So true Alan... I had that exact same conversation the other day. I'm all
for 'auteur-theory' and everything, but the WRITER is the key creative
person on a movie (not the director or stars, who typically get far, far
more money and recognition) - and that's coming from a director!... I wish
I was a better writer, but it would be so frustrating doing that job in
Hollywood with how they're treated...
OK, that's enough posts for me in one day (heck, one month)...
Night all,
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Adler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Robert D. Brooks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 9:21 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Can a major director shoot an "epic" on a low budget?
Just want to add this note from another perspective.
All this director talk...
It's the writer that sets the budget -
You write big, you write small -
The director interprets, but he sure ain't the be all and end of
making a picture what it is!
Alan
On Jul 22, 2008, at 8:42 PM, Robert D. Brooks wrote:
So, if $20 million is a 'low budget,' this is what I did with about 1/8th
of 1% of that amount (meaning I would have to make this movie almost
1,000 times - just to have a budget high enough to be considered
'low')... Although, I'll warn anyone that dares click: NSFW (it is a
Troma-film after all, so don't come crying to me if...)! ;o)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTMoKB9Zk0E
Cheers,
Bob
PS. Note to Craig: You may just notice a couple names in the credits
there: one is currently the chairman of the Independent Film and TV
Alliance and the other is the head of the oldest independent film studio
in existence, so while I may not have your 30 years in the business (only
about 20 here), understand that I do know what I'm talking about! And,
just to prove I'm right:
http://www.imdb.com/List?year=2008
You'll notice that there are about 12,000 movies listed there - just from
the last 6 months (and they only list a fraction of all the movies made -
very few student films, foreign films, ultra-low- budget films, etc...).
I guess I should be expecting an apology?...
----- Original Message ----- From: Craig Miller
To: Robert D. Brooks
Cc: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:20 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Can a major director shoot an "epic" on a low budget?
You're missing the point. You're wrong about the number of movies made.
Your numbers all seem to be wild guesses and you haven't specified if
you're talking about feature length films or including all lengths and
formats.
I can only believe you're doing the latter because your numbers are just
way, way off for the former. (And what makes you think each film
festival
gets applications for a completely different group of films? Sundance
requires it hasn't been shown anywhere else before them but most
festivals have no such rule. And they don't say films can't play other
festivals after them.)
Please don't insult us by suggesting that only you are so smart as to
know
about films not made by the Hollywood studios or that we don't know about
low budget films. I assure you, that isn't the case.
And if you think the super low budget filmmakers all make wonderful
movies, you clearly haven't seen a significant enough percentage of them.
A large percentage of the indies are godawful. As are the majority of
studio pictures. But they don't suddenly become good because they're
made with low low budgets.
I've been in this business over 30 years now and I've worked with and
seen
pictures at all different budget levels. The budget -- high or low --
isn't what
makes them good.
Craig.
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