NO YOU CANNOT HAVE FOLLOW THROUGH
NOT YOURS
Friday, August 12, 2011
Monday, November 2, 2009
A Jumbled Mess
Sometimes my thoughts can be a jumbled mess.
Shocking, I know.
I feel that I should clarify some points from the first entry:
What I Intend To Do II: Electric Boogaloo
The goal of this project seems contradictory. I make declarative "I" statements, then turn around and talk about how nothing can get done without many people. So I need to define for myself what I want to accomplish.
1. Write a Script
I think this is most important. Sure, I am writing here. A whole two entries, Heavens! You know what's wrong with this format? I can throw in stuff like this:
Yes, I know. What the fuck was that?
Anyway.
I need a disciplined writing project, and I need it to be mine. So at the end of the day I can say I did this and can be judged accordingly. I need, at least in the beginning stages, it to succeed and fail based on my actions.
2. The Project Must Be Epic In Scope
This is the point I failed to properly emphasize: This needs to be HUGE
I want to write Transformers, film it with a Clerks budget, and have it get the respect of The Godfather. Lester Bangs said, via Cameron Crowe in Almost Famous, that rockstars were attempting to buy respectability in a format that was righteously dumb. I think that's a major problem with the huge sci fi epics; they know they don't get no respect and therefore do not try. What if The Blob had taken itself seriously?
Shocking, I know.
I feel that I should clarify some points from the first entry:
What I Intend To Do II: Electric Boogaloo
The goal of this project seems contradictory. I make declarative "I" statements, then turn around and talk about how nothing can get done without many people. So I need to define for myself what I want to accomplish.
1. Write a Script
I think this is most important. Sure, I am writing here. A whole two entries, Heavens! You know what's wrong with this format? I can throw in stuff like this:
Yes, I know. What the fuck was that?
Anyway.
I need a disciplined writing project, and I need it to be mine. So at the end of the day I can say I did this and can be judged accordingly. I need, at least in the beginning stages, it to succeed and fail based on my actions.
2. The Project Must Be Epic In Scope
This is the point I failed to properly emphasize: This needs to be HUGE
I want to write Transformers, film it with a Clerks budget, and have it get the respect of The Godfather. Lester Bangs said, via Cameron Crowe in Almost Famous, that rockstars were attempting to buy respectability in a format that was righteously dumb. I think that's a major problem with the huge sci fi epics; they know they don't get no respect and therefore do not try. What if The Blob had taken itself seriously?
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Future War
It was 3:59 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, I was watching MSTK's treatment of Future War, and I had an idea.
I read somewhere that the director of Future War commented during filming that the flick would wind up in Mystery Science Theater one day. I most likely read this on wikipedia, the bastion off all correct arguments and anecdotes anywhere that can be used to prove any point at any goddamn time you need it too. Regardless of the validity of this remark it got me to thinking. I thought about movies, about making them, about the people that make them. I made a movie once. I should say I helped, I didn't single handedly do anything. That's the thing about making a movie, you need a lot of people.
Yes you do.
Yes, you do.
I don't care how good you are at Garage Band, iMovie, Final Cut, Vegas, Audacity, Gigawat, Flash, Director, Animator, Seditune, or Windows Movie Maker you are going to need help to make the movie and make it well. I am so confident of this that I just made up two of those programs and you didn't even notice. You still don't believe me? Go watch Tommy Wiseau's The Room and see what happens when you think you can do everything. In fact, here, watch this:
This leads me almost effortlessly into my next point, the main point of this whole rambling mess:
Tommy Wiseau was given SIX MILLION DOLLARS to make The Room.
I know you think I blew my wad bolding that first mention of the budged, but I didn't because I'm going to say it again:
TOMMY WISEAU WAS GIVEN SIX MILLION GODDAMNED DOLLARS OF REAL AMERICAN MONEY TO MAKE THE ROOM
Six Million Dollars is a lot of money. Smarter people than I have demonstrated that the human brain cannot comprehend numbers after a certain amount. I'm pretty sure Six Million Dollars falls into that category and it's exactly why I didn't bring up Transformers 2. You can get mad enough at Tommy Wiseau and still remain rational enough to read the rest of this blog post; whereas the mere mention of Michael Bay and the Three Hundred Million Dollar budget Transformers 2 had would send any person that's ever worked a minimum wage job into a fit of rage so strong as to render their comprehension of the written word null and void.
Where am I going with this? I'm glad I asked. Here is where I'm going with this:
Is it possible to make a really good movie for not a lot of money?
Like a really small amount of money.
Like no money.
I know that, of course, you don't need a lot of money to make a good movie. I'm not insulting anyone that has accomplished this. It is easy, when you just film two people in a room, to keep the budget very small. What about a flick like Transformers though? You needed that budget to make the robots look real. Would Future War have been better if the effects budget had been larger? If they had not used stop motion Dinosaurs? What does this mean for the Golden Age of cinema, am I writing that off entirely?
The answers are; yes, of course, and not at all.
Can I write a science fiction movie that calls for expansive sets, giant monsters, robots, rockets, lasers, et all, can I write that movie and then make it for next to nothing? I know it can be done with a horror movie, because as I said I've helped make that movie and it was great. Can I make the movie Future War didn't dare aspire to be, that The Room tried to be, and that Transformers never wanted to be?
I think I can.
Well, me and a bunch of other people.
I read somewhere that the director of Future War commented during filming that the flick would wind up in Mystery Science Theater one day. I most likely read this on wikipedia, the bastion off all correct arguments and anecdotes anywhere that can be used to prove any point at any goddamn time you need it too. Regardless of the validity of this remark it got me to thinking. I thought about movies, about making them, about the people that make them. I made a movie once. I should say I helped, I didn't single handedly do anything. That's the thing about making a movie, you need a lot of people.
Yes you do.
Yes, you do.
I don't care how good you are at Garage Band, iMovie, Final Cut, Vegas, Audacity, Gigawat, Flash, Director, Animator, Seditune, or Windows Movie Maker you are going to need help to make the movie and make it well. I am so confident of this that I just made up two of those programs and you didn't even notice. You still don't believe me? Go watch Tommy Wiseau's The Room and see what happens when you think you can do everything. In fact, here, watch this:
This leads me almost effortlessly into my next point, the main point of this whole rambling mess:
Tommy Wiseau was given SIX MILLION DOLLARS to make The Room.
I know you think I blew my wad bolding that first mention of the budged, but I didn't because I'm going to say it again:
TOMMY WISEAU WAS GIVEN SIX MILLION GODDAMNED DOLLARS OF REAL AMERICAN MONEY TO MAKE THE ROOM
Six Million Dollars is a lot of money. Smarter people than I have demonstrated that the human brain cannot comprehend numbers after a certain amount. I'm pretty sure Six Million Dollars falls into that category and it's exactly why I didn't bring up Transformers 2. You can get mad enough at Tommy Wiseau and still remain rational enough to read the rest of this blog post; whereas the mere mention of Michael Bay and the Three Hundred Million Dollar budget Transformers 2 had would send any person that's ever worked a minimum wage job into a fit of rage so strong as to render their comprehension of the written word null and void.
Where am I going with this? I'm glad I asked. Here is where I'm going with this:
Is it possible to make a really good movie for not a lot of money?
Like a really small amount of money.
Like no money.
I know that, of course, you don't need a lot of money to make a good movie. I'm not insulting anyone that has accomplished this. It is easy, when you just film two people in a room, to keep the budget very small. What about a flick like Transformers though? You needed that budget to make the robots look real. Would Future War have been better if the effects budget had been larger? If they had not used stop motion Dinosaurs? What does this mean for the Golden Age of cinema, am I writing that off entirely?
The answers are; yes, of course, and not at all.
Can I write a science fiction movie that calls for expansive sets, giant monsters, robots, rockets, lasers, et all, can I write that movie and then make it for next to nothing? I know it can be done with a horror movie, because as I said I've helped make that movie and it was great. Can I make the movie Future War didn't dare aspire to be, that The Room tried to be, and that Transformers never wanted to be?
I think I can.
Well, me and a bunch of other people.
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