"Corrado" - A production blog

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Got the score back from the composer last night.....the full movie. Let me tell you, I am so impressed with the music for this film. This guy Ryan Franks went and did his own thing and it sounds great. The score changes the feel of the movie, making it feel grittier, making it feel more like I had in mind.

This guy is a genius. No sappy orchestral score for Corrado....this is a dirty LA streets type film. I love it!
 
Glad to hear you like what he did on his own volition. It could have easily gone the other way...seen it happen many a time. You know...the 'what were you thinking' reaction...

On the other hand, giving a composer free rein can produce some of the most inspired results, since he's not having to second guess himself, or you. I bet he absolutely loves you for allowing him that...or he should anyway... : )
 
I **** you not

those articles made me cry.
Oh well, back to creating the business plan
All those articles do is knock down the competition

:)
 
Wow. Pretty depressing. Thanks for posting those links, Shawn. Would you be able to point me to the threads where people are discussing the WSJ article? I need some counterpoints, stat. :)

Thanks.
 
shawneous said:
Hey Adam,
Not sure if you've touched on it, but I'd love for you to weigh in on the articles going around about the state of Indie filmmaking. I think you have a very valid viewpoint on this

The WallStreet Journal article everyone's mentioning
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122039884622592871.html

Then the IndieWire article
http://www.indiewire.com/biz/2008/06/irst_person_fil.html
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll take a shot at this - even though Corrado isn't distributed yet. Honestly, I've got tons of interest, but interest is not a sale!

After reading these two articles they strike me as very domestically minded. A few words struck me:

Box Office: Both articles are fixated on box office takes, as if that is the only revenue a movie ever makes. I could be wrong, but I never saw DVD revenue, pay per view, or video on demand revenues ever mentioned in that article. The writers seem to be stuck on box office draws, which are maybe 1/2 of all revenue (if that) a film will ever see. They mentioned "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead". I rented that movie..where is the revenue from that??

Independent Film: Really? $26M movies are independents? I suppose they are in terms of studio affiliations, but when you make a mediocre $26M movie, are you really stumped as to why it didn't recoup it's cost?? The lowest film mentioned in the wall street article was the "modest $8M" one. Come on, that's huge money! I don't feel so bad for people who are having trouble financing $20M plus pictures, I don't care who is in them!

***************

Copious in it's absence was the term foreign. No one even mentioned it. All that mattered to the writers was the shrinking domestic market. Foreign sales accounts for like 2/3 of a film's revenues!!!! And most of that ISN'T theatrical, it's DVD sales, pay per view, and VOD in other countries.

Avi Lerner was mentioned. Considering he's a guy that I have heard doesn't even care about domestic sales, I'm sure most of his interview was edited out. All he does is foreign. He's made his money doing foreign. TONS of money.

If the market is so bad, why does a quick scan of IMDB reveal Avi has 17 films in production, and 10 projects in development??? Didn't anyone tell him about these articles, that the sky really is falling!!!!

My theory is thus - if you can make decent little movies, sell them, and make a few bucks, you'll get to keep making more. I think a distrib will far more likely take a chance doing a dvd deal on a sub $2M picture than on a $8-26M shitty film, and that's what it boils down to.

I think the real independent filmmakers....the INDEPENDENT INDEPENDENTS can make just as decent a movie as the bigger guys, but have a better cast, better production value, and a smaller production cost per day than the bigger guys.

We work smarter, harder, and forsake the comforts of unionized crews, long shoot schedules, mega trailer farms, craft service every ten minuts, and fat producers walking around doing nothing.

Mark Gill really doesn't know what independent means. Personally, I don't think Par Vantage, Dimension, Weinstein Co, Magnolia, and all those guys are really indies at all...they're like little studios, not indies.

Plus a $26M movie should be GREAT. Man, 15 years ago that size flick would have come from a studio! Now they need that to make a stupid rom com with no effects!!! And you can bet on that set that their A listers are working for half the film's budget, there are union crews with 30 guys standing around, teamsters in the parking lot, SAG bonds, completion bonds, massive trailer complexes and first class accommodations for everyone.

And on top of that they make a mediocre film. They deserve everything they get!


I can make a mediocre film for under $400K, sell it to everyone from Swaziland to Paraguay, and make my modest budget back, going on to make another film.
 
Thanks Adam, I like your thoughts.

Here's one to add...I think the articles glaringly neglect to mention what genre of films are being passed over. I feel it's the dramas that aren't selling, not the genre pieces that have any budget (generally speaking of course). My guess is that action, horror, children's and foreign languages are doing much better than "indies" as a whole. What do you think?
 
and i can't imagine studios focusing more on movies like Iron Man rather than smaller films...calling a movie like Iron Man "less risky"??????? wtf?

do they think they're going to do Iron Man numbers consistently with a bunch of $150 million dollar flicks? the bigger the flicks the bigger the risk.

i just read an article last year where george lucas said he was going to focus on smaller movies and nothing as big as star wars because he felt the return was greater.

i think the articles gave us great insight, but nothing that got me depressed personally. make good movies for as less money as you can and keep your audience in mind when writing the script.
 
Good points Adam.

I totally agree that a $26 million dollar movie better be damn good if thinks it can make a profit. Look at what the Coen brothers have done with their budgets, I think their two worst movies, Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty, had the largest budgets they've ever dealt with.

They don't smash box office records, or even profit 2-3 times the budget (save No Country and upcoming Burn After Reading) but they make quality flicks that get them their next film deal.

This doesn't particularly apply to smaller movies like Corrado, but if filmmakers with $26 million concentrated a little more on finding the right movie, and one which they can make great, not just finding unoriginal scripts and putting stars into it, they probably could make a profit.

It is a shame though when movies such as A Mighty Heart which I thought was very good has to take such terrible losses, and that Synecdoche, New York can't get picked up for some type of theater release. But the times are changing, people choose what they want to see and aren't forced as much to see 'just what's in the theaters' and so far it obvious that web released/small dvd wont achieve the numbers that box offices have.

In the end I think its great and am happy to hear this type of news, it always used to bug me when crappy movies (sure its just my opinion whats good and bad) have giant budgets. Maybe it's also time to reevaluate what's appropriate to pay actors, I love Benicio and Halle as much as the next guy, but just because they are in a movie together doesn't make me want to see it.

Edit

And on the note of Iron Man and such, sure they have crazy budget, take the new bonds films for example too, but they certainly show me something I can't see anywhere else, so they have earned my $9.00 movie ticket.
 
Also, in regard to those articles, I think unserviced niche markets are the exception as well... and I do agree with Adam, a TON of the money made for any film is overseas... the exception being some comedies, where the humor doesn't always translate internationally, but action films do very well overseas.
 
The foreign market was great in the 80s. Since then there's been a gradual decline. You're right, Brandon, movies like Corrado will sell well in the foreign market; but that might only mean about $150,000. If the film is a hit in the foreign market, it could sell even up to $800,000. It generally takes 4 years for films to sell most of the territories in the foreign market.

However, the US market has grown to be the biggest market in the 90's but now it's dwindling also. I'm talking of B-Movies now; I'm not talking about studio level movies.

I think Corrado will do well in the DVD market, and although that market is diminishing for the studio movies made for millions, Corrado could end up making over a million dollars in DVD sales alone. At least that's what it looks like to me, not having seen any of the movie yet -- just from the response to this thread...

If Corrado is picked up by a distributor who advances Adam, say, $100,000 and signs a contract for 60-40 split after negative cost, Adam could see a few million dollars from distribution in about a 3-4 year period.

Of course, by then the distributor will have advanced Adam the money to produce Hangar 14. And having Hangar 14 in pre-production now is a big advantage for Adam to line up a distributor for Corrado as well. That's how it works sometimes, especially with a sharp filmmaker like Adam :-)
 
filmman were you just talking about foreign market? and not US? because 100k seems very low. i thought when someone buys your film you get more money than that? when i hear stories of indie films selling for 1-2 million i thought thats a up front paycheck? like that movie, the signal, made for 50k sold for 2 million. wouldnt they get a 2 million check? aronofskys new movie the wrestler with mickey rourke was just bought at toronto for 4 million. id assume he gets a 4 million dollar paycheck right? all these years i was told thats how it works. correct me if im wrong.

lets say lionsgate is interested in adams movie. they buy it for 2 million. would he get a check for 2 million?

p.s. im not sure if it was toronto eigher way it was bought somewhere overseas for US distribution
 
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PB, I'm talking about Corrado and similar genre movies. It's been my experience that when Lion's Gate says they pay two million for a movie that they're really guaranteeing 2 million to be paid to the producer within a specified period, for example, let's say, 2 years. Lion's Gate is a mini-major, they pay well. They might pay $100,000 upfront when the filmmaker gives them "the deliverables," which may cost $20,000 to $50,000.

However, the B-Movie (or foreign market) distributors don't pay that kind of money for a movie. In fact, most of them pay nothing upfront. If they like a movie and decide to make an offer to distribute, they will tell the indie filmmaker, "We're going to be putting a lot of money into this movie; poster, marketing costs -- we go to Cannes and the AFM, etc. -- PR, screenings, masters, blow up to 35mm, IP-dupe-Neg -- we'll invest $100,000 in your movie -- you want us to invest this money into marketing your movie; you wouldn't want us just to give you that money and have nothing to promote your movie, right?

And the filmmaker will say, "Um." They'll say, "Exactly!" In fact, they don't have the $100,000 to give you ... or to put into the movie; but to be fair to some of these distributors, especially to those who have ecked out a living in the foreign market distribution for a number of years, they have accounts with poster artists, post houses, etc. So they will spend some money promoting your movie.

The problem is that the $100,000 they say they will spend promoting your movie, comes out of the movie revenues first, plus their 35% distribution fee. ... And this is the best case scenario; i.e., if one of these distributors decides to pick up a movie.

Now, I've heard there are some distributors who have bought movies from movie makers who post on this website. And I've heard of a movie that was made for $20,000 and sold for $30,000. I don't remember the numbers, but something like that. See, that's a whole other ball game. Horror movies, exploitation movies, "genre movies" -- that are made by the sweat and blood of filmmakers starting out -- I can understand some small distributor seeing a potential to make $150,000 in the foreign market picking up one of these movies for a small amount of money. It's a hell of a way to get started as an indie filmmaker. I'm telling you, I don't think somebody who has gone to film school and has a degree from one of the top universities being satisfied with such a deal. ... But I'm not knocking it. I mean Spielberg started out with Amblin which was made for $20,000 -- a Black and White, 20 minute movie about a kid who hitchhiked with a guitar case containing his laundry. Great effort, wonderful start -- resulting in the most successful filmmaker in the business. So it can be done, with persistence.

The point is, how many years you have to invest in this?

And another thing, distribution has changed. Hell, movie making has changed. There are no rules left -- none.

You can start with a 2 second Youtube hit and suddently you get $120,000,000 budget movie to direct. LOL
 
Adam... good post... basically all these guys are studio guys or have studio connections...

Like you say... it always funny at the IFP awards when I get my ballot to vote... its always these films that have studio connections that get nominated... again like you say the Weinstiens are not independent...
 
filmman said:
However, the B-Movie (or foreign market) distributors don't pay that kind of money for a movie. In fact, most of them pay nothing upfront. If they like a movie and decide to make an offer to distribute, they will tell the indie filmmaker, "We're going to be putting a lot of money into this movie; poster, marketing costs -- we go to Cannes and the AFM, etc. -- PR, screenings, masters, blow up to 35mm, IP-dupe-Neg -- we'll invest $100,000 in your movie -- you want us to invest this money into marketing your movie; you wouldn't want us just to give you that money and have nothing to promote your movie, right?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is how our distributor works. Not only that but they lost the M&E tracks and I don't have the materials to make new ones. Go figure. "The Fourth Beast" has been sold in Africa, Indonesia, and has been seen in some Walgreens stores right here in America. They've moved thousands of units worldwide (not bad for an $700 action film). But before anyone sees a penny they have to make $55,000 back and then we'd see a check - maybe. We knew going in how these guys worked so we said we wouldn't sale anything to them made above $2000 but under $2000 is fine just to get it on the market and get the name recognition.

-Nate
 
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