Quick poll

Anim8

Anim8

Would you guys mind taking a quick 10 question poll to help us decide what project to pursue next?
I've asked the general public and gotten mixed results (which is good). I can almost guess what fellow filmmakers are going to answer, but it would still help out. If possible, answer these as a movie fan, and not a filmmaker (impossibility?). Thanks!!!

http://www.polljunkie.com/Ki4A6Q/Poll14991.aspx
 
My opinion is the filmmaker (the writer, the director, the
producer) should make the movie they have the passion
to make. They should not make a movie based on a survey.
Movie fans are not the best people to ask about a new
project unless it's from an existing property - book, TV series,
comic, sequel.

That said, I took your survey. The problem I saw was in the
"What do you prefer" questions. I am a movie lover. I love
all genres - I do not prefer one over the the other. If you make
and excellent horror film I prefer that over a mediocre thriller.
On the other hand I much prefer a great thriller over a horror
film that isn't scary. So how do I answer your first question?

Even when it comes to the CGI vs. practical efx question I can't
really answer. Some CGI is so much better, but in many cases
it looks bad - blood efx for example. I'm talking as a movie fan
not a filmmaker. CGI blood efx look awful - background replacement
looks great.

Question 10 is really confusing. A story can be very imaginative
and still be feasible. Your question seems to suggest a story can
be one or the other.

Anyway, best of luck. But I would much rather see a movie made
from the passion of the filmmaker than one made based on a survey.
 
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scifi
monster
props&makeup
original
action
no
nogore
STORRRRRRRYYYYY!!!!!!
idontcare
no


BOL, fellas!
 
Man I couldn't disagree more with the results for 8. Whats more important, story or visuals:

story 88% (45)
visuals 12% (6)

Visuals are part of the story. The most important part.
 
I don't know, mogambo...

Granted, film is a visual medium, but story can exist in other mediums without visuals. However, I don't think a good film can exist without story.
 
Sucker Punch had good visuals and was without a story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jAOo6Dw2B8 D@mn. That girl sure can dance. ;)
 
LasVegasIRA said:
I don't know, mogambo...

Granted, film is a visual medium, but story can exist in other mediums without visuals. However, I don't think a good film can exist without story.
Click to expand...

I would prefer a film with great visuals and sub par story rather than vice versa

And great visuals doesn't necessarily mean lots of things happening on screen, explosions and such.

Visuals should be able to capture a mood. DP Tim Orr is a good example of what I mean.
 
Thanks for helping out.

Rik, I understand where youre coming from but you shouldnt read too much into this. You are correct, they are "whats your preference" questions, they force you to generalize your answer by design. This poll is mostly out of curiosity and part of an ongoing thing we do. We have asked the same questions to the same groups a few times before and the results differ based on the latest trends/shows/movies. I asked this on here and another filmmaking/fx forum I visit. The answers between "film" people and joe average are pretty different (as to be expected).

People should absolutely make a movie they are passionate about..... but there are several ways to get there. This is just a small part of a larger plan that is hopefully thinking outside of the box. I really dont think anyone would make a movie based on a 10 question internet poll. :D ..... at least I hope not.
 
mogambo said:
I would prefer a film with great visuals and sub par story rather than vice versa
Click to expand...
You must have LOVED “Tree of Life”. How many times did you see it?

What movies have you liked that have great visuals and sub-par stories?


Anim8 said:
Thanks for helping out.

Rik, I understand where youre coming from but you shouldnt read too much into this.
Click to expand...
Sorry about that. You’re right, you didn’t ask for opinions; only participation
in the poll. I should have kepts my opinion to myself.

I’m glad this method works for you.
 
Rik, I think your opinions are fine.
Honestly, it's likely important (at least to me) to always gather a broader understanding of what real audience members value in a film - and why.
Why this and not that?
Which of four variables does a viewer value?
If 3 out of 10 like action, and 3 out of ten like adventure, and the remaining four are equally divided among four other genres then that's very useful information.

I agree a director should be passionate about a project, however I also believe a director could be passionate about creating the best product possible among several projects and that an action sort of film could be made to be biased more towards also appealing to a broader audience.
Action adventure.
Action thriller.
Action comedy.
Sci fi action.

Doable - with passion. Just bias added. :)

Keep those opinions flowin'!
 
rayw said:
Rik, I think your opinions are fine.
Honestly, it's likely important (at least to me) to always gather a broader understanding of what real audience members value in a film - and why.
Why this and not that?
Which of four variables does a viewer value?
If 3 out of 10 like action, and 3 out of ten like adventure, and the remaining four are equally divided among four other genres then that's very useful information.
Click to expand...
Thanks Ray. But in this case I overstepped with Anim8 and read
too much into his request.

I appreciate everyones method. Personally I don't find that kind
of information useful at all. I am not a numbers guy - I'm the
creative type. If 3 out of 10 like action, and 3 out of 10 like comedy
and 4 are divided among other genres, I am still going to write and
make my monster movie because that's the movie I want to make.
It doesn't mean anything to me that 7 out of 10 people who took a
poll like action. Those 7 may really enjoy my monster movie but
don't know that until it's in front of them. They may never even
consider seeing my monster movie - but I'm not going to consider
making an action movie because I do not have the passion for it.

I know there are people who like monster movies without seeing
the results of a poll. A poll confuses the issue in my opinion. In my
experience a poll makes producers crazy. But I want to be clear - any
filmmaker who wants to do a poll should do a poll. All of you who
find a poll very useful should use polls.
 
Story, acting, and editing are more important than visuals.

Some of my favorite movies and TV shows have "Off camera scenes" which are scenes that are not shown but created as backstories in dialogue with characters such as Klau-Tu in the original The Day The Earth Stood Still telling a human he trusted that on his home planet the humans finally were able to trust their AI machines enough to turn over the police and military entirely over to their machines to protect them.

Another example is Season 7 in Smallville in the second episode called, Kara when Laura Vandervoot gave a stellar performance to breakdown when her cousin Kal-El aka Clark Kent told her their home planet Krypton is gone and blew up into radioactive fragments. She was in tears crying how she will never see her family and home again. She tells him he is too young when it happened to know what he lost. Clark reminds her she has family here on Earth and asks her to tell him about their family.

Without seeing the end of Krypton the actors performances made us feel their loss.
 
@Directorik

"My opinion is the filmmaker (the writer, the director, the
producer) should make the movie they have the passion
to make. "

Ah, man... you know this is not true in Hollywood :)
They have research groups, departments all over and they make things what the PUBLIC wants. I was employed fourty some years ago by a studio and guess what, we did exactly that; find out what the public wants. This is about a business descision and nothing to do with art or passion. They have to make money to stay in business.
Why else they make so many shitty movies and TV shows?
Hey, that's what the public wants because they're paying to watch it.

So, polling and test-screening goes on. I ran one of the test-screening project on Hollywood Blvd movie house. Man, that was over fourty years ago and today it's even more concentrated than ever.

BTW your advice; passion to make a movie is correct, but not a good idea if you want to make money :)
Don't we all know it!
Am no exception to this rule. I say, screw the public and make any movie you like.
hahah
 
Polljunkie

The poll questions are not properly done.

You give a few choices; 1 or 2 what if I don't like either one?
Sould have another option; I don't give a shit, and neither.
Not selecting one or another is a badly designed poll.
Give an option, NEITHER.

If too many select NEITHER then you have to modify your poll.
That's a valuable input!
 
p38 said:
@Directorik
Ah, man... you know this is not true in Hollywood :)
Click to expand...
My opinions are not based on the way the studio system works. I
fully understand that when there is $100,000,000 and more at
stake and shareholders and corporate concerns that polling is
necessary thing. And most often wrong. What the public say they
want and what they pay to see is often quite different.

My opinions come from the independent world. It’s still a huge risk,
but we can all give examples of small movies that no poll suggested
the public wanted did very, very well. The passion of the filmmaker
was what drove the production and when it was done the distributor
took a chance.

p38 said:
BTW your advice; passion to make a movie is correct, but not a good idea if you want to make money :)
Click to expand...
I can name 10 films right off the top of my head that were not
made with any polling of the public but still made a lot of money.
And I know there are many, many more. Hell, I’ve made money on
films that were made with no polling of the public. So I feel
making a movie out of personal passion is a good idea if you want
to make money.

I would not make a movie using the poll results: An original,
suspense thriller with blood and ghosts. Since at this point sci-fi
is so close it seems a lot of people would like to see an original,
sci-fi thriller with blood and ghosts. Really? People want to see a
science fiction movie with ghosts? Only 12% say they want horror.
Yet one of the biggest success of 2012 was a low budget horror
film. And no Sci-Fi movie has done well in years. And an original
science fiction film hasn’t done well in several decades.

I’ll close again by saying if any filmmakers want to poll the
public and use those numbers to help them decide on what project
to make I have no problem. We do what we we want to do.

Nobody KNOWS anything.
 
rayw said:
Sucker Punch had good visuals and was without a story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jAOo6Dw2B8 D@mn. That girl sure can dance. ;)
Click to expand...


And yet it was in a TON of theaters.


I'd rather watch a visually appealing movie with great sound with a sucky story than a crappy grainy movie with a good story.

back to the OP-

If you are going to make a movie with the goal of getting it sold then make something the public wants. Not some crummy artsy film or drama that everybody and their brother has seen a million times.


Also, a lot of people don't realize that a good business plan EXPLAINS to investors HOW and WHY a movie will appeal to the public. Appeal to the pubic = higher chances at making money. So yes, you should ALWAYS (if you are doing it as more than a hobby) make a product that will appeal to the general public. I personally believe that polling is a great thing. The big time production companies do it. They may not use a straight up survey but you better believe that they are doing their research on what is selling right now and what the trends are.


end rant- haha
 
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