Mariah Cary

KNIGHTBLAZE said:
Yeah but she looks good for her age thou. There is a scene in our film in which the heroines are invited to pop concert and meet their idol .Their idol gives them an encouraging peep talk about hope and courage. It's quite an effective and crucial scene that is the turning point in the film.
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Why not just make a "fictional" pop star in the world of the film? That way you can hire any young, attractive actress to play the part and save yourself a ton of headache. Hollywood movies do this sort of thing all the time...

If a movie needs to have Mariah Carey to make a 30 second cameo (as well as a song for the soundtrack), in order to be successful, it probably wasn't that strong of a script to begin with...
 
Although we are making some small changes to the script it's very tight after 9 re-writes. The point about Mariah I was trying to make is that it gives the film credibility. I always read and hear that distributors want some type of talent name attached and such. So that's why I suggested Mariah and such but reading all these posts got me thinking to change strategies. When I mentioned Debbie Gibson to my partner he kind of gave me a confused look as if he didn't who she was for a moment till I had to refresh his memory and even still he doesn't remember her all that well so what makes think a distributor will. We have between $7,000-$8,000 in our budget to allocate for talent between 2-4 days. We need someone that is recognizable, will be marketable. Someone the distributor would give a green light for. I will see if I can stretch it out and go to $9,000 but that would be the limit. We don't want to cut into our production budget.
 
IMHO you're going to have a very tough time getting what you're describing for what you have to spend. I wish I were wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure I'm not...
 
Knight, it's not gonna happen. Mariah's SAG, you're going to have to sign the SAG contract, you're going to have to fly her in first class (because that's what the SAG contract requires) and that ticket alone might cost you $1000. You're going to have to put her up in first class hotels, and that's going to cost $300+ per night. You're going to have to shuttle her around in limousines. You're going to have to pay per diems, meal penalties, and SAG fringes. She's not gonna scab on a no-budget picture for $7k. She sneezes and wipes he nose with thousand dollar bills.

Don't spend time chasing a dead end. Instead, find out what you can do to put the odds in your favor. Call some distribs, tell them what you're planning, and ask them what they'd suggest. They'll tell you whether Debbie Gibson or Mariah Carey would add any credibility to your film, etc. After all, they (the distributors) are your target market -- they're your customer. Why not ask them what they'd like to see? They'll tell you.
 
Yeah, honestly, $9000 is nothing. It's like trying to buy a Rolex with a dollar bill.

With only $9000 I would use that money for something else, unless you have some nifty connections.
 
Barry's right. But keep in mind most of these distributors make their money overseas. Debbie may not be popular in the USA but may still be big in other countries. Vivica Fox is on CYU right now so her value just went up. Chyna's in a film called "A Night at the Silent Movie Theater" (And Chyna does sing) but I don't know if you're specifically looking for a singer or a name. If you're specifically looking for a singer you may want to go with Debbie if she's not SAG. This is key, sidestep her mom, go through her agent, seriously.

And what's Pebbles doing now days? Taylor Dayne was at Wizard World Chicago trying to get me to pay $25 to take a Photo with her, I'm sure she'd be glad to hear from you and she's still smoking. There's a lot of ways you can go with this.

But honestly if you have $7000 - $8000 you can score some TV actors. Get someone from any of those WB shows. Talk to agents. Tell them you have $3000 for someone for a day and see who you can get (they'll try to talk you up of course). You may have to go SAG ultra-low budget but think about that if you want a name, or look for SAG Core talent that can sing. Take a look at IMDB pro and see who reps who. Anyone over 10,000 is still considered "known", anyone over 5000 is considered a good pull. But talk to your distributor and see what they think.

-Nate
 
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Maybe Knight wrote a killer script.

Vince Gallo hired Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Houston on Buffalo 66. He hired them for peanuts. Yes...he had a few connections, but he also wrote one hell of a script.

Mariah Carey may forgo the first class ticket, five star hotel and reduce her fee if she is blown away by your story and her part
 
Call me crazy but Mariah never struck me as the greatest actress.
And remember, if she has a mental breakdown on set.. she will still want to get paid.
 
No. Mariah is out. You all have convinced me of that. I just recieved good word. The limit has been raised to max 12,000. It doesn't have to really be a singer. Most of WB talent have resumed work on the Fall season and that pretty much goes for other television talent.
 
That budget level is good for one name talent (but do watch your overall SAG requirements), I'm sure you can get a name, but I don't know if you'll get a name and a SONG at the level you'd hoped.

-M
 
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