Have you ever worked on a movie that never got finished?

after_effects

after_effects

Carbonite Member
I've got this terrible taste in mouth for indie movies. I've worked on a bunch, but it turns out that none of them got finished.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Now that i think about it, i feel really let down. I mean, why did you even bug me to help you on this project? The only short movies that got finished were mine own, basically because i shot and edited them.
 
It's so much more easier to finish movies nowadays because of the NLE systems and the web as outlet.

It would be very instructive if you'd tell us what were the movies about and what were the reasons you think they weren't finished.
 
@filmman,

The director of the movie never went to film school and never knew what they were doing. The film was about a secret agent and the movie wasnt slated. It was missing scenes later in post and needed a reshoot but no one came.

Another movie was about a tennis game, we had everything set up and all the equipment, but no one took command and it failed.
 
i worked on a war project that was part revolutionary war and part wwii.... the budget was pretty high - we had a cast of 20 -25 soldiers with munitions that filmed 3 nights in a row and 4 days of shooting the bulk of the revolutionary war scenes . Quality crew with features behind their belt and everything. The only X factor was the director (who just got out of USC). I would guess that its budget was 300k for production of the war scenes.

For whatever reason the director went awol. He had paid everyone (as far as i know) but sort of let it on the shelf. It wasn't really a bad project either. People call him every now and then for reel footage, i guess he PAs for comm. now and isn't interested in finsihing it for his reel.
 
I was hired to direct a feature straight out of NYU. It was a Spanish language 35mm feature by a straight-to-video company in Mexico. They wanted to hire an American to increase the chances of it going theatrical.

We had four big stars from Mexico, we were shooting in Atlanta and Guadalajara. I hired the crew, my wife quit her job to help produce, I brought on every friend I could...

...and it was a disaster. The Executive Producer was embezzling the budget and telling the investors I didn't know how to stay on budget. I was about 5% under budget and he told them I was 30% over. I had no idea this was going on. We shot the first half of the film in Atlanta and despite a dozen weird disasters created by the Executive Producer we had a great film in the can.

The transfer facility in Atlanta told us it was the best looking independent they'd ever seen. The Mexican stars (who sat in on one of our transfer sessions, because I was very young and not trusted) walked up to the Executive Producer and said it was the best film they'd ever worked on. CineMex (CineMark's Mexico chain) got wind of the film and it appeared we were going to get a theatrical release. We went to Guadalajara and prepped the second half of the movie...

...and then everything fell apart. I was driving back from an audition in Guadalajara with one of the investors. He was complimenting my skill but lecturing me on going over budget. I said "What do you mean I'm over budget? Roger Fernandez just told me you pulled 20% out of the budget and I'd have to make due with less. I've been 5% under budget for the entire movie!"

We put two and two together. The investor FLIPPED OUT. He starts driving like a mad man. We pull up to Roger's townhouse in a small suburb outside of Guadalajara. It's 1:00 AM and he's honking the horn, flashing the lights and rips up the small lawn in front of Roger's home. He's slamming on the door BANG BANG BANG.

We go inside. They have a screaming match in Spanish. I understand about 25% (maybe more, since so much of it was cursing) I go back to my hotel and tell the crew "I think we're screwed."

We drink while watching Back To The Future II in Spanish. Roger can't pay us our salaries. The movie is shut down. Many of my friends blame me. My wife scrambles to get a job. I'm unemployed...

...I learned a lot from the experience. It's easy to be glib about it, but honestly, it was a tremendous learning experience. I didn't fully process everything I learned for nearly 7 years. But, eventually I was able to see how it shaped my attention to detail, why as a director I want to be intimately involved in the budget, why I want to meet the investors of any project and why my wife and I always have a safety net whenever I jump into a risky endeavor.

I also learned how to produce in Mexico. Man, I was stunned how far a dollar could go if one is perceived as a Mexican filmmaker. We shut down national parks for $50.00 and no permit. It was awesome. Too bad we never finished the film.

Roger stiffed the transfer house so they seized the negative. They wouldn't release a copy for my DP's reel, so I never even got a reel out of it. It was as if the entire movie never happened.

Wow! I never thought I'd get to talk about this experience here on DVXuser. :crybaby:
 
I've been making movies since the 70s, so you can imagine the horror stories I can tell you -- better write a book :-) Anyway, a filmmaker should always hold on to the negative or at least a master of the movie, because one never knows with movies financed by others.

Nowadays I will never put any effort, let alone money, into any movie that I can't control. Orson Wells' last movie is in a vault in Paris. The producer wants $5 million for the negative.

If there is any way to buy a negative of a movie you worked on, it's not a bad idea to recover such movies. It's our life's blood :-) There are creative ways to finish movies now. There are no length requirements today. You can have a movie any length and put it online ... for sale even.

I'm scrambling to finish alll my movies now. That's why I asked...

Thanks everyone for sharing this information. We've all have the same problems, because there are a lot of dreamers and amateurs out there who should've never been in the movie business.

Fr. Mortiarty :-) used to say, "it's the few that make it hard on everybody."
 
man, i feel really bad for you... but you are an awesome storyteller... maybe we should make a book about this
 
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