The secret to movie financial success?

[switar king]

I have been a struggling writer/filmmaker for many years. I have focused so much energy on the study of camera angles, scene composition, depth of field, blocking, and the pure artistry of what the camera will portray. This has actually made me confused and unsure of myself at times. I have shot several short movies that have taken more energy and grief than necessary in my quest to find "The perfect shot". Then I was reading an article about Tyler Perry, who has several feature movies theatrically released to great success. He sold a sitcom to TBS for 200 million dollars. His net worth is now over 500 million. He now owns his own movie studio that rivals Universal Studios. And he achieved all of this in ten years from a point of being broke and homeless. What struck me most was his film making style: - Most directors take two to three years on a film. Perry takes about eight months. "I'm not an artist," he says. "I set the camera up and tell my story."- Then I realized that the story is the most important part of a film, not the camera work. I've wasted so much time searching for "the perfect shot" that I was blind to the true importance of the story over everything else. A great story can be told in all wide shots and still be engaging and successful, but a bad story can never be made to look good no matter how many "perfect shots" it has. Now I am excited about telling my next story rather than hesitant about using the wrong camera angle.

[The Santo]

You are on the right track.

You have achieved step #1. The story is everything.

However, Tyler Perry has a special personal-public thing going on we can learn from. I HATE his movies. On a filmmaking level, on an artistic level, on a thinking man's level, they suck ass. His movies are garbage. BUT -- Tyler Perry believes in what he is doing. He LOVES his stories. He is 100% authentic. And, he is in synch, he is "speaking" for, a gigantic audience of twits who are completely on the same page as Tyler Perry. He doesn't have to even TRY -- he's there, because he is just like those morons who love his movies.

So here is step #2: To be a big audience successful filmmaker, you must exploit the impossible to see because it is in plain sight within you. Go back, read that sentence again. You must be able to "write from the heart" is a bullshit sentiment. It is bullshit because nobody can do that consciously. The "heart" is subconscious and therefore illusive. Tyler Perry turns off his brain and simply writes what he believes to be true from his stream of consciousness.

The best way to fail in filmmaking is to write either based on the movies you see or have loved in the past (or think you can improve upon), or what you think people want to see. The best way to succeed is to write what you believe is true (true or not, real or not, thoughtful or not, means nothing).

The best way to create a film is to tap into your deepest personal fantasies where some sort of justice is served -- fantasies which you recognize are universal and you are certain must be shared by millions. Pick fantasies you have played out a hundred times in your mind that you have never seen made into a movie and you will have a winner.

Santo

[Jim Carlile]

Ah, the old art vs. commerce dilemma. Stick with art. There's nothing wrong with studying. And who cares what idiots do? In the race to the bottom, the morons will always win anyway.

[BK]

Believe in yourself, write a great story that is original and engaging, network with the right people, persistance, a really really "thick skin"and not afraid of failure, being at the right place and the right time and with luck on your side you will have great success.

Leave the technical aspects to your production crew and just focus on the screenplay. There are so many competent flicks out there, but somehow they fail to "excite".

Wish you all the best

[sk360]

I don't think much of his films, but I do find his life story very interesting and his success certainly didn't happen over night. He started as a playwright almost twenty years ago and only after his plays became sucessful, did he ventured into filmmaking. He writes, directs, produces, fiances and acts in all of them. They cost very little to make, and he has a huge fanbase that supports him time and time again. The man created his own dynasty from a market that nobody paid any attention to: church going African American Women. My hat's off to him. He deserves his props.

[paul]

Story is everything indeed. I think, when you're having a good story, people will forgive you your mistakes or limitations in camerawork, lighting etc..

But story is the most difficult of all. It's the most complex one. On the one hand you need technique, on the other hand you need to discover your creative proces. That last one is a big challenge as well. You write things down; after rereading you may feel embarassed; you ask you self whether you should continue, change the subject or go on with it and improve it. You also need to create the right mood to be creative. How are you going to do that? Hard thinking never worked for me in that context. Being overly concious doesn't work. Writing is a true journey. But lots of people are doing it, sometimes with wonderfull results. I'm off to see Slumdog now; a low/no budget film with a good story I expect. I wonder what the story will be like?


good luck with it,

Paul

[sk360]

I think the second most important thing next to the script, is making sure your getting good performances from your actors. If you cast well, it's generally not much of a problem, but when things are going south, your actors are going to be looking towards you for guidance and if you can't or don't know what to tell them, it's only going to get worse. In fact, I've recently heard about a very big director who has been taking acting and directing classes for the last few years as he feels he could of gotton better performances from his actors from his previous films if he had a better understanding of dramatics.

BTW...Slumdog is really amazing tour-de-fource piece of filmmaking, and unquestionably Danny Boyle's best film IMHO. Can't believe it almost went straight to DVD after Warner Independent went belly up and the the Studio passed on distrubuting it.

[paul]

BTW...Slumdog is really amazing tour-de-fource piece of filmmaking, and unquestionably Danny Boyle's best film IMHO. Can't believe it almost went straight to DVD after Warner Independent went belly up and the the Studio passed on distrubuting it.

I was a great story indeed. Very good cinematography, especially in the first hour, when the kids ran through the slums of Bombay.


I always try to write the film so, so that the actors can get a way with a minimal performance. If you look at the last film I made (which was not great, you can judge your self by the link below), you can see that especially the male actor had the same face all the way through the film.

Best regards,

Paul

[etimh]

I hate "stories."

Tim

[Arislan]

I hate "stories."

Do they destroy small businesses?

I'm surprised there is still so much money being made by movies since downloading them is becoming more and more popular. I think a couple years ago Hong Kong declared a state of emergency for their film businesses because films would get pirated and sold on the streets even before release. I don't have the link to that. But the Tyler Perry stuff, considering his audience is mainly poor, I wonder what he has that makes them want to spend their hard-earned money on watching his stuff....

[woods01]

even before release. I don't have the link to that. But the Tyler Perry stuff, considering his audience is mainly poor, I wonder what he has that makes them want to spend their hard-earned money on watching his stuff....

Poverty is pretty relative, unless you're one of the homeless most poor people in North America fritter away their bucks on dvds and other forms of escapism from their situation. Escapism is what makes all forms of story telling viable.

I havn't seen it myself but there is a recent NFB documentary "Nollywood Babylon" making the rounds about the Nigerian film industry which is thriving on dirt cheap DV shot, direct to dvd movies. http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/nollywood-babylon/

[MovieStuff]

...considering his audience is mainly poor, I wonder what he has that makes them want to spend their hard-earned money on watching his stuff....

Not crazy about his work but I know a lot of middle class people that seem to like it, so I don't think I would consider his audience mainly poor. Also, poor people spend tons of money on cigarettes and alcohol, too. So there's no barometer for the logic in how people spend their money while they ignore other priorities in life.

Roger