budget How much to do these?

[Aspiring Mogul]

Hello everyone,

First, the good news - some of my students have passed their bar exams and will be staying on as lawyers in my firm, even as the next group of students take their place. I have at least one more goal in Canada, for which I've got no results despite years of trying, and I've given myself five years to accomplish it - if nothing happens by then, I may retire; if something does happen, I may continue for 10 - 20 years, to finish my journey.

With this in mind, believe it or not, I'm thinking of filming some short scenes, just to get it out of my system. I've been typing about this for over 15 years, so I want to see if I really want to be a filmmaker after I retire from law. If not, I can still talk about it, for the time I'm around, and read and write books.

I'm therefore wondering if the experts can give their thoughts on this. I have the following scenes that have been buzzing around in my head.

Leisure Man

Years ago, I started a thread about people eating while talking to others, which is rude, because the others are not eating with him. Members of this forum hae suggested that is a sign of power, to show that those others have to organize their schedule around the person having his meal. From this, I have taken a character from the William Holden movie, "The Counterfeit Spy" where the British spymaster is eating breakfast and is a bit pompous.

Leisure Man would be a spy master, and there would be three scenes of him eating breakfast, dinner, and at a sauna/spa. In each scene, this pompous ass would be talking to others, and, when all three scenes are viewed, the audience would see he's talking on both sides of his mouth (contradictory statements). This would indicate hgw spooks use deception and falsehood to the outside world, though he is a dedicated professional. A few years ago, when I was at the AFM, I did a scene with someone who worked in the industry, and I found that to be an emotionally-powerful experience, so I would like to go through that again. I'm thinking of casting the proverbial British nobility or a Boston Brahman for Leisure Man.


Creator

This would be a conversation where a ship's captain would meet and talk to a representative of a highly advanced alien species. Again, I discussed this years ago, where he would be transported to a white space - which the alien says is null space - and discuss the nature of creation as well as the nature of God. In a different scene, that captain would have a further encounter with that alien, when they meet at a garden planet, which was paradise.


Enemy General (EG)

I haven't fleshed out this character. There would be at least one scene, where EG would be at the end of the war, sending out orders with his adjutant for their troops to hold the line. A soldier from the other side would then step into the scene, salute and apologize, saying that EG was now a prisoner. EG and the adjutant look around to see that they're surrounded, so they raise their hands. This is taken from a real scene in WW2, when a German general was captured even as he was directing the defensive forces.

In a follow up scene, the EG would realize they've been captured by juniors, so he keeps complaining as to how they're not fully trained. This is taken from an episode in Young Indiana Jones, where Indy and his colleague capture General von Lettow-Vorbeck, who rants and raves at them.



I am willing to pay standard rates for these read throughs. I'm also wondering, since these are just rehearsals, if one actor can play all of them, to be more cost efficient. I've never done this before, so I would welcome ideas and price quotes. Thank you very much.

 

[Nate North]

I'd probably be willing to do a paid project on the side, I've just been extremely busy developing internal tech, And a lot of 14 hour days mean very little time to reply to forum threads.

I'd note here that the pipeline I've built or process I use whatever you want to call it, Is not specifically an ai pipeline. It does include the strongest highest tech solution for any given cog in the machine that I can find. It's a competitive field, I'm low on bank, and I need every advantage I can get. In addition the sheer scope of the projects I'm attempting to complete would make a when impossible without some forms of automation similar to your favorite car manufacturer. Even billionaires don't send a guy out with a metal rod to hand churn the steel before they pour it into the car door mold.

What I'm trying to get across is that it's a hybrid pipeline which consists of maybe half manual human processes and half AI processes. That's a very loose ballpark estimate, But my point is that this is in no way a fully automatic process, nor do I use stock off the shelf solutions in terms of AI except for casual stuff like making a joke on a forum post. In the instance of the cat I manually create art of cats then hand that to the AI to manipulate. I do not steal or regurgitate other people's art or imagery in the way that off the shelf AI models do. The Star Trek test clip I made for you awhile back is an exception, But that's the difference between three and a half years of work and a one hour demo.

The scenes that mogul has been describing are easily doable in pretty much any format as long as some reasonably fair budget is involved. Many others have made adjacent points but I would pile on and say that whether you're a filmmaker or a film investor you would typically start really getting engaged in the process when you got some traction or saw positive results. A scenario where we create such limited scenes even at the best quality would be unlikely to produce such results. When I work with people I'm a big fan of creating win win situations. I'm going to be honest here and say that I'm not yet in this post seeing the catalyst for such a scenario

I really need investment now to fuel my path forward with Save Point, so I'm looking for ways to raise money, But I guess I'm fairly picky in the sense that I'm not interested in taking money from anyone and leaving them with something that isn't genuinely useful to them. I know a lot of people that do exactly that kind of thing, Just keep their mouth shut and take the check, And most of them are better off than I am. I just value my time and I value other people's time and for that reason I really want to be part of projects that I genuinely believe in.

None of this should be interpreted as any type of negative comment about a M's proposed toe dipping project, But as so many have mentioned its pointless. If you want to know whether or not you will enjoy trying to swim across the English Channel, You're not going to know anymore about that after you dip your toe in the water than you did before. There are some parts of life where you just have to jump in and really experience it.

We've also made so many attempts to ask for a picture of the clear goal. That goal seems to waver all over the place and it makes it hard for me to know how my help Would get AM closer to his goal.

If you want to be a film investor or producer as the name implies, You should begin investing in film and gaining experience at that job. As in all investment a diversified portfolio is the most stable. In your time on this forum, you have forged personal relationships with at least four serious film makers, and I am sure there are many others that would qualify that I am simply unaware of or forgetting because they interact less on the forum, my apologies.

If you want to be a writer that produces films from his books, There's a path forward for that as well, But making it work out financially or creatively does require full commitment to your vision. I think the lack of a clearly defined direction and the lack of commitment affect both sides of your attempts to interface with creatives. When you hire someone to implement your vision one of the things they see is how much you believe in it, How clear it is in your mind. In example many of the people who have chosen to work with me in the past have said outright that they did so because it was so clear to them that I knew what I wanted and where I was going. Maybe that isn't clear to everyone but it was clear to some. The analogy I made earlier about dipping your toe in the water doesn't have to be absolute, I think it's accurate for what I'm seeing in this particular thread, But as many have advised in the past you could write a short coherent story, Produce it and see how that felt. That could achieve something, And would conceivably be a worthwhile use of my time to assist you with.

You likely know the classic sci-fi story " The cold equations". It's a standard of sci-fi shorts in the way bridge over troubled water is a standard for karaoke. 100 different film makers and producers have put their own personal spin on it and executed an emotionally moving sci-fi story in 10 or 20 minutes that didn't require a large ensemble cast. Perhaps Heinlein's "Jerry was a man" would appeal more to you as a courtroom regular. Or you could write your own story with a functioning arc. I think these are all legitimate suggestions that might help you create a first test piece that you could be proud of. In example I personally licensed Harry Harrison's novel deathworld for around five grand one year. My point is that you may have more good quality options than you are imagining for trying to do an initial test project.

I feel like I should add here that many of your posts over the last year or two have been creative attempts to circumvent budget. Film makers are always trying to do that for obvious reasons, And you should be aware of an issue that it causes. When millions of creatives are faced with the same problems and the same goals, a lot of the intelligent ones converge on very similar solutions. You've hit several of them yourself. The problem is that value is determined by rarity and once 100,000 people try to make the next hit show by locking two people in a room with no expensive sets, The value of such attempts flatlines. It's not that you had a bad idea as much as that you had a good idea that fell victim to its own popularity to the extent that it has become a bad idea.

I'd be willing to work with, And do my best, for any serious filmmaker that could pay me industry standard rates for my skill set. Before that could happen with you, several other things would need to happen. You would need to take yourself seriously as either a creative or an investor, And act accordingly. This means providing a coherent rationale for a sensible plan to achieve a designed goal. You would need to take me seriously, Which is impossible when you were not taking yourself seriously and I am working for you as an extension of your plan. Mutual respect is foundational, But I'm referring to something even more concrete than that. If you would like a one sentence take away, You need a strong clear vision with a defined goal.

On a personal note, I think you're a nice guy. I like a lot of the same authors you like. You've been a generally positive if somewhat chaotic presence on this form, and you've come quite a distance with us. I think I speak for everyone here when I say we'd all love to see you succeed. I can see where a lot of the feedback that you're getting here might seem negative in a certain light. I'd like to speak for a moment about the other side of the same coin. What I'm seeing in most of the posts responding to your queries is an honest attempt to help you get on track to accomplish the goals you have defined. Honest responses aren't always particularly nice, But they are doing something that's even better than being nice, They are respecting you enough to tell you the hard truths so that you can make informed decisions and potentially Identify and reach your goals.

As a writer the first story you need to write well is your own story. Is it a story about someone who asked questions on forms or is it a story about a person who risks it all because of their love for filmmaking, Sci-fi, or just creativity in general? If you were reading a novel by Heinlein or Asimov, And the real life you was the main character, would you be invested in their journey?

As a final note, I have to dictate these long posts to save time and the software doesn't always do a flawless job. If you see grammatical or punctuation errors, Or even the wrong word interjected in an odd place, This is universally due to the dictation software misfiring. I wouldn't have capitalized the tea in this in the previous sentence if I was typing. Also I can't really spare the time to go back and manually edit a post that took me an hour to create since that would likely involve losing another half hour of valuable time.

I genuinely hope some of this has been helpful.

 

[directorik]

Hypothetically if I started emailing you, what would it take for me to get my own email folder
Is that something you often assign for people ?

The AM folder goes back to 2011 and there are 230 emails in there. I don't
remember when I made the folder but I wanted to keep all our emails because
of the repeated answers to the same questions.

I have project folders but he is the only individual with a folder.

I suspect I'm in for another disappointment - a month or so of correspondence
about this read-through, then it will get put on hold.

 

[indietalk]

@Nate North man that is way too TL;DR for me and sorry to loop you into this mess lol but I do know your AI is a hybrid with lots of human element which is why I also thought it could be cool for him. I have no idea what you said though it's too long.

 

[Nate North]

@Nate North man that is way too TL;DR for me and sorry to loop you into this mess lol but I do know your AI is a hybrid with lots of human element which is why I also thought it could be cool for him. I have no idea what you said though it's too long.

What's going on is that I had read the whole thread here and there when I had a spare moment during status bars and just hadn't taken the time to respond to it, So when I did it was kind of a response to all of the posts instead of just one. Anyway I said what I had to say so you're safe from my unhinged verbosity for now, lol.