Crazy Idea (Open minded people only)

F

FutureDVXUser

Well-known member
Say 20 people from the same state got together. A mix of writers, directors, sound mixers, filmers, audio operators, focus operators, animators, editors, guys with story plot ideas/pitches, producers, executive producers, make up artists, special effect make up artists, etc. Each person puts in $2,500. That's $50,000 to buy a ton of the best quality equipment. Now, you have a movie studio with 20 people. You have people for crew, directors, writers, story ideas, animators, everything. All you'll need are actors, locations, costumes, and props (which you could probobly buy some with the $50,000 and make your first film as a company with.)

Also, part of the 20 people starting off in the production company can be extras. The more the extras in a film, the better the more professional/realistic the movie looks.

Also, most of the people already going into the company will already have their own camcorder, so they can bring them on set so you get shots at different angles.

But the 20 people that get together would have to be from the same state. Like I'm from Jersey. So if I was gonna start something like this, I would need 19 people to come in with $2,500 to make 20 people and a start off $50,000 budget.

Than you share and keep your ideas within the company. And with so many people, there's no way the studio can go dry. And so many people have a great concept, but don't know how to go about it. Well now, you'll have 19 other people to help you out.

Okay, please post replies. And if anybody from Jersey is interested in something like this, let me know.

Thanks
 
What's a Ponzi Scheme? Why wouldn't it work in real life? There was a movie called Pie ... It was about that 3.14 thing... And I heard everybody in the movie (including actors) put in 100 dollars and they made the movie... (It didnt do very well though...)
 
Well, I would do story/concept idea, screen writer, I have a DVX (but I haven't used it yet though I plan on making a short film next week with two actors and one location ... >.< ...) Probobly direct the stuff I write... Do casting... I always thought an actor should have "that voice" ... theres a specific voice that can get a mood over well and have it sound good during a film... It's a really detailed thing that I've noticed is over looked a lot...

I'd do also handle planning/scheduling (keep the filming days to a minumum)... A lot of stuff... Cut trailers... Write trailers for movie ideas that we don't exactly know how to go about... But know the concept... So we make the trailer... See peoples reaction... And know if it's worth beatting your brains in to figure out how it's gonna be put together... (There's a lot of people with ideas that don't exactly know how to make it work, but have the concept... you know what I mean??) With 25 people, you'll have somebody to go to for help... If you get a full 25 person crew to like an idea... That means you have somethin... So like I said, nothing should turn out dry... And better looking movies can be made because of the $50,000 start off... And everybody has to know where to find somebody famous to read a script and try getting there interest to take a roll... So that can be another good thing...

I can't sound mix or do animation... So I'm worthless there... I can't make custom music... I can invest the start off money...

Let me know your thoughts...

Thanks
 
It's difficult enough to juggle the personalities (egos) of just a couple of artistic partners, much less 20, all of whom will want a voice in the production. There's an old saying: Too many cooks...

But don't let me be a wet blanket. If you can pull it off, good on you. :thumbsup:
 
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Blaine said:
production. There's an old saying: Too many cooks...
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I have to agree with this statement however, I'm not saying it can't be done. I could be completely wrong but doesn't a/the producer of a major production work along with the executive producers in order to hand select certain individuals such as the director of photography, a casting director, screen play writer, sound company etc... like I said, I could be wrong. These are the people that mold the motion picture itself. I think it would be kind of tough seeing tempers fly because ideas are squashed or they didn't get casted for the lead roll. Getting twenty investors all on the same page would be quite difficult.

If a well known producer, executive producer was already in place and then the twenty people invested. Do you get what I'm saying...? I think everyone would want to direct, lead, come up with ideas. When I see recipes like this in business it makes me cringe, too many thinkers, not enough do'rs...
 
BennisHahn said:
I think it's one of those things that sounds good on paper but in real life just won't work.
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Agreed. Even if you're exceptionally careful with who you find for this, what you're going to end up with is a bunch of people who have all invested a sizable chunk of money, and are therefore going to get substantially bent out of shape if things aren't ever turning out their way. For instance, you (as writer) cut out a scene that featured an awesome castle interior the production designer was super excited to make. Suddenly the production designer is up in arms, no longer feels represented in the film. That's just a simple example off the top of my head. Add to that the fact that most below-the-line people are primarily out to do a job and get paid for it, not do a job and pay to do it, and you've got a problem. A lot of egos constantly struggling. I could see you spending the $50,000 pretty easily just on paying a lawyer to draft an ironclad contract everyone can agree to.

On the other hand, size this down to 4 or 5 people, and you might be talking, especially if you're a lot more realistic about your role in things. You list that you want to be writer, director, come up with the trailers, casting... essentially you want to do most of the high-level creative work. You think anyone else interested in this idea doesn't feel basically the same way? Unlikely. There's no chance I would ever enter into any kind of deal like this with people I didn't know. But with people I DID know, and trust, and agree with... maybe.

Pi was partially financed by small donations, yes. But that's an entirely different concept. All of those people knew they probably weren't getting their money back, and more importantly, they knew they had no voice in how the final film would turn out.
 
Gonna echo what has already been said. I put my equal share in the company then I want equal representation. Let's do my script for starters (repeat that 19 times).

Secondly, $50,000 total might buy you a "b list" celeb actor looking for a good indy to do IF there is people they can trust behind the picture. These actors have agents who will not get a damn thing financially out of it and everyone knows even million dollar pictures often do not get completed, much less to the festival stage. Even if the actor might want to do it, their agent will be fighting them tooth and nail. Basically $50,000 could possibly buy you a celeb when looking at a total budget that comes in at least a half a million below the line budget and people in the drivers seat that have something already on their resume. Again, even then highly unlikely (but still happens all the time, so I am not saying don't try).

As for your general idea; isn't this essentially what happens every time someone puts together a no budget feature. You get 20 or so people to work for free, essentially donating their $2500 in time to make the picture. The producer/writer/director gets to see their vision completed so they put in the extra dough to cover necessary expenses.

Still, if you can convince 19 people to give you $2500 to work on your script I think you are missing a greater opportunity to get 50 people to give $5000 and not have to work for free for 5 weeks. You got some mad producers skills and are setting the bar too low for yourself :)

Cheers
 
Ahh, I see... Maybe the idea of less people investing more money sounds smarter... I was thinking of how people would be into it easier and the first thing I though was, "invest less"... Good thing this thought got cleared outta my head in one night haha...
 
FutureDVXUser said:
... There was a movie called Pie ... It was about that 3.14 thing... And I heard everybody in the movie (including actors) put in 100 dollars and they made the movie... (It didnt do very well though...)
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I'm not sure if you meant for this to be funny. But it made me laugh out loud.
The movie you're referencing is called Pi not Pie. It won top honors at Sundance, I would say the film did very well. Darren Aronofsky directed the film, the budget was said to be somewhere around $65K, I've never heard the story about people paying $100 a piece (just a rumour?). Aronofsky went on to direct Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain. I haven't seen the Fountain, but Requiem for a Dream is a must see for any aspiring filmmaker. Excellent film.

But I digress...back on topic everybody.
 
in my opinion its much easier and better to find investors with a good story, budget, schedule, distribution options all in a nice business plan. thats how i got my first movie off the ground ($budget was 2.5mil. too). This was in 1999. much easier now as budgets can be micro and still produce a commercial project (i.e. my film "Death Clique", sub 50k budget > distribution deal with Blockbuster).
 
in my opinion it would only work if all 20 people had REALLY compatible personalities and understood each other to a T and agreed on everything.. of course this doesnt happen in real life.
aside from that, if you come up with something interesting in the future and wanna collaborate, i'm in NJ as well

what you should do is come up with a project that people WANT to work on .. basically in a situation like this, you have to have some sort of hierarchy .. just like everyone said, if everyone puts in an equal share, everyone will want an equal opinion and your project won't go anywhere .. someone needs to be the leader... and if, for instance, it's your screenplay or script that happens to be fantastic and people wnat to give you $2.5k to see it realized, then you can be hte leader and have final say on things
 
FiddlerMD said:
in my opinion it would only work if all 20 people had REALLY compatible personalities and understood each other to a T and agreed on everything.. of course this doesnt happen in real life.
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as someone who has done it (more or less, successfully), I can say that it can happen in "real life" but nurturing it has to be part of the process of coming together. three years ago i got together with a few like-minded individuals and after ayear, we made our first film together. since then we've moved on to our own projects, but recently there has been discussion to do another. because we were aware of the trappings of ego, and everyone was attentive to it, it was never a problem.

from the Unica web site:

unicaalbum02or7.jpg


unicaalbum03lm9.jpg
 
How'd you get everybody together?

(In this post I will explain what I've been trying to talk about a little better)

That list is what I'm talking about... Everybody takes about 4 different rolls... So every person would be credited 4 times... Advertising, Cutting Trailer, Cinematography, Lights, Audio control... But also everybody has to do something that not a lot of people like to do... Like the casting Process (which is actually something I like to do) ...

So what happens is... everybody gets to confidentially pitch in their story (even if all 20 people want to be a story creator... sometimes when it comes time to pitch a story not all 20 people will have a pitch)... Than everybody out of 20 people make a vote... They all get a story title other than their own story title... (Kinda like Unanimous) ... Whosever story is picked is liked out of the majority... so that's the story you'll go with... The less voted story... Should be thrown out entirely and not be aloud to be chosen for the next film...

Than the guy whose story is picked would get the credit "A Film By" ... Than he can simply chose one or two other screen play writers to write the film ... he can chose to write it on his own ... or he can decide to write it with both the other two screen writers... Than they take the completed script to the producer of their choice... He gets his two cents in it... twesk it up a bit... THAN ... They all finalize the script to a T by a consultant or editor to make sure no spelling is wrong or anything like that...

That's 2-5 people right there... Now you have 15 other people with different skills to use... Ontop of that, the 2-5 people already involved should have some OTHER skill to put on the table... Now, with the completed script... All 20 people get together again... Read it... And another unanimous type voting is done for the director... Maybe a majorty of the people will think somebody other than a writer can bring some magical touch to the story... Maybe they'll think the story is something that nobody than the person who created the story can direct it...

Once the movie is done... The publicists and trailer cutters take over... After it gets distributed... The prophet gets split 20 ways... That's 5% each...

Do that a few times... And if you want to break away from the chain... Than you can break away from the chain... And your 5% would get split between 19 people... And as more people break away from the chain... etc. etc.

Before you know it... 15 people will break away from the chain... The remaining 5 people will be splitting royalties of 20% each... And their production company will be popular and well established... What can be better?

Besides, why is there need to pay a lawyer to write up a contract like that? A lawyer can be an investor also... Besides, I might know a lawyer who would be crazy enough to do this...

Any thoughts?
 
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