Making a movie about people talking of the interstellar war.

A

Aspiring Mogul

Happy new year, everyone.

As stated in my recent threads, I am thinking (as always) of doing that film. One low-cost way of doing it is to have actors talking about the interstellar war, as opposed to showing the combat scenes. I have started a background fictional history of the war, with the introduction and the epilogue. The history is by the defeated Enemy General (EG), who writes it while in prison.

As I understand it, the rule of thumb is that, to adapt prose to film, one page of prose would equal one minute of film, but a history can be lengthened or shortened.

I am thinking that the film, to keep it as low as possible, should have one set of scenes where the EG talks to his counterpart, then another set of scenes where a reporter talks to survivors of the war, and so on. And, to splurge a bit, we can always have a dance scene.

The regulars here know film better than me, but many good movies have been done with inexpensive sets - examples are "Same Time, Next Year", and Hitchcock's "Rear Window".
 
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For real man, just pay someone a couple grand to make one of your short scripts with some VFX or something if youre not gonna create it yourself. just WATCHING your script on screen for a few minutes will do more for your writing than talking about it for 6 months. a couple grand is nothing for you right? consider how many years you've been talking about this, if you just put a dollar a day into it you'd have a couple grand by now to actually create something

there are no covid restrictions for low budget non-sag stuff.
I still make stuff, i don't even wear a mask bc I don't use a crew and theres so few people around
 
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@sfoster that's the point - even if the script didn't work, it's the part, where we talk about filming, then, perhaps cut to a film about people in the war talking about what happened. As the Chinese saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a step.

@directorik, where will you be in this?
 
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Aspiring Mogul said:
@sfoster that's the point - even if the script didn't work, it's the part, where we talk about filming, then, perhaps cut to a film about people in the war talking about what happened. As the Chinese saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a step.
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Yeah the journey doesn't even start until you take that step - your journey hasn't even begun!
 
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Aspiring Mogul said:
Happy new year, everyone.

As stated in my recent threads, I am thinking (as always) of doing that film. One low-cost way of doing it is to have actors talking about the interstellar war, as opposed to showing the combat scenes. I have started a background fictional history of the war, with the introduction and the epilogue. The history is by the defeated Enemy General (EG), who writes it while in prison.

As I understand it, the rule of thumb is that, to adapt prose to film, one page of prose would equal one minute of film, but a history can be lengthened or shortened.

I am thinking that the film, to keep it as low as possible, should have one set of scenes where the EG talks to his counterpart, then another set of scenes where a reporter talks to survivors of the war, and so on. And, to splurge a bit, we can always have a dance scene.

The regulars here know film better than me, but many good movies have been done with inexpensive sets - examples are "Same Time, Next Year", and Hitchcock's "Rear Window".
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Hi, Aspriing Mogul -- just be aware of the primary rule of filmmaking: Show don't Tell. Your audience will glaze over/lose interest after half a page of heads talking about a past rebellion. Find ways to illustrate the battle - even if it's via still images, or characters that have batlle scars, or trinkets they picked up from various battles. Any way for us to IMAGINE what the battle may have been like. Dialogue is very poor for doing that. You're almost better having a character NOT want to talk about a great battle, and the other characters are pushing him/her to reveal what really happened. Try to come up with some inventive way to make it more interesting for the viewer.

Then you can have your logistically simple scene or story, while also doing everything you can to make it interesting.
 
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Reminds me of redletermidea comparing the friendship of Anakin and Obie Vs the friendship of Luke and Han. In Return we feel the friendship and time Han and Luke spend with each other. In starwars 2 we are reminded with poor dialogue of there wacky adventures.
 
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Aaaannnnd you totally ignored the cool concept @mlesemann @sfoster and myself threw at you! Which would totally work!
indietalk said:
What would be cool is the dynamic of two prisoners in a cell but one from each side of the war. So one is the enemy, and one is on the allied side but broke a law or protocol, or maybe, is a threat to themselves, or something. THEN the talk between the two would be interesting. Perhaps the ship is small and only has one cell which would explain them being in the same cell.
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mlesemann said:
I like that idea.

The movie that I mentioned above, Tape, deals with how differently people remember the same event.
That concept could work well with 2 prisoners from opposite sides of the war.
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sfoster said:
Prisoner thing is cool.

The war could still be going on. so the prisoner could be on the winning side, and eventually troops come in and liberate him and then his captor becomes the prisoner for the final act/scene instead and their positions get reversed
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mlesemann said:
And that only needs to be a couple of guys with weapons accompanied by major sound effects.
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directorik said:
A question you ask often. And the answer is always the same:

It depends.

Aside from the salaries of star actors a movie like "Same Time Next Year"
the budget wouldn't be too big at all. A very small crew, one set and a
short shoot would keep unexpected expenses to almost nothing.

Off the top of my head I'd say $200,000 for a union shoot. $10,000 to
$80,000 for a non-union shoot.
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I'm bumping this thread, because I need some cost estimates. To cut a long story short, my mentor, also a lawyer, is pressuring me to move on with my life, because I have been going to the AFM and so on but not doing anything - if only he knew how I've been posting here. Anyway, I'm writing him a plan, of which I will discuss later with this forum, and I need to have some firmer idea about costs.

@directorik, can you please advise if you stand by your post above. A non-union shoot would be almost nothing to $80,000, and a union shoot would be $200,000. Is that correct? Everyone else, please feel free to chime in. Thanks.
 
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directorik said:
In general those numbers still stand.

No more than three sets, two actors (maybe a few more "day players") and no
more than 18 shooting days. For firmer numbers I would need more information.
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Rik, thanks for the information. These numbers are within what I can (eventually) do, and I will talk to my mentor about a plan.

@indietalk, I also like the idea of two prisoners talking about the war, and I may be able to spend a bit more money to create a jail cell with the spaceship engine humming in the background.

Rik, out of curiousity, why would a union shoot cost $200,000 while a non-union one would cost $80,000? I just want a general idea.
 
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The unions have basic minimum pay rates, pension/health contributions
and payroll requirements that are not incurred on anon-union shoot. IATSE
has a few minimum crew requirements.

Even that depends on where you shoot. Canada has different requirements
than the US. Even among states there are different scales. And all the unions
have different pay scales based on total budget, length of the finished project
and even planned exhibition. It is possible to make a short film with union
cast and crew for under $20,000.
 
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@directorik, thanks. I'm thinking of making feature films. Of course, if it's non-union, then I can add some extras like voice overs, combatants calling out as they engage in battle. And, as a hard-core conservative, I'm anti-union anyway.

I will send my memo to my mentor, then we'll ...... talk. But, this time, he's been pressuring me, saying there has to be an end point to one cycle and a start point to the next.
 
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Aspiring Mogul said:
I was just told that "Rear Window" cannot be done professionally for $100,00.00, and such movies would cost $2 million. My contact then told me that post-production alone can cost $100,000.00 Why the discrepancy?
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Can you explain this a bit further? In what context were you asking (suggesting?) that Rear Window could be done today for $100,000?

I'm working on a movie with a target budget of $5 mil (miniscule by Hollywood standards but 10x what I've worked with before). Our draft budget has post-production at roughly $350,000. This is a "normal people" movie (for lack of a better term) with no special effects, green screens, etc.
 
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