Content & Costs
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Watching some trivia on Buck Rogers the other day and found out that the same production production company made Battlestar Galactica. Many ship interior sets were used from BG on Rogers to save money.
Looking forward to a "blockbuster" like * Masters of the Air*, but that business model is hideously expensive. Hallmark keeps the cost very low on their Christmas movies by using the same Canadian towns multiple times, shooting a movie in three weeks and sometimes keeping the same leads, adding in a new cast of supporting actors, using the same location and shooting movies back to back.
Speaking of business models...Network tv back in the day used to define a full series as 26 episodes. Today, streaming services may define a series as 8 or 10 episodes.
Returning to a thought I wallow around in a bit...How can streaming services produce good content more abundantly and cheaply?
Ok, here's the challenge... Your production company has been awarded a contract to create two series of twenty, 28 minute episodes for Appleflix. You've got to bring these episodes in for about $300,000/each. What would you do and how would you do it?
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The Italians already solved this, about 70 years ago. And they basically invented neo-Realism for cinema.
It was just after the war and no one had any money. There were no actors, everyone was destitute. There were no studios, no big production companies. So, they shot on a shoestring but everything they did still made sense: they'd cast locally, looking for farmers and clerks who have the same temperament and vibe as the characters in the story. And they shot outside, almost always outside — it was cheaper, but also added an element of realism to it.
It's not only how they made The Bicycle Thief but it's why they still teach it in film school.
And I guarantee you filmmaking like that is going to resurface. The Revenant pulled some of those tricks but I think we're going to collectively double down once everything becomes artificial.
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The Italians already solved this, about 70 years ago. And they basically invented neo-Realism for cinema.
It was just after the war and no one had any money. There were no actors, everyone was destitute. There were no studios, no big production companies. So, they shot on a shoestring but everything they did still made sense: they'd cast locally, looking for farmers and clerks who have the same temperament and vibe as the characters in the story. And they shot outside, almost always outside — it was cheaper, but also added an element of realism to it.
It's not only how they made The Bicycle Thief but it's why they still teach it in film school.
And I guarantee you filmmaking like that is going to resurface. The Revenant pulled some of those tricks but I think we're going to collectively double down once everything becomes artificial.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Content & Costs:
The Italians already solved this, about 70 years ago. And they basically invented neo-Realism for cinema.
It was just after the war and no one had any money. There were no actors, everyone was destitute. There were no studios, no big production companies. So, they shot on a shoestring but everything they did still made sense: they'd cast locally, looking for farmers and clerks who have the same temperament and vibe as the characters in the story. And they shot outside, almost always outside — it was cheaper, but also added an element of realism to it.
It's not only how they made The Bicycle Thief but it's why they still teach it in film school.
And I guarantee you filmmaking like that is going to resurface. The Revenant pulled some of those tricks but I think we're going to collectively double down once everything becomes artificial.
That's interesting.
I wonder...How much cheap talent is available in a small town, between local theater groups and just open call?
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Content & Costs:
The Italians already solved this, about 70 years ago. And they basically invented neo-Realism for cinema.
It was just after the war and no one had any money. There were no actors, everyone was destitute. There were no studios, no big production companies. So, they shot on a shoestring but everything they did still made sense: they'd cast locally, looking for farmers and clerks who have the same temperament and vibe as the characters in the story. And they shot outside, almost always outside — it was cheaper, but also added an element of realism to it.
It's not only how they made The Bicycle Thief but it's why they still teach it in film school.
And I guarantee you filmmaking like that is going to resurface. The Revenant pulled some of those tricks but I think we're going to collectively double down once everything becomes artificial.
That's interesting.
I wonder...How much cheap talent is available in a small town, between local theater groups and just open call?
@Jolly said in Content & Costs:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Content & Costs:
The Italians already solved this, about 70 years ago. And they basically invented neo-Realism for cinema.
It was just after the war and no one had any money. There were no actors, everyone was destitute. There were no studios, no big production companies. So, they shot on a shoestring but everything they did still made sense: they'd cast locally, looking for farmers and clerks who have the same temperament and vibe as the characters in the story. And they shot outside, almost always outside — it was cheaper, but also added an element of realism to it.
It's not only how they made The Bicycle Thief but it's why they still teach it in film school.
And I guarantee you filmmaking like that is going to resurface. The Revenant pulled some of those tricks but I think we're going to collectively double down once everything becomes artificial.
That's interesting.
Absolutely blew my mind when I learned of it. Highly recommend the movie, too. (The Italian one, not the Chinese remake. They understood nothing about the original.)
I wonder...How much cheap talent is available in a small town, between local theater groups and just open call?
For people to actually do a great job?
You'll have tons of exceptional character actors. I mean exceptional. All they have to do is be comfortable playing themselves.
For lead roles, I think every small town's got a handful of folks who'd be great. Many of which don't even know it.
Gregory Crewdson has been making these ridiculously planned, highly technical movie-set-like photographs for decades now, all in the same PA small town. He always gets locals as "actors." (Remember, photography, but still.) The town doesn't understand him at all or why he's fascinated by them, but he admits that neither does he. They're always obliging about being part of it, though.
The documentary about him is fascinating, and it's fun to watch the hard-ass diner waitress figure out how to act, and what she thought about the experience.
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Wish I had money, I'd bankroll you to do a pilot.
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@Jolly said in Content & Costs:
Wish I had money, I'd bankroll you to do a pilot.
I'd so do it.
Awhile back, I was going into the coffee shop here, rounded the corner from where I locked my bike, and saw a shitload of people with lights and tripods up. A guy with a clipboard held his hands up to me, begging me to not go any further.
There was this dude I see in the mornings sometimes, he was sitting on a bench just a few feet away. I slid over and asked him what the hell was going on. A friend of his was doing an indie movie—a period piece about the 20s. He recommended they shoot part of it at the antique store because the entrance has cobblestones and a seriously old front door.
I just sat there. It was a hell of a lot of fun watching them.
