Sci-Fi on a budget

[catsclaw227]

This guy got a $30 million deal with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures.

I'd say that the initial $300 was well spent.

 

[Pbartender]

Perhaps I have my "Negative Nancy" hat on today, but I see three possible outcomes.

1) He turns in Hollywood quality on a fraction of the budget, something Bollywood has been flirting with for a while, but no one cares, because they are foreign. If this occurs, he will be burned in effigy by the Hollywood establishment, given no marketing, and his movie will open on, at most, 5 screens. He will more than make back his investment more times over than most blockbusters, but be considered a box office flop and be next seen doing Japanese commercials with RDJ and Jude Law.

2) He goes Hollywood fo' realz, and everyone involved turns in Hollywood standard work for Hollywood standard pay and spends the rest of their Hollywood standard time rolling around in piles of money like the standard Hollywood scene out of Indecent Proposal. The movie will gross a hojillion dollars, but the minute anyone looks at a financial report, it will appear that the film lost money so that his material can be handed over to Michael Bay for sequels.

3) In an effort to prevent outcome #1, he will be inundated hourly with illicit narcotics, loose women, and high quality alcohol. This one is unpredictable in outcome, because those events could have both positive and negative impacts on film quality and his Hollywood standing.

4) Kevin Smith.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I know what I'd do with his deal.

I'd make a $600 movie.

 

[SKyOdin]

From what I hear, the $300-600 figure is pretty deceptive. That is the price of the software and hardware the guy used to produce the special effects (whether that is cheap or not I will leave to someone else more knowledgeable). However, the real cost of high-end special effects comes from hiring a dozen or more skilled special effects artists to work on a project for 8+ hours a day for two years or so.

It would actually be impressive if the guy said: "I made this movie over the course of a single weekend." If it took him a year to make this, than this is nothing special.

Voices from a Distant Star is a lot more impressive of an achievement. The creator, Makoto Shinkai, made the entire 30 min animated (both traditional hand-drawn and CGI) theatrical movie by himself on a single Macintosh computer. In the director's cut version, Shinkai and his wife even do the voice-acting. That movie was released on DVD in both Japan and the US.

 

[catsclaw227]

From what I hear, the $300-600 figure is pretty deceptive. That is the price of the software and hardware the guy used to produce the special effects (whether that is cheap or not I will leave to someone else more knowledgeable). However, the real cost of high-end special effects comes from hiring a dozen or more skilled special effects artists to work on a project for 8+ hours a day for two years or so.

It would actually be impressive if the guy said: "I made this movie over the course of a single weekend." If it took him a year to make this, than this is nothing special.

Voices from a Distant Star is a lot more impressive of an achievement. The creator, Makoto Shinkai, made the entire 30 min animated (both traditional hand-drawn and CGI) theatrical movie by himself on a single Macintosh computer. In the director's cut version, Shinkai and his wife even do the voice-acting. That movie was released on DVD in both Japan and the US.

Haven't heard of Voices from a Distant Star before. I'll need to look into it.

But, about this film... I imagine that Raimi's company wouldn't have shelled out $30mil if this guy wasn't something special. Not to say that Voices from a Distant Star isn't a more impressive example, but this guy is getting huge hype for reasons that are known by the industry.

I imagine that he is as good as he appears to be.

 

[masshysteria]

The director talks about the real costs of flim making here: Twenty Sided » Blog Archive » Let’s Make a Movie!

Interesting and shows why the $300-$500 cost isn't taking a lot into consideration.