Corrado Part II

Oh yeah! I'd like to humbly nominate post #342 as some of the greatest truth per square inch ever laid down.

she has proven me wrong there so many times it's embarrassing. apparently, i don't know anything.
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Wisdom is always a good thing, no matter how you find it...or it finds you...
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So how come it always tastes so bad . . . . .

Awesome pearls these last posts people - always nice to realize one is not alone in being alone . . .

Thanks!
 
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So will we see a situation where only studios can make movies again.....or only indies?
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Only no budget indie filmmakers LOL

I'll make a movie about the depression :-)

How I Survived the Depression and Made a Movie About it.
 
taormina said:
Say what you like, I guess. I don't really remember saying "no criticism". At this point any and all criticism is kind of moot - the movie is done, I can't really replace cast members or re-edit, etc.
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Alright, here are my impressions after reading the magazine article on Corrado, then watching the Vimeo trailer, then reading a bit about your experience on the forums.

If I'm correct, you spent around $420k on this film. Either that means you pulled a Hollywood and actually spent $125k on this film... or you were an honest man and spent $420k. Either way, this is a significant amount of money. If this money came out of your pocket, then almost everything I'm about to say is completely worthless since you're not putting others' money (and your reputation as a businessman) at risk.

So, IF that was investors' money:

You filmed a feature on an HVX. That means that your wide (wide and long) shots are innately fuzzy (in effect: low-resolution), it also means that your whites are blown out to oblivion. I noticed both of these in your trailer, and I'm sure it's everywhere throughout the rest of your film. I bring this up for one primary reason: Visually, it looks low-quality. This automatically bars it from a variety of distributions and severely puts a dent in its value to acquisition executives. If you absolutely could only afford shooting on an HVX, you should have properly lit ALL of your scenes (including compositing with green screen for the blown out whites) and you should likely have used some heavy post-production visual effects to give the whole movie a sort of rustic, blown-out feel. That could have even played well with your subject matter. But, since you didn't do either of these things (putting aside the rest of your production values, which I can't critique having not seen the film) what you have is a film that looks like it was done by a talented amateur with a lot of dedication and drive. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean squat when it comes to ROI.

Your best bet for a film like this is to shop it around at all the big name festivals. It looks like it could get into some big-namers. Probably not Sundance or anything, but definitely Boston and Austin, etc. Probably even SXSW. This will get your name on some executives' lists and consequently put you in the running for a deal down the line. So, my ultimate point is that the best this movie will do you is further your career in terms of recognition and potential future deals, but it won't make you a dime back (even if you sold it, you'd never see a penny). Your investors are already completely out of luck. Now, if they are very rich and a 20k loss each is nothing, you're not in as bad shape--and that probably IS the case. But, either way, I doubt they'll be particularly impressed. Regardless, you keep talking on these forums as if it's amazing and it's going to sell big and you're going to make money. That's the complete wrong way to look at it because, even though I haven't seen it, I'm 90% sure it's total crap. All amateur narrative features are. It's the name of the game. And, 95% of those filmmakers think they're freaking amazing.

Now, it's possible that everything I said is irrelevant because you've already stated everything I've said here and have thought about it long and hard already, but the way you talk from post to post is fairly strong-headed and I wasn't about to go back and read everything you've been saying for 6 (plus?) months.

So, to summarize: screw selling this movie for a profit, or even selling it. Get it into some legit festivals and shop YOURSELF around as much as you can, not YOUR MOVIE. Get a deal that will pay back the majority of your 420k by working on a follow-up feature with some studio. Who knows.
 
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nitrofour said:
Alright, here are my impressions after reading the magazine article on Corrado, then watching the Vimeo trailer, then reading a bit about your experience on the forums.

If I'm correct, you spent around $420k on this film. Either that means you pulled a Hollywood and actually spent $125k on this film... or you were an honest man and spent $420k. Either way, this is a significant amount of money. If this money came out of your pocket, then almost everything I'm about to say is completely worthless since you're not putting others' money (and your reputation as a businessman) at risk.

So, IF that was investors' money:

You filmed a feature on an HVX. That means that your wide (wide and long) shots are innately fuzzy (in effect: low-resolution), it also means that your whites are blown out to oblivion. I noticed both of these in your trailer, and I'm sure it's everywhere throughout the rest of your film. I bring this up for one primary reason: Visually, it looks low-quality. This automatically bars it from a variety of distributions and severely puts a dent in its value to acquisition executives. If you absolutely could only afford shooting on an HVX, you should have properly lit ALL of your scenes (including compositing with green screen for the blown out whites) and you should likely have used some heavy post-production visual effects to give the whole movie a sort of rustic, blown-out feel. That could have even played well with your subject matter. But, since you didn't do either of these things (putting aside the rest of your production values, which I can't critique having not seen the film) what you have is a film that looks like it was done by a talented amateur with a lot of dedication and drive. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean squat when it comes to ROI.

Your best bet for a film like this is to shop it around at all the big name festivals. It looks like it could get into some big-namers. Probably not Sundance or anything, but definitely Boston and Austin, etc. Probably even SXSW. This will get your name on some executives' lists and consequently put you in the running for a deal down the line. So, my ultimate point is that the best this movie will do you is further your career in terms of recognition and potential future deals, but it won't make you a dime back (even if you sold it, you'd never see a penny). Your investors are already completely out of luck. Now, if they are very rich and a 20k loss each is nothing, you're not in as bad shape--and that probably IS the case. But, either way, I doubt they'll be particularly impressed. Regardless, you keep talking on these forums as if it's amazing and it's going to sell big and you're going to make money. That's the complete wrong way to look at it because, even though I haven't seen it, I'm 90% sure it's total crap. All amateur narrative features are. It's the name of the game. And, 95% of those filmmakers think they're freaking amazing.

Now, it's possible that everything I said is irrelevant because you've already stated everything I've said here and have thought about it long and hard already, but the way you talk from post to post is fairly strong-headed and I wasn't about to go back and read everything you've been saying for 6 (plus?) months.

So, to summarize: screw selling this movie for a profit, or even selling it. Get it into some legit festivals and shop YOURSELF around as much as you can, not YOUR MOVIE. Get a deal that will pay back the majority of your 420k by working on a follow-up feature with some studio. Who knows.
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ouch...pretty blunt, but hey.

i'm curious, why do you say "Your investors are already completely out of luck." when he's still in the process of trying to sell it?

it's not like it's been 8 to 12 months after trying to sell the film.
 
nitrofour said:
Alright, here are my impressions after reading the magazine article on Corrado, then watching the Vimeo trailer, then reading a bit about your experience on the forums.

...If this money came out of your pocket, then almost everything I'm about to say is completely worthless since you're not putting others' money (and your reputation as a businessman) at risk.

So, IF that was investors' money:

You filmed a feature on an HVX. That means that your wide (wide and long) shots are innately fuzzy (in effect: low-resolution), it also means that your whites are blown out to oblivion. I noticed both of these in your trailer, and I'm sure it's everywhere throughout the rest of your film. I bring this up for one primary reason: Visually, it looks low-quality. This automatically bars it from a variety of distributions and severely puts a dent in its value to acquisition executives. ... But, since you didn't do either of these things (putting aside the rest of your production values, which I can't critique having not seen the film) what you have is a film that looks like it was done by a talented amateur with a lot of dedication and drive. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean squat when it comes to ROI.

Your best bet for a film like this is to shop it around at all the big name festivals. It looks like it could get into some big-namers. Probably not Sundance or anything, but definitely Boston and Austin, etc. Probably even SXSW. ...So, my ultimate point is that the best this movie will do you is further your career in terms of recognition and potential future deals, but it won't make you a dime back (even if you sold it, you'd never see a penny). Your investors are already completely out of luck.

...

So, to summarize: screw selling this movie for a profit, or even selling it. Get it into some legit festivals and shop YOURSELF around as much as you can, not YOUR MOVIE. Get a deal that will pay back the majority of your 420k by working on a follow-up feature with some studio. Who knows.
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Wow! Hardcore critique! In a way I like it and in a way it kinda baffles me. I don't plan on defending taormina's movie, this critique kinda blindsided me.

All I can say is "blair witch". The Blair witch project to me was one of the worst cinematic feats to this day, yet it gossed somebody over $200 million. I don't think the average audience member cares about a few blow out whites and a few fuzzy shots. I mean Blair witch was Hi-8 400 lines of resolution and I personally saw 28 Days Later in all its 525 lines of Resolution on the big Screen and really didn't care.

The big thing is marketing. What kind of marketing drive can someone get behind. As for not making $420K back, Straight-to-DVD can easily get a sale of over $1 million. I've heard of sales upwards of $5 million to go striaght to DVD. Then you still have HBO/Cinemax. So if they sell for $370K straight to DVD, they should recoup the rest in sales and HBO. The big thing again is who is repping and what kind of hype can be created.
 
nitrofour said:
Alright, here are my impressions after reading the magazine article on Corrado, then watching the Vimeo trailer, then reading a bit about your experience on the forums.

If I'm correct, you spent around $420k on this film. Either that means you pulled a Hollywood and actually spent $125k on this film... or you were an honest man and spent $420k. Either way, this is a significant amount of money. If this money came out of your pocket, then almost everything I'm about to say is completely worthless since you're not putting others' money (and your reputation as a businessman) at risk..
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This is correct, about 420K was spent out of pocket. No lie.

nitrofour said:
You filmed a feature on an HVX. That means that your wide (wide and long) shots are innately fuzzy (in effect: low-resolution), it also means that your whites are blown out to oblivion. I noticed both of these in your trailer, and I'm sure it's everywhere throughout the rest of your film. I bring this up for one primary reason: Visually, it looks low-quality. This automatically bars it from a variety of distributions and severely puts a dent in its value to acquisition executives. If you absolutely could only afford shooting on an HVX, you should have properly lit ALL of your scenes (including compositing with green screen for the blown out whites) and you should likely have used some heavy post-production visual effects to give the whole movie a sort of rustic, blown-out feel. That could have even played well with your subject matter. But, since you didn't do either of these things (putting aside the rest of your production values, which I can't critique having not seen the film) what you have is a film that looks like it was done by a talented amateur with a lot of dedication and drive. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean squat when it comes to ROI. .
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I've mentioned several times that vimeo destroyed and artifacted the footage. It looks much better at full resolution. The blown out whites are intentionally so in the red suit scene. As far as lighting all the scenes well....you could tell that from the trailer? Wow. In any case, maybe your opinion of what you saw on the trailer is valid, but you should reserve your opinion until you see the finished footage at full resolution.

nitrofour said:
Your best bet for a film like this is to shop it around at all the big name festivals. It looks like it could get into some big-namers. Probably not Sundance or anything, but definitely Boston and Austin, etc. Probably even SXSW. This will get your name on some executives' lists and consequently put you in the running for a deal down the line. So, my ultimate point is that the best this movie will do you is further your career in terms of recognition and potential future deals, but it won't make you a dime back (even if you sold it, you'd never see a penny). Your investors are already completely out of luck. Now, if they are very rich and a 20k loss each is nothing, you're not in as bad shape--and that probably IS the case. But, either way, I doubt they'll be particularly impressed. Regardless, you keep talking on these forums as if it's amazing and it's going to sell big and you're going to make money. That's the complete wrong way to look at it because, even though I haven't seen it, I'm 90% sure it's total crap. All amateur narrative features are. It's the name of the game. And, 95% of those filmmakers think they're freaking amazing.
.
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I wonder if you've read anything I've written in the past, frankly. Thanks for the pointers on getting the film sold. As for not seeing a dime on the finished product, I'm not even going to waste my breath on that.

You're sure the film is 90% total crap before you've seen it? That's like me saying I'm 90% sure you're a total asshole before meeting you. Not fair, is it?

Speaking of amateur, it sounds like you're a professional. Please to enlighten us with your credentials.

nitrofour said:
Now, it's possible that everything I said is irrelevant because you've already stated everything I've said here and have thought about it long and hard already, but the way you talk from post to post is fairly strong-headed and I wasn't about to go back and read everything you've been saying for 6 (plus?) months.

So, to summarize: screw selling this movie for a profit, or even selling it. Get it into some legit festivals and shop YOURSELF around as much as you can, not YOUR MOVIE. Get a deal that will pay back the majority of your 420k by working on a follow-up feature with some studio. Who knows.
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I'm going to disagree with your scenario. Still, thanks for the feedback.
 
I appreciate you taking the criticism professionally and reading each bit of it, Adam. That's all I wanted to do... was give this one person's opinion. If I were in your shoes, I'd ask for everyone I knew to tell me what they think I should do with my film and what their impressions are about it. So, I figured for the sake of giving you some extremely blunt input (that most people are probably afraid of giving), I'd lay down my honest thoughts.

And, nope, I'm just like you... talented amateur. I am light years away from being a professional, but that doesn't mean I don't have a lot of experience to formulate some decent opinions for you to take in.

And, in regards to the other comments made on my message to Adam (by other users), I don't really feel like monitoring this thread actively and responding to everything, so I'll just leave it at that.
 
nitrofour said:
Visually, it looks low-quality. This automatically bars it from a variety of distributions and severely puts a dent in its value to acquisition executives. If you absolutely could only afford shooting on an HVX, you should have properly lit ALL of your scenes (including compositing with green screen for the blown out whites)
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Ah... the genius of absolute certainty.
Always amazes me in business that has no rules.
 
nitrofour said:
I appreciate you taking the criticism professionally and reading each bit of it, Adam. That's all I wanted to do... was give this one person's opinion. If I were in your shoes, I'd ask for everyone I knew to tell me what they think I should do with my film and what their impressions are about it. So, I figured for the sake of giving you some extremely blunt input (that most people are probably afraid of giving), I'd lay down my honest thoughts.

And, nope, I'm just like you... talented amateur. I am light years away from being a professional, but that doesn't mean I don't have a lot of experience to formulate some decent opinions for you to take in.

And, in regards to the other comments made on my message to Adam (by other users), I don't really feel like monitoring this thread actively and responding to everything, so I'll just leave it at that.
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Fair enough.

Taking criticism well is my new goal, thanks to Zak. :)
 
russc said:
Ah... the genius of absolute certainty.
Always amazes me in business that has no rules.
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before Shaymalyn made Sixth Sense a studio exec told him his feature was garbage and that he'd most likely be an average filmmaker at best....$1.3 billion later (and that's only from 3 of his movies) i wonder what he thinks of that comment now? and that comment was from someone who actually made successful films.
 
Well Corrado won't be as great as sixth sense...no way! Actually, it won't even be close. It's a good little movie, a product, but RRB maybe will be much closer to the mark. You just keep learning!
 
pekar1876 said:
Good on you Adam.

Do you have or are you going to have a "Sizzle Reel", it would be a good sales tool.

Did you have someone shoot a EPK for you?
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Wasn't planning on doing a sizzle reel mainly because we had no EPK footage. Yes, I know that was a mistake. One that will not be repeated.
 
taormina said:
Wasn't planning on doing a sizzle reel mainly because we had no EPK footage. Yes, I know that was a mistake. One that will not be repeated.
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It's not to late to shoot some interviews with cast and crew and then cut that with film clips. A good sit down interview with you would be good to, maybe you interviewing Tom at one of the films locations. They could be some nice DVD extras.
 
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taormina said:


*******************************************************
It's a hard road, and not many can follow it. Persevere. Bankers and doctors are going broke nowadays. Why not go broke doing something you love?

Get off your duff and do it. And keep doing it!
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The few, the proud, THE FILMMAKERS!
 
pekar1876 said:
It's not to late to shoot some interviews with cast and crew and then cut that with film clips. A good sit down interview with you would be good to, maybe you interviewing Tom at one of the films locations. They could be some nice DVD extras.
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Very good idea!
 
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