Where did I say he was DP???  I said he 'shot' those movies, meaning he was the 
one holding the camera (fyi, the DP hardly ever touches the camera).  Although 
I'm sure he was probably DP on at least one of those as well...
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Craig Miller 
  To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU 
  Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 11:31 PM
  Subject: Re: [MOPO] Can a major director shoot an "epic" on a low budget?


  At 10:41 PM 7/22/2008, Robert D. Brooks wrote:

      the lighting and camera work also leaves a good deal to be desired.

    I'll pass your critique along:  he only shot movies like X-Men II, 
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, The Fantastic Four, Elf, Paycheck, etc...  
oh, and the Canadian classic Hookers on Davie!  I'm sure he'll be pleased to 
hear your thoughts...  And, what kind of quality do you expect for an 80+ 
minute film shot in less than 5 days???

  I'm confused.  X-Men II's DP was 
  Newton Thomas Sigel.  
  Sisterhood of the 
  Travelling Pants' was done by John Bailey.   For Fantastic Four it was Oliver 
  Reed.  Etc. Etc.  Why does your DP use all those aliases when he works?

  Craig.







    ----- Original Message ----- From: "Craig Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
    To: "Robert D. Brooks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
    Cc: <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
    Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 9:54 PM
    Subject: Re: [MOPO] Can a major director shoot an "epic" on a low budget?



      IMDB is a wonderful website.  It's invaluable.  But they don't only list 
feature
      films.  They list TV episodes (actually series, but with listings for each
      episode).  And they list short films.  One minute.  Two minutes.  Ten
      minutes.  Twenty minutes in length.  I'm discussing feature films.

      If you include everything, of all lengths, designed for any and all 
mediums,
      than yes, your number isn't some wild ass guess with no basis in fact. 
It's
      still a guess but it's closer to reality.  If you're talking about actual 
feature
      length films made with at least the hope of a theatrical release, then 
your
      number is way way way off.

      Even if we accept the IMDB number as being accurate, and double it for
      the rest of the year, it's only half the number you first gave and only an
      eighth of the number you later increased it to.  But, of course, we can't
      really accept the IMDB number because it isn't only feature films.  And
      while this film you give as an example might be feature length -- I'll 
take
      your word for it, since what's on YouTube is just 10 minutes long -- it's 
also
      apparently soft-core porn, which can be made very very cheaply.  The
      acting, from the couple minutes I watched, is hardly top quality; the 
lighting
      and camera work also leaves a good deal to be desired.  For a Troma
      direct-to-DVD, it's fine, but it isn't theatrical quality.  And I'm 
guessing I
      must have missed the parts that qualify it as being much better than what
      comes out of the studios.

      Oh, and if you want to throw credits back and forth, I've worked on major
      studio films and independent films.  I've been a guest speaker at film
      festivals and distribution markets in the US, the UK, France, Italy, and 
the
      Screen Producers Association of Australia (an organization of independent
      film producers) just asked me to come speak at their conference in
      November.  (I've even been on panels with Lloyd Kaufman.)

      I've worked with George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, Jim Henson, Tom
      Hanks, John Boorman, Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Ken Russell,
      Anthony Shaffer, Robin Hardy, Richard Lester, Richard Donner, Howard
      Gottfried, Danny Melnick, Frank Oz, Frank Marshall,

      Luigi Cingolani, John
      Carpenter,

      Oliver Stone, Ed Pressman, etc. etc. etc.

      So I do know what I'm talking about.

      Craig.


      At 08:42 PM 7/22/2008, 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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      Craig Miller        Wolfmill Entertainment          [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Craig Miller        Wolfmill Entertainment          [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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