"Corrado" - A production blog

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69,000 is not unique visitors, it's page loads. regardless, Alex Ferrari's BROKEN dvd sold 5,000 units at $15-$20 each over the course of two years. and that was a short film (with a lot of strategically focused bonus content). his audience was the typical dvxuser and he did pretty well.
 
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Primer is such a great example, $7,000, a great story and great filmmaking, people can't help but recognize, that was amazing, I'd see that again. There's a growing number of people who are realizing they don't have to settle for the same old things redone to make a buck...new tools are changing the times, content and conscience can come to the forefront of filmmaking.
 
69 DVDs would suck, my friend.

Thankfully I will never be selling DVDs to end viewers.

I know it's 69,000 page loads not unique visitors, but it is a healthy thread nevertheless.
 
devils advocate again!

"Ballast" feature film by Lance Hammer

no name talent at all, used real folks from the lower Miss. delta

got a deal from IFC Films.

oh and this is my first post on this thread, just wanna say to Adam... dude you're a tenacious mofo and I wish you good luck with the film, its been an entertaining read for sure.

on the issue of distribution... I tend to agree with the "bottom up" folks but the old model will still continue to make people money for a good while... I think the opening up of options has been nothing but amazing for filmmakers and content producers and it will continue to shape and form itself. I tend to agree with Zak, in that now you can create content and market it specifically to your target niche and you can do well for yourself. As long as I'm able to make a comfortable working class living, I'm happy.

again, props on your risk taking and hard work
 
I live in a foreign market (Russia), and work with a local distributor who buys films from the Western distributors, dubs them, then sells them to TV-networks or home-video.

Distributors looking for "A-list" actors strikes me a bit false, because nobody in the foreign markets knows who's A-list, unless they're the top-of-the-top of the A-list or make the local scandal-sheet. The only "stars" they know are from what they see on TV -- which is dubbed TV shows like X-Files, Sex in the City, Sopranos, etc.

My project (shooting next winter) has an actor from X-Files, and an almost-A-list actress (who you all know) -- and all anybody here cares about is the X-Files guy!

Incidentally, "Corrado" is exactly the type of film which is shown on TV and sold in shops over here. Superb casting for it's intended market. I'd take what the distribs tell you with a grain of salt -- you're in a negotiation and they want your film for as little as possible.
 
hey adam, quick question...

for your next film, are you more or less following the same formula as with Corrado (ie: dvd foreign market sales via a name talent)

forgive me if you've already elaborated on this issue... this is a huge thread indeed, I'm sure I've missed some stuff
 
hoofandmouf said:
hey adam, quick question...

for your next film, are you more or less following the same formula as with Corrado (ie: dvd foreign market sales via a name talent)

forgive me if you've already elaborated on this issue... this is a huge thread indeed, I'm sure I've missed some stuff
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Yes, more or less. After being told that my intended budget was too high ($5M) for direct to DVD and not large enough ($8-10M) for theatrical release I am now re-evaluating whether I can now do Hangar 14 on a more DVD appropriate budget of 2.5 million, where it is certain to make money.

It must contain one A lister and two other extremely well known actors to be viable. This is right from the distributor. I have a couple people in mind and am just polishing the Hangar 14 script right now.

Also, there is a huge benefit to dealing with these big guys - credibility. We haven't really addressed that in a while, but the side benefit of all these name people is getting to know them and more importantly, their agents.

Remember, one of Johnny's agents happens to be Gary Oldman , Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laurence Fishburne's agent. And now that I did Corrado, he takes my calls. Priceless.

So yeah, I want to continue to deal with people and make connections within the system. It really is all about who you know. Really.
 
In your first post you mentioned the market being saturated with horror films, which makes sense just based on the sheer number of them I see in stores. Just curious though if there are actually any websites that analyze the current DVD market.

Part of the reason is that I'm looking at a B-movie psychological crime-thriller trailer I made for film class and people think it would make an awesome B-movie feature (and two parts which I think could attract name talent). Looking for any info about how strong that market is compared to the horror or action genres.
 
Gohanto said:
In your first post you mentioned the market being saturated with horror films, which makes sense just based on the sheer number of them I see in stores. Just curious though if there are actually any websites that analyze the current DVD market.

Part of the reason is that I'm looking at a B-movie psychological crime-thriller trailer I made for film class and people think it would make an awesome B-movie feature (and two parts which I think could attract name talent). Looking for any info about how strong that market is compared to the horror or action genres.
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Just my gut feeling at the time and I was referring to gory slasher flicks. If you have a good idea you should run with it!
 
merc said:
one more thing, almost all the scenes in el maraichi were done in 1 take, robert would even say STOP while shooting and have everyone freeze while he changed angles, then they would pik the scene bak up from were they left off. this is incredible, the performances in el maraichi are frikin great. yet once again, people with expensive equitment, DP's, sound designers, lighting guys, whole crews and as many takes as they need, still cant produce something that i would pay 1 dollar to see.

and ted, do you care who didnt win the lottery?
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El Mariachi really isn't a very good film.
 
hey adam whats up, quick question just finished bobby z. You said that you let them see your boat and they put you in the film. Your talking about the huge boat (monk's boat they escaped on. Because if so that boat was the shiznit and your the man.

Quick comment not directed at any one.

First, let me say I would like to think Im more of an enlightened person, I like to read about different histories of the world, religions etc.

On the flip side, my favorite movies are shoot em up john woo actioners, dumb slap stick comedies, and campy slasher horror films.

I believe that it's up to you as a film maker to have a hidden agenda in mind. For example think about the message's George Romero puts into his horror movies, which basically spawned the overly used zombie genre. I think you can put a message in a movie without limiting the movie. For example, I think you can make a slap stick comedy about global warming and it does not have to be a satire. Let's say for example (since everyone is using el mariachi) Let's say the movie Desperado had a message or theme about immigration laws (doesn't just saying) and they still keep the same amount of violence in there (along with the great sex scene with selma hayek). So it's up to you if you want to have an agenda, and I think it's a cop out for anyone to say I have to be true to the genre, and it can either be an art film or a true action or comedy or blah blah meaning it has to be dumbed down. So I don't necessarily believe you can't have both and be successful.

I believe you can always find the message or theme of any movie (even dumb comedies or actioners or whatever)

For example, after reading the synopsis about Corrado on imdb. Corrado is this ruthless hitman, who is basically like a third world thug, he'll do whatever without conscience, basically he's out for #1. Yet the guilt of leaving that woman to pay for what he did brings this level of consciousness, unselfishness, he finally stands for something that has a greater good. You can even delineate a theme about being in control of your life. For years, Corrado has been a lackey to others biddings, But now by going against the family, doing the opposite of the norm, doing what he wants to do, He has control of your life. Or the whole underlying theme of retribution, for both the opponent and hero. Corrado needs retribution for his soul and all of the bad things he's done in the past, so he saves Julia. Seizmore's character wants retribution for his father's death so he goes out on a man hunt.

I know you may not have intended for people to look at it like that, but it's always a deeper meaning.

Hell you can say the movie "Dumb and Dumber" has an underlying theme about how real friendship lasts no matter the odds or obsticles.

Someone mentioned movies are suppose to convey emotions. What emotion is meant to be conveyed soley rests on the sholders of the creators of the films.

Last example:

Hero gets the girl and rides off to the sunset, great happy ending.

It's the same ending if the hero wants to drive off in eco friendly vehicle and the girl wants to wait till she get's married to have sex with the hero because of religious reasons.

Human emotion is how we can tell where not robots - forgot where i got this from, lol
 
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I'm ready to pre order the DVD, I'd buy it just for the great DVD commentary

I'm ready to pre order the DVD, I'd buy it just for the great DVD commentary

taormina said:
69 DVDs would suck, my friend.

Thankfully I will never be selling DVDs to end viewers.

I know it's 69,000 page loads not unique visitors, but it is a healthy thread nevertheless.
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The whole talk about getting named actors in makes perfect sense to me. There are thousands of films made in the US every year and most will never see the light of day. But if Corrado is a ok movie with Tom Sizemore it will cover its costs and makes some money on DVD and TV sales.

Which is ALL ADAM EVER WANTED.

Thanks Adam, great thread man.
 
lhmaloney said:
So it's up to you if you want to have an agenda, and I think it's a cop out for anyone to say I have to be true to the genre, and it can either be an art film or a true action or comedy or blah blah meaning it has to be dumbed down. So I don't necessarily believe you can't have both and be successful.
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That's an interesting idea and certainly there's a lot of great examples of successful films with great themes.

I think any great movie has a theme of some kind if you look hard enough at it (Spielberg's "Duel" has been dissected as having multiple themes, but Spielberg insists that it's just as simple and obvious as it appears with nothing beneath the surface). Even most bad ones do. The bigger difference, imho, are the ones that take time to actually talk about it and make a point of it. Shawshank Redemption is my favorite example of this in their theme of "hope".

Some movies would be hurt by having them at the forefront however. Alien, for example, could've easily had sections talking about the evil corporation that screwed them all over, but instead it's a pure really scary monster movie.

Just my .02
 
I don't think it was "ALL THAT ADAM EVER WANTED!" LOL

Adam wanted everything; it wasn't just an apple. We're all ambitious, otherwise we wouldn't be in this impossible business.

Corrado will very likely make its money back. In fact this thread is enough for me to know that it will. All the marketing angles have been discussed. Corrado is already a success and no one has seen it yet. This is what's really remarkable, and it's how movies should be done. It's a big lesson for me and I think every movie maker can benefit from this example, regardless of what type of movies he or she makes.
 
I think you have to include the premise at the writing stage. If your story has no point, no theme, it's "just a story" then I think 9 times out of 10 that's going to be obvious when you're watching the finished product. You might create something trivially entertaining, but unless you have an eye for character's themes and drama as you're writing, you're never going to create something memorable.

As for this whole debate about distribution, it's just not this simple. There are plenty of distributors out there who are cookie-cutter; they know exactly what the want because it makes them money. They don't want to take risks. And then there are those that exclusively take risks, present challenging films. Often these companies fail because you can't afford to lose a gamble like that more than a few times. The inspired distributors continue to be able to present enlightening films that have something new to say. Then, of course, there are all the other independent distributors (or studio-based independents, the vast majority of which have folded this year) who try to do both... try to put out interesting films while also playing safe. I think the fact that they're all failing is proof enough that these sorts of compromises are too much to ask.
 
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