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Sweetie said:
BTW, your new opening sequence improved heaps. Well done.

You're not quite there yet, but good work so far.

The timing of your dialogue still seems.... rushed in places... Particularly where you're introducing your main cyber-chickies.
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Yes, I fell rushed too trying to squeeze the intro into a 5 minute preview trailer. But, fast pace is good for a trailer. People tend to want to see it again. It is also getting a style, which is what a studio editor recommended to make it interesting.

Have you seen the 5 minute preview for the new Beauty And The Beast TV Series? It is a 5 minute extended trailer as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8moolx_ypKI
 
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I want to get it locked down to give to my music composer to work on the music.

It's a shame I don't have the next production filmed of 2 families made of both humans and cyborgs working together to save their world, the planet Delta Four, from Ares destroying it with rogue cyborgs looking to cleanse the world of humans.

But, I have to use what I have with footage.
 
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EuropeanDistributor said:
The movie in question, The Terminators wasn't made for SYFY though, it was one of The Asylum's "mockbusters" released around the same time as Terminator Salvation, made strictly for the Direct to Video Market.

And judging by that trailer for The Terminators, production quality wise I don't think that would cut it these days.
Even though the VFX in SYFY movies is by no means flawless or at big budget studio film level, most of the times it is much better than that.
Nowadays low budget production companies can churn out increasingly better CGI cheaper than ever.

The thing is, I think you actually might be working with 1/5th of The Asylum's budget level. I'd say most of their movies cost between $100k and $200k, some even much lower than that.
Some possibly higher, but nowhere near the often reported $1M.

They churn them out fast and cheap. They probably own their own gear, they have their own editing equipment, they have their own VFX guys, everything is done in house.
They're also known for hiring young filmmakers to work for them for dirt cheap.

I heard a story where a name actor who was hired for one of their mockbusters at the time heard that the grips on set weren't getting paid a nickel, so he felt bad and gave the guys money from his own pocket.

One story tells how they were shooting a car stunt with a bunch of professional stunt drivers, but they were too cheap to order an ambulance or a firetruck on set in case of an accident.
Finally they had to order the ambulance and firetruck since the drivers refused to perform the stunt otherwise.
Later it turned out that the firetruck was empty, since apparently it would have cost them extra to fill the tank.

Take that as you will, but bottom line is, they're notoriously cheap.

Regarding Troma, their business is largely based on distribution these days. They acquire no-budget genre movies from amateur filmmakers, slap the Troma logo on the cover and sell them on DVD.

The last actual movie they produced themselves was Poultrygeist in 2006. Lloyd Kaufman, the founder and owner of the company financed the movie himself and later went on to say that they lost every penny they invested in the movie. They made 0% back.

also the Roger Corman produced tv show you linked from the 90's isn't really an indicator on what sells in 2012.

I think it's great that you're trying to improve the production quality of your movies, and you have, but even if you can make your movies to *look* the same way as many of SYFY's programming, doesn't mean that they would necessarily air it.

SYFY acquires a lot of their programming from established production companies who they have existing relationships with, such as The Asylum and Active Entertainment.
And most of the stuff they produce for SYFY are the ever popular creature features or disaster movies.

You have to ask yourself, are you making a passion project, or an actual product, made by distribution in mind, targeted toward the direct to video and TV markets?
Are buyers looking for movies similar to yours at the moment?
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Although it may not be space bound with aliens and ancient gods like mine (for an original angle), are you aware Gene Roddenberry's son and Ron Howard are presently developing Questor's Tapes for a television series?

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles failed in Season 2, but Battlestar Galactica had a successful run.

The closer we get to the year 2020 AD, the more we will see stuff on AI. That is the projected date machines will surpass human intelligence. Quantum computers are already being built. They may just be adding machines now, but the best minds in the field are already convinced computers will be made at a subatomic level with endless possibilities including the ability to mimic human consciousness.

Not only is one of my former physics professors an expert on quantum computers, I've worked with engineers in my company who previously were involved in AI with previous employment. When I won an award trip to NASA a few years ago, an engineer from my company also won an award and chose to go to NASA as well. He was great company as we toured NASA with an astronaut.

So, I think this is a worthwhile series to pursue. So far, mine is the only one to project AI cyborgs will be future astronauts for deep space exploration. And, although it was done as an off camera scene in the original The Day The Earth Stood Still, I'm hoping to show machines taking over global security on Delta Four and Earth for the preservation of the humans on both worlds.

I am also considering making it a web series and selling VODs through my existing distributors on line. But, I will need sponsors, advertisers, and investors. I am still also looking for a business partner with experience selling to cable TV networks.
 
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I am also working on a pitch for the series for the cable TV networks like SyFy. I am keeping in mind what a business associate who used to teach screen writing in a college told me that the difference in the approach for TV over the big screen in cinemas is to make the characters and story family friendly like people a family would invite into their living rooms as company. Where is the family angle? And, know who your perfect TV viewer is. On a science fiction writers board, we came up with Jethro Bodean from The Beverly Hillbillies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kqGcZJPrbo

This is why networks like the stories "Dumbed-Down."

Talk about the changing family structure with modern families deviating from the traditional family, our series will be a story of things to come with cyborgs in society.
 
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I suspect you're aiming at a different demographic than the family market. It looks like you're targeting the Babylon 5 crowd, which is typically males under the age of 25. They don't want it to be dumbed down, they want it to be interesting and exciting. I suggest taking a look at BSG for inspiration.

The biggest advantage that cable tv markets have is the lack of censorship. It's why shows like Soprano's, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Sex in the City are among the most profitable of the shows to produce compared with the size of the audience. They're allowed to do hard hitting shows.... things that their watered down network counterparts cannot do.

Most of those shows aren't dumbed down. Though, they are written with their target audience in mind. Show them an interesting, different, somewhat intelligent story with lots of conflict aimed at an older audience who can afford to pay for the cable channel(s) and then buy the DVD.

Syfy Channel might be different to a channel like HBO for all I know. We don't get it over here, I just see some of their programming.
 
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I am looking at how family structure on Smaklville, Battlestar Galacfica, Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and even Buffy made characters more friendly for the living room.

The script I am working on now features two families with both human and cyborg members who work with Artemis to bring humans and cyborgs together as Ares and rogue cyborgs try to cleanse the world of humans.

The queen in some ways is like King Henry VIII, but she has a biological daughter who has lupis. She has to turn to her cyborg officers to save her daughter the only way they can, by making her a machine like Angela. So, the mother repents for past cruelty to cyborgs facing what her own child has become.

Angela, Gail, Roberta, Summer, and a cyborg clone of Angela's human creator will adopt two human boys who were war orphans to show their appreciation to the people of Delta Four for giving them a new home on Delta Four. Do, they become the second human and cyborg family in the series.
 
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