No one on this site has ever even hired a music publicist
You got me there... I've never hired a music publicist. I don't have much to do with music, but yep, you're right. That's probably the most intelligent thing I've heard come from you... Now we're past this, what does this have to do with the topic at hand?
i have a better film and bigger budget than you will ever have
Who knows. You may be the best "director filmmaker savant" in history and have cracked the code that neither Hitchcock nor any other greats cracked - Having an AD stifles an artists creativeness." Oh wait, it doesn't, but hell, over a hundred years of history down the drain.... pack it up guys, this guy worked out we've been doing it wrong all this time!
i ask the right questions to know what i need.
You remind me of a local filmmaker who convinced himself that it's a great idea to AD and direct his own feature film. While this is slightly problematic for someone without experience as it's his first film, no real biggie. Further into the conversation it turns out that he's also going to cater and star in the film. I was getting a little worried at this point. So I inquired to whether he'll have an experienced DOP capable to direct him while he's in front of the camera. "Oh, I'm the DOP and camera op too!" I stopped asking more questions.... About a month later I was chatting with an actress on set who had been cast as the lead in a feature film. Turns out it was the same production. She turned ghost white when she found out why I wanted nothing to do with the production.
Even that guy understood the importance of an AD.
You can lead a horse to water, blah blah blah.
You can do whatever you want. You and your rich sugar daddy can outspend me. It doesn't matter. Just because you have a larger budget and hire music publicists all day long doesn't make the idea of producing a feature film without a First AD and less idiotic.