entire fall and winter saving up enough money to process the film, transfer it to video and then edit it. These days, you can get an inexpensive movie camera for a few hundred dollars that will produce footage without the fuss of film.
The days of saving all summer to capture footage are over. This is probably the excuse that makes me the most concerned for your future. At least not yet. For your first few features, forget about Hollywood.
Instead focus on building your audience. Utilize crowdfunding to raise money and test your movie concept. I laugh 25 years later thinking of it. Good signs. Every great film has to move you emotionally in some manner.
We pay money to go to theaters to see a story that thrills, frightens, angers, inspires, or makes us laugh or cry. Film creators must determine what they want the viewer to take away from the two-hour experience. Big name actors, dazzling special effects, excellent production value, mind-boggling cinematography, and Oscar-winning musical scores all put together will still not compensate for a weak story.
Most people in the film and TV business are out of work at any given time, and most have some level of desperation to get work. Mortgages, families, sustaining production company overhead, expensive lifestyles, etc. Add to this the fact that a huge percentage of these professionals are willing to lie to get a job, and you have a trap that is easy to fall into and incredibly hard to escape. Assume that resume titles and references to their roles in the success of highly successful projects are wildly overblown.
Talk to people who have worked with the person and spend time checking out every line of a resume before you hire them. Remember, entertainment industry folks are actors, story tellers, and masters of fiction! None of the films made any money, if they got made. Unless the compelling nature of the story is so powerful that it overwhelms its setting, it will not succeed.
Even with a century of experience, sophisticated testing with focus groups, and scientific measurements, the big studios still lose money on most of their films. It is only the big hits that keep them afloat. Often, film failures result because producers miscalculated the audience for the film, overestimated the magnitude of the interest in the subject, produced a story that moved nobody in the theater, or told a good story poorly.
If testing via focus groups and other proven methods is not feasible, then doing a limited theater release focusing on the most likely cities to like the film is next best. Christian filmmakers commonly fail to test the receptivity of audiences to the faith factor in their films. Because they are so into their own faith, they assume that the general populace is as well.
In an increasingly secular society, this is a deadly assumption. No matter what anyone tells you, the financial success of The Passion of the Christ was, for many reasons, an anomaly. If you do, you will create one more in a long string of cinematic and financial disasters. Many will be hurt. This is where most people fail first. Their story sucks and no one around them is honest enough to say so. Great article! In my experience, Larry is right on target. Although he lists them in no particular order, I would say that 3, not giving enough or any thought to marketing and distribution is one that plays out ad infinitum….
As a screenwriter, I resonate with artists who wrestle with the challenge of making stories we love versus making stories for others stories that will ultimately sell with an audience.
To do that, we artists have to find a value for alining our own loves with the loves of our audience. But we do need to constantly train ourselves to consider what would an audience think. Would this blow them out of their seat or make them run for the exit? We artists need to find a value for our audiences opinion, constantly challenging ourselves with how our work may be received.
When we critically consider how others receive our work, I think our stories will be stronger, reach a larger audience, and ultimately turn around larger financial success and distribution. Very thoughtful Dan. If, however, you are enthusiastic enough about your goal, perhaps you can convert others to share it. But, if you want some advice, here it is. Don't listen to people who say no. Listen to people who say yes.
Anyone can come up with an excuse for saying no, but the real investors will tell you why they said yes. Film is not a numbers game. Let me argue back and say that yes, funding is the main aspect that either gets your film made or not. With funding, you get: Actors you want Locations you want Set design you want Costume you want The crew you want The cameras you want The director you want The VFX you want The sound track you want The schedule you want The props you want etc etc Many scripts 'demand' certain aspects of the above in order to achieve the narrative.
Funding achieved the goal of making these films. Otherwise they would have sat as words on a page, or lesser films with lesser funding. Films can be shot on a shoestring in a single room with unknown actors, of course they can.
But how many of them have commercial appeal? Some, yes. Most, no. Most filmmakers want to make films to become commercial filmmakers - ie make a career out of making films that get distribution and into theatres. Without funding, those goals are dead in the water.
You can get funding with a bad script. Indeed, we see it a lot. But with funding, you can improve the script, if you had a mind to. You can get funding with inexperienced actors or crews including a director , but with better funding you can get more experienced actors and crew and a director. Or you can spend more time in rehearsals whatever they are to get the actors and crew better prepared for the project.
Everything on a film pretty much costs money - there are only so many times you can beg, steal and borrow.
But a lot of those films show they've been made for nothing. Not all of them. There are some rare gems that occasionally shine through. But for the most part, without funding, your film sitsas ink on a page! Lee 'Wozy' Warren There's never enough funding to get everything you want. As far as locations, there's a lot more to it than funding.
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