I'm STUCK directing a HORRIBLE movie! advice?

Richard J. Johnson

Richard J. Johnson

Joystick Member
I am stuck directing a "film" that I know will be horrible because the script is just plain bad. IMHO. We had the table read and saturday and no one so much as smirked at the dialog. It is supposed be a comedy. The reason I am stuck is because the writer/producer is my boss at my 9 to 5. I make decent money and Pissing him off is not an option due to my debt load and kids. I am his boss in the field and we established that. It is very strange. Now I can't not do the movie and My head is not into it at all because I hate the script. And even after I had him re-write the entire thing because of the poopness it is still bad, just not as bad.

On top of that He is not paying any of the expenses involved in shooting. He is having some money issues I understand that but damn if you are the producer then you have to do something other than show up, jump on your laptop and read along with the actors.

I managed to save $4000.00 for a used HVX200, and a used mac Laptop and I have 2 kids, $1500.00 month in car paymets, a hefty mortgage payment and still keep the lights on. I am sorry for ranting.:(
I don't know what to do. I just know I won't give it my all.
 
Can't you make something up and tell him you dont have the time to do it? Or set him aside and tell him you think the script has some serious flaws, but at the same time offer to help re-write it maybe? Or if its a short just trudge through it and hope he never writes another one.
 
Hey you never know, this film might be so bad, that it becomes good. Sorta like a Cult Following. It has happen. So do it. But only if you don't have to spend your own money.
 
You have 3 options-
1) Quit, but you already said that isn't really an option, and it is the coward's way out.
2) Take Jeff's advice, and suggest that it needs to be reworked. This might work, or it may infuriate him. It would also take more time and money, something neither of you really don't have.
3) Just do it, and do the best you can to make it not suck. If the thing has the possibility of being so bad it is funny, go with that approach.

Number 2 or 3 are your best options.
 
Money talks. If he is not paying for anything, hand him a bill now! Show him the expenses you have incurred. Tell him you will need to be paid for expenses weekly and when he sees the bill, he will realize the film is an investment. If he can not pay, tell him to get back to you when he can and you will continue the film.

If he see's it as an investment, then maybe will take it more serious .
 
Aside from the concern that the movie credit will hurt your career, ultimately it can't be that bad.

If he takes criticism well then let him know what you think. If not, then just roll with it and call it a lesson learned. Any experience is good experience. You will learn something from this, even if it is just to think twice before taking on a project like this. Use this experience to learn to do your best even when the circumstances are hopeless. Having that attitude can't hurt in the long run.

However the part about not paying expenses is where you should draw the line. If he is having money problems this is about the worst hobby he can have. Tell him you are broke and can't continue to pay these expenses... unless of course he is willing to give you a raise a the 9 to 5 that is :)


Batutta - LOL, I'd never heard of Alan Smithee before - thanks
 
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Thanks for all of the advice. I Have to shoot it, So I will just do the best I can. I wish you could read this thing. And I will not pay a single cent towards anything until he gives me some money. I told him I need Money for a hard drive to dump the footage. He gives me 60 bucks. what the hell kind of drive can I buy with 60 bucks? nothing I will trust to put HD footage on. I am putting together a list of expenses and if he can not pay then I can not shoot. He wants locations, props etc. He is a friend and It was'nt for him I would not even be doing narrative work so I have to respect that. But it is what it is. Films cost money, I am all out of it. Again thank you for the advice, I feel better about it.

AND Alan Smithee may have to direct this thing Battuta.

This a feature length film.
 
filthrich said:
what the hell kind of drive can I buy with 60 bucks? nothing I will trust to put HD footage on.
Click to expand...

Not fully related to your thread but on the above point fatwallet.com is your friend. You can get great Seagate 1TB drives for 60 bucks routinely.
 
This is an easy one.

1. Do up a complete budget
2. Hand it to him
3. Listen to him say "It's gonna cost that much?!"
4. Pretend to be enthusiastic about the film as he says "I'm real sorry, but we can't get the budget - film scrapped".
 
You certainly aren't the first to be stuck in a production that you can't stand and can't get out of.

I got trapped editing an indie feature for a friend (that seems to be the trap word, eh?). By the time he brought it to me, another editor had already done a rough cut on it, so I got the FCP project files and a couple drives full of the footage.

It wasn't long into the edit sessions that I realized a few things:
- The DP did not know how to maintain time code on his tapes, so there were TC breaks, jumps, resets, etc., that all occurred mid-reel. And he did not know how to label the reels, either, so the time code issues were harder to track.
- The audio guy never once listened off-cam, only off-mixer. The dialog overmodulated more times than I care to recall.
- A third player who had been recruited to take care of logging and batch capturing had not payed close attention to any of the time code problems, and also did not bother to note tape problems: one of the worst edits I had to fix was explained to me as "the best takes had tape issues and we couldn't use them." One look at those clips told me that it was a DV capture problem, and simply dumping and recapturing those clips cleared up the issues.
- The first editor had no clue how to organize either video layers or audio tracks on a time line.

So I forged ahead, just trying to turn it into something watchable. The sad part was that the script was actually good. The director (also the writer) had a great vision and some pretty funny dialog, but was plagued with inexperienced crew. After all, he is a friend. But I knew in the back of my mind that I was putting my name on something that didn't hit my standards.

I had my share of arguments with the director. As an editor, there were things I knew just did not work and I had to stand my ground for quality's sake. He had some good calls, but I wasn't afraid to question him at all.

Then came the audio post. He found a composer to score the film. The compser also offered to do the post work, which was a huge mistake. He insisted on doing a 5.1 mix, and this was not a film that warranted surround sound. I was wary of his skills in post, but the director insisted. I sent 5 DVCAM tapes (one for each reel) and 5 OMF files. I got five reels worth of audio in return, but no tapes. Then one of the drives crashed. Since the DVCAMs were of locked picture lacking only some graphic overlays, I asked where they were so that we could recapture the master reels. "Oh, the compser didn't think we needed those back, and he says he's already recorded over them."

So we had to recapture and reconnect media. With the problems in logging the first time around, a lot of stuff recaptured out of sync and had to be manually realigned. And it was hard to find the clips on the source tapes, since the time code didn't give much idea of where things acutally were (nor did the logging notes).

Once that was done, I pulled in the posted audio. Only got the surround files, no stereo mix. And the surround assignments were all messed up. Dialog was everywhere, not just in the center channel. There was nothing low about the LF. And a lot of the sound beds were also in C as well as FL and FR. So I had to make a hack stereo mix out of the 5.1 stems.

The OMFs I had sent had 2-pop tone, and the files I got back had that, but each channel was a frame or two ofset from the next. The tone pop was useless. After I got everything manually aligned, I found a few pieces of dialog in the middle of the film that were out of sync, though everything else was in sync. I had to go to the source audio and try to make it match. I cannot tell you how much I had to do to make the source dialog sound as bad as the "posted" audio. It took using the free DigiRack compressor in ProTools, for starters... known for being a signal killer. A few bad plug-ins later, I had destroyed the signal enough to make it fit.

Here's the real kicker: the post audio files the composer sent back... the entire mix... had a hiss in it: a nasty and noticeable noise floor, even under black. I sent an OMF, he used Cakewalk (?!), and it should never have left the digital realm. How does this happen in the digital world? Well, he found a way.

We got the project finished, despite it all. At the very least, it's a really good cult-following campus comedy. A lot of bad acting, but still watchable.

So there. Hope you feel a little bit better about this, and know that you have my complete sympathy for anything you go through in this project.
 
Well if I were him and put this into your hands to film, which was costing me money. I'd want to know the truth about the film and what's going on in your head. Just pull him aside and nicely explain your opinion on it. I think he'll respect your opinion and your concern for his investment.
 
You really do need to just be up front about the script. You can do it in a tactful manner and get your feelings out on the table about the project. Make logical suggestions, things like that.

Twocik has it right, he'll respect you more for trying to protect his money instead of fearing him and letting him blow it on a shoddy product.
 
tmnt said:
This is an easy one.

1. Do up a complete budget
2. Hand it to him
3. Listen to him say "It's gonna cost that much?!"
4. Pretend to be enthusiastic about the film as he says "I'm real sorry, but we can't get the budget - film scrapped".
Click to expand...

Man I should have thought of that earlier. We start on saturday but we will not finish until he helps me out.

C2V-that is one hell of a mess you jumped into. and you still got it done.

I know this will suck but I will just do a lot of one takes and make the days quick to get it over with. I will make my AD take the director credit. He already said he would jump in front of the bus for me. :beer: or Alan Smithee will come out. :Drogar-Dum(DBG):

The first script was so bad I just told him straight up. He re wrote it, set up auditions and cast the thing before I could even approve the damn thing.

The plot is two Male slackers try to get female sports stars pregnant so they can have their babies and then take em to court to get full custody and live lavish. basically reverse of what females try to do to rich men.

Now this could be done if done correctly.

This was the first project he brought to me and I backburnered it for over a year. Now I may have to face the music.

I am taking all of your advice and devising a plan to get out. Thank you all very much
 
Point is, yes, I got it done. But I did everything I could to improve the end-product. Even if it meant a few heated debates with the director. You have already established that, on the set, you're the boss (as you said in your OP). So you have a good stance to make changes on-set. If this can be done in a way that makes it work, and you feel that you have that vision, then do it.

Remember, editing fixes a lot of timing issues with delivery. You can't fix bad acting, but you can pace weak dialog to make it stronger. Who knows? You might end up with something good because you made it that way. If you think you have the vision, see where you can take it.

My drama was a learning experience. I learned a lot about myself, as I'd never had to deal with a mess like that before. I think I'm better for it. Granted, I did get paid (meagerly, but nonetheless). But I think both I and the film are better for it.
 
Shoot the trailer.

Go to him and say you have some hesitations about script, crew etc and offer him a solution. Tell him you want to shoot the trailer first to test script ideas AND PRODUCTION WORKFLOW. The trailer will either suck and you can use it as a test or might find that it is not that bad and it could get you excited about the project.

good luck
 
Tell him you had an epiphany... that it is such a great concept (very well could be the foundation for a good movie) that it deserves a bigger budget, better cast and that you want to help him with the script to make it perfect. Tell him that you really think you should stop before you make it too "small".

Then find him a writer to help him and stay involved with that. Basically, make it a good project by ways of believing in what it could be and pushing it up the hill.
 
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