Paranormal Activity - New Horror Movie is the Next Blair Witch

Usually, during a tense, frightening movie that is well-executed... I find myself holding my hands together and clenching them tight. Not here. Nada. The movie is far from a movie experience. Its more of a YouTube experience with all the jump cutting between lines. The two performers did an exceptional job, but at what cost? Did they do 3 or 25 takes of ad-lib dialogue and mashed it together in jump cuts so they would come off a lot better than they really are...? I don't know.

I did get into a lot of the build up but the ending is a let down.
 
Maybe they were happy getting $300,000 for a $15,000 film. "They are going to pay us $300,000 for this piece of crap!!!"

I would hope after this film makes $100 million they give some people a bonus. But I doubt you find many Hollywood people who think like that. They lose on a lot of films so when they make it back on something else,,,,well that is business!!!
 
Zim said:
Maybe they were happy getting $300,000 for a $15,000 film. "They are going to pay us $300,000 for this piece of crap!!!"

I would hope after this film makes $100 million they give some people a bonus. But I doubt you find many Hollywood people who think like that. They lose on a lot of films so when they make it back on something else,,,,well that is business!!!
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He didn't get 300K. He only got 30k after the dust settled. But I digress. :)
 
Yes he made a bad deal if he only got that....and I think he should have got more too. Get 1% of the gross or something right! But he made the deal. I read the film was on a shelf for around for 2 years . Maybe he felt lucky to get what he got.
 
I haven't seen it, and while initially I heard a lot of good things, I'm starting to hear the opposite. And ever since I started RTF classes, I can't look at movies the same, so the jump cuts will probably bug me, lol

But, for those easily spooked, everything else about the movie can probably be ignored.
 
It seems so odd that people here think the filmmaker should get money equal to the investor. Where in our universe is this ever true? A construction guy comes in, puts up some sheet rock, gets paid X amount for doing so (labor plus materials), and then he's on to the next project. He doesn't then get a cut of the profits once the house is sold -- that's called investing.

If a filmmaker decides to take less money in exchange for some sort of option, that would be investing, but anything else is pretty much work-for-hire. You have a product (or skill), and you sell it, that's it, "cut and dry". You can't then turn around and say, "Wait, wait -- I DO want to invest! I didn't know you were going to be able to sell the house for so much money!"

I mean, the studio invested 10 million. They've seen something like a 600% return? He saw a 200% return -- and he got his money up front, no strings.

The investor will always make more percentage-wise than the laborer because the risks are that much greater. Obviously he should have said "No deal" and demanded at least SOMETHING from the gross. But that's what he did so he "only" earned a 200% profit.

It sucks for him, but imagine how many more movies (and potentially other indy movies) the studio will be able to produce because of those profts. If they give this guy millions of dollars out of pity...I mean...LOL...what does that do except make some guy rich who didn't even have the good sense to believe in his own project?
 
I thought it was effective in some areas whereas others not so much. For example, did the guy really think that he would win confronting a ghost.

I didn't get that at all. Clearly they had proof that something supernatural was occurring, why didn't he or both of them GTF out of there or get help in the beginning.

He's all like "no, no; I'm going to fix this". What an idiot.
 
Buck Forester said:
This is probably old news on a forum like this, but I just read where this movie is now considered the most profitable movie ever made (% return on investment wise). Over $65 mil grossed and made for less than 15 grand.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/usmovi...l-activity-becomes-most-profitable-movie-ever
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Paramount thinks it will get close to $100M B.O. (domestic) then there's dvd sales, tv rights and other revenue streams. I dunno what this weekend projections are but it'll be the bggest weekned for it.
 
I found out how much the actors were paid, $500 each for the entire movie. 7 day shoot so about $71 a day.
 
Can we throw REC, Quarantine and Cloverfield into the mix here, why is BWP the only one being mentioned.


Also is it me or did it take them 2 years to sell and or release the film? 2007 vs. 2009 - Was it staggered due the public growing tired of POV/Verite created by the above films mentioned? I.E. Yet another Blair Witch Project?

*** SPOILER BELOW ***

I mean c-mon, we all know how it all ends (every one of them), the camera tape runs out and it fades to black (everybody dead camera still running), reminiscent of eerie and very real images from the 80's of television reporters getting killed in a battle zone with their cameras still running..

Formula

ACT 1: Establishment, make the audience believe that the footage they are viewing is indeed reportage/raw footage recovered.
ACT 2: Show peril, for some reason though explain why nobody dropped the camera and ran for their life (Worked for BWP, REC/Quarantine, PA - not for Cloverfield)
ACT 3: Expand the Peril - Do the eerie ending since the movie is based on a premise of "Recovered Footage" from a "Site/Scene/Police Dept/Other Place". - Meaning in the beginning they already told you all of them are dead you just did not know how.(it's just an account of how it happened).

Is there nothing else that can be done in this genre outside of this formula?
 
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ChipG said:
I found out how much the actors were paid, $500 each for the entire movie. 7 day shoot so about $71 a day.
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I recall in another thread someone complaining about SAG and 5.4% royalties, those two must be happy about not being union actors at the by the time the film got monetized.
I'm sure someone felt bad and cut them a cheque for one or another "compelling" reason for say $20,000 together with some disclaimer/affidavit they would need to sign.
 
DJDecay said:
I recall in another thread someone complaining about SAG and 5.4% royalties, those two must be happy about not being union actors at the by the time the film got monetized.
I'm sure someone felt bad and cut them a cheque for one or another "compelling" reason for say $20,000 together with some disclaimer/affidavit they would need to sign.
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Funny you say that because what's her name had a $2500 gouche purse :) I'm sure the studio stepped up and payed for them to do their PR / shopping.
 
DJDecay said:
Can we throw REC, Quarantine and Cloverfield into the mix here, why is BWP the only one being mentioned.
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You can but I don't think we should, Cloverfiled was a $24M budget with J.J. behind it, says it all right there...

BWP is a good example, closest thing I could find to it, Cloverfield isn't really fair though.

EDIT: Bad mother F'rs behind every Cloverfield door btw.

EDIT #2: Just want to be clear here, bad from my above post = good :) You know, bad as in good. Hence the word bad ass!
 
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ChipG said:
You can but I don't think we should, Cloverfiled was a $24M budget with J.J. behind it, says it all right there...

BWP is a good example, closest thing I could find to it, Cloverfield isn't really fair though.

EDIT: Bad mother F'rs behind every Cloverfield door btw.

EDIT #2: Just want to be clear here, bad from my above post = good :) You know, bad as in good. Hence the word bad ass!
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I'm not sure how to interpret this but sure :-). I just read up on what Theodorakis did for the film, together with BandPro and PACE. The HVX200, the Viper and the F23 somewhere in the mix.

I gather you've not seen REC http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038988/
which was later re-made into Quarantine.
 
I'm not sure what your talking about. I do know Nick though (great guy) never heard of REC, sorry. I did just watch the trailer of the firemen going up in the building, looks really stupid to be honest with you... Good thing they re did it.

All I was saying was it's probably a better comparisson to BWP ($60k budet) vs. a $24M J.J. directed movie, yea Speilberg ruined the ending, everyone likes the un seen ending better (from the ones that have seen it).

What was the budget for Quarantine?
 
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