I want to make a symbolic movie.

R

RED ROBOT

Alright so I was working on my second short film which was a Sci-Fi project. However I failed horribly in pre - production .

I thought that as a 17 years old I could still find myself props for more than 10 thousand dollars for free just because I am good at talking and phone calls . Guess what , I am naive and stupid .

Now I changed the project . Same beautiful locations . The problem is that I am very passionate about one script that I wrote , the biggest thing about it tho is that it is quite a symbolic movie . Right now there are a lot of protests in my country , politicians are an absolute morons and I want to make a short film about freedom .

However when I first started filmmaking I promised myself that I am not going to be one of those artsy directors who make films that nobody actually understands and when they fail they blame the audience being too stupid to understand.

But now I am making something that I am not sure everyone will relate to and will like . Even though I should think about my project etc and not think of anyone else , really I want to think about the marketing as well , because I don't my film to be seen by 100 people on Youtube .

Do you like those kinds of movies and will you advice me to make such film that not everyone is going to understand ? And how are those films doing in film festivals ? what do you think ?
 
Sorry I don't really understand what you mean.

What kind of movies are you talking about? Do you have a script/synopsis?
 
The movie itself is about freedom . It follows a story but the think is that to understand certain things you really have to think about the film and rewatch it for instance .


I've read in few places that those kinds of films are really not going well over the internet .
 
NickysFX said:
Do you like those kinds of movies and will you advice me to make such film that not everyone is going to understand ? And how are those films doing in film festivals ? what do you think ?
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No.
Don't make them unless they're for yourself.
Poorly.
If you're not going to spend a whole lot of time and resources go ahead and make it, but if you have more productive things to do you should pursue those.


Good luck. :yes:



PS. Almost everyone young thinks elected leaders are absolute morons.
Consider that they have to manage people that financed their elections that pressure them to make decisions that are not in the best interests of the most people.
Also, that too much freedom may not be the best thing for a population that doesn't respect the amount of personal+social responsibility that freedom demands. ;)
 
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Symbolic movies do not have to be hard to understand. The film "Life of Pi" was easy for most people, and symbolic at the same time. My one piece of advice to you is not to TRY to make it complicated.
 
NickysFX said:
Guess what , I am naive and stupid .
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Now, now... one doesn't necessarily mean the other, even if they do both often look the same.

If it's a symbolic movie and you're not really into symbolic movies per se, then just approach it like a movie you ARE into, and let the symbolism happen as it's going to. Make your own version of a symbolic film.

Someone will always understand the film, so I wouldn't worry about that.

For doing well in festivals, I don't know and personally don't care; I make a film for me, if it turns out good enough for a festival, I'll submit it if I have some extra money that isn't immediately gobbled by the my insatiable desire for gear.

CraigL
 
Make art for yourself, make commercially viable projects for other reasons. Every now and then the two worlds collide and it's wonderful, but there's no harm in it being one or the other.
 
The problem about "symbols" is that they generally are cultural, not universal.



"Universal" symbols tend to evoke very strong reactions.

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starmoon_yellow.jpg


How you respond will depend entirely upon your cultural POV.
 
NickysFX said:
But now I am making something that I am not sure everyone will relate to and will like .
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The problems in Bulgaria are specific to Bulgaria but are very similar to those in other countries in the Balkan region, which are related to those in Russia, China and even to the Middle East. Even in the EU and US there are probably very few who feel truly free or that their politicians are doing a great job. Depending on how you tell your story, it should be possible to create something to which an extremely large number of people could relate. If you want something marketable outside of Bulgaria, people outside Bulgaria have to be able to relate to it.

NickysFX said:
It follows a story but the think is that to understand certain things you really have to think about the film and rewatch it for instance .
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Generally, people aren't going to re-watch a film because they didn't understand it the first time. That's generally a good reason for NOT watching it again or even for not watching it all the way through the first time! People generally re-watch films or documentaries because they want to re-live what they experienced the first time they saw it and maybe pick up some additional detail, but it's got to be an exceedingly good film/doco! I would strongly advise against making something with the intention of it being marketable, which can't be very highly appreciated on the first viewing.

I'm not saying you shouldn't make your film but I would advise quite a bit of research and deeper understanding of what "freedom" means to a much wider and more varied audience and therefore how to make a film specifically about Bulgaria which appeals to that wider audience.

Just my 2c, G
 
I think the challenge is to balance symbolism with entertainment to create something that has deeper levels of meaning which may or may not take multiple viewings to discover. That way some people will just be entertained, some will appreciate the symbolism right away, and others will discover the deeper symbolism when they re-watch simply because they were entertained at first.

You don't want to spoon-feed an audience your opinions, and in general the only people who enjoy being preached to are the ones who already feel the same as you. Ultimately you want to make people work a little to arrive for themselves at the same point you started at - but if you make it too much work most of your audience will just give up and walk away. It's a magic trick; while they're being entertained by the way you flourish the deck with your right hand, your left hand is slipping the card into their pocket.

Here's a short roundup of symbolism in successful mainstream films that isn't necessarily obvious to most of the audience at first: http://www.cracked.com/article_2049...symbolism-you-didnt-notice.html#ixzz2VqyhCCLD
 
go for your target market. If it resonates with the subjects in the way you want, the rest of us will get it through empathy with those subject.
 
NickysFX said:
However when I first started filmmaking I promised myself that I am not going to be one of those artsy directors who make films that nobody actually understands and when they fail they blame the audience being too stupid to understand.
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Well, that might be your answer right there.

That is to say, sounds like it's a matter of deciding what your priority is. Despite the passion you've said that you feel for that symbolic script, if the above quote is your bottom line, well...

On the other hand, like IDOM wrote, it's possible to do both. And I also want to thank you for your post, IDOM. Great link. I'll probably be reading more from cracked.com.

Rereading this post, it brought up of memories of The World According to Garp, which I haven't seen in ages, but... Anyway, I was struck by and have always remembered that bit in that film where Garp is lamenting about and feeling discouraged by his mother's writing success while no one seems to be paying any where near as much attention to his writing. But someone points out that the difference is that his mother's writing is political, it's a political movement, unlike his, which, more or less, is writing for art's sake. Heck, chicks are cutting out their own tongues and committing murder under the influence of his mother's writing.

Now, surely, you don't want to move Bulgarians to cut out their own tongues out or commit murder like Garp's mother did. But maybe you do want to contribute to the political dialogue in Bulgaria with your film. Nothing wrong with that. But you might have to decide which is more important to you with this film: political engagement, or art & entertainment. Or, as IDOM said, try to do both, if you can.
 
Yeah, that was pretty cool, wasn't it?!

D'ju watch his 'Mutual Core' video he did for Bjork? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM80F_J-QHE
Very similar freaky stuff. :yes:
 
Thank you all for your posts !


I changed the script of my movie so everyone could understand ,however it still has symbolic things in it .


Rayw , this is way too symbolic for me :D
 
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