Patryk_Rebisz
Veteran
I feel we are starting to walk in circles now.
There are two kind of filmmakers - the ones who are part of the industry or the ones who want to be. The want-to-be guys would do anything for the chance to be part of it including working for free for 6 months. Unfortunately they also are, well, a bit inexperienced so even though they make up a lot with their passion the final result is usually just passable film. This group of people tends to do Hollywood-wanna-be films - that is films with stories and techniques known from big films but for much much smaller amount of $. Here is where most of the genre pictures fall in. Someone likes action films so they decide to make one but for 1/100 of the real budget (often with hopes of making it look at least 10x the budget - which always puts a question mark on my face because it still is many many times less then what the big boys are doing it for). Here it doesn't matter if the budget is $50k or even a bit more - the final result almost always looks pathetic and indeed is quite unsalable - after all why would an audience member chose to see this low budgeter instead of big budget film?
Second group is people with experienced who understand how much stuff cost, what quality of gear and crew they can expect for their money but also, and this is much more important, understand that competing with the big guys is futile on their terms. SO they create their own rules by making films that don't follow traditional rules. Because they don't follow traditional rules they are not really genre pictures - even though they might have elements of those. Those films because they create their own rules can be anything and everything (including the $). On the surface those films seem like being hard to sell but because of their uniqueness they often end up being of interest to a niche market. Because it's a niche market those films can't be really expensive (forget your $1mil film fantasy though there is a whole roster of directors - Lars von Trier and others - doing whatever they want for much more). You won't make much money with those films so your budgets have to be realistic but also becaue you know you won't make much money with those... do what you love but also pay yourself.
There are two kind of filmmakers - the ones who are part of the industry or the ones who want to be. The want-to-be guys would do anything for the chance to be part of it including working for free for 6 months. Unfortunately they also are, well, a bit inexperienced so even though they make up a lot with their passion the final result is usually just passable film. This group of people tends to do Hollywood-wanna-be films - that is films with stories and techniques known from big films but for much much smaller amount of $. Here is where most of the genre pictures fall in. Someone likes action films so they decide to make one but for 1/100 of the real budget (often with hopes of making it look at least 10x the budget - which always puts a question mark on my face because it still is many many times less then what the big boys are doing it for). Here it doesn't matter if the budget is $50k or even a bit more - the final result almost always looks pathetic and indeed is quite unsalable - after all why would an audience member chose to see this low budgeter instead of big budget film?
Second group is people with experienced who understand how much stuff cost, what quality of gear and crew they can expect for their money but also, and this is much more important, understand that competing with the big guys is futile on their terms. SO they create their own rules by making films that don't follow traditional rules. Because they don't follow traditional rules they are not really genre pictures - even though they might have elements of those. Those films because they create their own rules can be anything and everything (including the $). On the surface those films seem like being hard to sell but because of their uniqueness they often end up being of interest to a niche market. Because it's a niche market those films can't be really expensive (forget your $1mil film fantasy though there is a whole roster of directors - Lars von Trier and others - doing whatever they want for much more). You won't make much money with those films so your budgets have to be realistic but also becaue you know you won't make much money with those... do what you love but also pay yourself.
