how do bad movies make it on DVD/bluray/netflix?

R

RealJasonBourne

my dad is watching some low budget movie about some ghetto gangster wannabes on netflix right now, and I cant believe my eyes. it looks like it was shot on a home camera, its not in 24 frames, the camera moves around with no purpose, the cinematography looks like trash, if i look for it i can spot a jump cut easily. man im starting to think you should be fined if you make a bad movie and its available to the public. :huh:
 
What's the name of the film? :hmm:

There's all kinds of lo-budget & dodgy-lookin' films available in most any market. Maybe you just haven't been watching enough films to encounter them?

you should be fined if you make a bad movie and its available to the public.
Click to expand...

lol no. :bag:
 
Yeah ZS! ;) I saw a horror anthology not too long ago with shorts tied together with an old tv horror variety show host. I thought it was fun... you should watch it.

Although I love bad films.

I just saw "Birdemic" at the theater played by the Rifftrax Guys. I leaned to my friend sitting next to me and said... "This is better than our feature; It's finished."
 
I'll guess that the cr@ppy films/content are part of a larger distribution package Netfix agrees to show when it acquires the rights to display an aggregtor's content.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/amazon-epix-netflix_n_1854110.html

It wouldn't surprise me to find out the distribution rights to the aforementioned cr@ppy film belong to someone other than Netflix, (IMDB title search then > distributor will confirm this.)
Part of the cr@ppy film distribution deal is that while the distributor pay's the production studio next to nothing, if not nothing, for their film that the distributor also agrees to peddle the cr@ppy film product as part of a bundled library to any display provider like Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Amazon, etc.

Just a guess. Likely a reasonable one. ;)
 
RealJasonBourne said:
my dad is watching some low budget movie about some ghetto gangster wannabes on netflix right now, and I cant believe my eyes. it looks like it was shot on a home camera, its not in 24 frames, the camera moves around with no purpose, the cinematography looks like trash, if i look for it i can spot a jump cut easily.
Click to expand...
"bad" is relative, isn't it? Clearly someone thought this was good enough to
distribute it. And you dad was intrigued by something - he chose to watch it.
What is "bad" to you isn't bad to someone. The "how" you ask about is quite
simple to answer; someone figured that if they marketed this right a few
people would buy it, would rent it and would watch it on Netflix. You don't
have the same taste as those people but your dad was the audience for it so
there must be others.

It proves the point made right here on indietalk often that the camera (24p,
"professional", HD, shallow DOF), the equipment, and the editing aren't as
important to the general movie watcher as they are to filmmakers. A movie
that wasn't even shot in 24 frames got distribution and your dad watched it.
Even if he didn't like it - he watched it. So did other people

RealJasonBourne said:
man im starting to think you should be fined if you make a bad movie and its available to the public. :huh:
Click to expand...
The "democratization" of cinema has opened many doors to many people. On
line distribution has open the doors to getting a movie out to the public. I'm
glad there aren't content police who decide which films are bad enough to get
a fine. I know several of my movies would have brought me a large fine.

This should give filmmakers hope. If a movie like that can get on Netflix, maybe
our movie can get on Netflix.
 
But we were also talking of using sfx miniatures v CGI, and the consensus was that miniatures were more expensive but were visually better. If miniatures are better for attracting audiences because they look better, then a 24 frame what-ever should also attract more people because it's better than the alternative.
 
how do bad movies make it on DVD/bluray/netflix?
Click to expand...

Step 1: Make the movie
Step 2: Burn to DVD/Blueray and sell OR sell to Netflix as part of a bundle.

It's really not that complicated ;)

my dad is watching some low budget movie about some ghetto gangster wannabes on netflix right now, and I cant believe my eyes. it looks like it was shot on a home camera, its not in 24 frames, the camera moves around with no purpose, the cinematography looks like trash, if i look for it i can spot a jump cut easily.
Click to expand...

I suggest you go and look at the difference between Terminator 1 and Terminator 2. Same director, a lot of same actors, but a huge difference in production values.

man im starting to think you should be fined if you make a bad movie and its available to the public
Click to expand...

Sounds like communism to me.... Even though I'd be happy with that. Movies like John Carter and Expendables 2 wouldn't be released. Not what you meant?

It's the advantage of being in a free society. Freedom of expression, freedom of speech and all that. It works both ways. You have the freedom to choose whether you see the movies you like. You're not forced to sit through movies you think are bad.

Supply and demand is what tends to balance things over in the long run.
 
I suggest you look for Attack Of The Crab Monsters and It Conquered The World by Roger Corman. Both movies were on Creature Feature years ago and I am sure you can find them on DVD.

Rotten Tomatoes makes a living reviewing bad movies.
 
The biggest problem with fining the makers of bad movies is that you would never collect the fine - they already blew all the cash on making the bad movie. :D:lol::D
 
Threads like this are like a gut shot to me (and others here, I'm sure). Some of us bust our asses for years to hammer out the most interesting scripts we can, and pay rapt attention to every detail, trying to make the most professional looking films possible with little money. Only to turn around and be rejected by every distributor.

Then I look at trailers for stuff that's getting distributed and it's astonishingly, jaw-droppingly bad: amateur camerawork, cliched dialogue, sound from the camera mic. Why did they get distribution and we didn't? Clearly, it's because the distributors saw a marketable element in their film and not in ours. Maybe that gangster film had tons of shootouts -- cheezy, perhaps, but there nevertheless. A strong story, unfortunately, is not a marketable element.
 
Bad movies go to theaters all the time, it's not just blue ray, and netflix. As to what 2001 Productions said, they actually distribute movies that were recorded with the sound in camera? I guess it's not really a rule then and it's allowed. but probably doesn't help, unless movies like that are released commonly.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top