4 ms·

I wish there were a lot more movies like Primer. $7k budget. I'm not so interested in time travel but I have an unlimited appetite for normal people inventing

I wish there were a lot more movies like Primer. $7k budget. I'm not so interested in time travel but I have an unlimited appetite for normal people inventing things in garages. I don't need super-stars, exotic locations or special effects, just good ideas and good dialogue.

goto11 8y ago
Everybody knows about the big blockbuster movies because half the budget is marketing. There a lots and independent movies getting produces all around the world. But you will have to seek them out yourself to some extent.
- ada1981 8y ago
  Could you imagine a Hollywood film where the marketing scheme was “all the actors work for free but get to keep half the money they make selling copies of the film”.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    There are things like actors working for free with a percentage of the box office profit. Some top actors made more this way than if they actually got a salary.
    - gamblor956 8y ago
      SAGAFTRA rules do not permit actors to work for free, even if they get a percentage. (Despite claims that actors worked on the re-shoots for All the Money in the World for free, all of them except Mark Wahlberg were contractually obligated to participate in re-shoots, so they were already paid for their work. Marky Mark was not contractually obligated to participate in re-shoots, and collected roughly $5 million for his...efforts.) They can work for minimum scale, and get a percentage of profits (Sandra Bullock and Gravity). The trick with Hollywood accounting is to know to ask for a percentage of the rights-owning entity, since the production entity is a loss vehicle that earns no income, and the licensing entity only earns a small markup for its "work" licensing the movie. The distribution entity is frequently a third-party company or parent company. Distribution entities might get paid a % of revenue (most common if third-party distributor), a fixed or calculated fee for distributing the movie (i.e., Fox and Star Wars), or it might effectively own the rights altogether and get all of the revenues (Disney and other parent-company distributors, otherwise unncommon). In rare situations, the rights-holding entity is the distribution entity (i.e. Blumhouse).
      - coldtea 8y ago
        Contrary to popular belief, not all actors work in the USA, and are under SAGAFTRA. And even for those, working for a minimum fee, non representative of their actual asking price, for indy productions or movies they believe in and want a share of profits, is common, and is more or less the same. (If you get normally $5 million per movie, doing one for e.g. $200k plus part of profits is not that different from doing it for profits only).
  - rchaud 8y ago
    This is pretty much what Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny de Vito negotiated with the studio that made Twins in 1988. [1] He tells the Daily Mirror newspaper, "I said right off, 'Don't give me anything, you are taking a risk, let's make the movie for $16.5 million, let's keep it cheap, no one takes a salary. Let's just get a certain percentage, the back end, and then we'll split that.'" The gamble paid off and Twins went on to gross $216 million at the worldwide box office, making a lot of money for the two lead actors. Schwarzenegger adds, "In the end, we made more money than we ever made on anything else we've done." There are more details about the deal in his autobiography, I recall that Arnold became much more involved in the marketing of the movie than he had been in the past, scheduling press junkets, public appearances etc. [1]https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/373216/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-and-Danny-DeVito-made-Twins-for-free https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/373216/Arnold-Schwa...
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  Usually they got scoffed at - even here - with `but I go to the movies to relax, I go to the movies to have quality man'.
dpwm 8y ago
One of the more under-appreciated things about Primer is that the first half-hour-or-so really excellently portrays a raw engineering feeling. The disbelief, the checking and checking again. The "this must be wrong" feeling. I can't think of another attempt that I have seen that has quite captured it in the same way – other portrayals seem to feel inauthentic. Does anybody have any suggestions for things that explore this theme well?
- kowdermeister 8y ago
  Contact (1997) has a great discovery flow.
  - johnchristopher 8y ago
    I disagree. Main character is convinced she's right despite the odds. Primer, they try to figure out how something's working.
baragiola 8y ago
There are plenty of good independent films

goto11 8y ago

Everybody knows about the big blockbuster movies because half the budget is marketing. There a lots and independent movies getting produces all around the world. But you will have to seek them out yourself to some extent.

ada1981 8y ago
Could you imagine a Hollywood film where the marketing scheme was “all the actors work for free but get to keep half the money they make selling copies of the film”.
- coldtea 8y ago
  There are things like actors working for free with a percentage of the box office profit. Some top actors made more this way than if they actually got a salary.
  - gamblor956 8y ago
    SAGAFTRA rules do not permit actors to work for free, even if they get a percentage. (Despite claims that actors worked on the re-shoots for All the Money in the World for free, all of them except Mark Wahlberg were contractually obligated to participate in re-shoots, so they were already paid for their work. Marky Mark was not contractually obligated to participate in re-shoots, and collected roughly $5 million for his...efforts.) They can work for minimum scale, and get a percentage of profits (Sandra Bullock and Gravity). The trick with Hollywood accounting is to know to ask for a percentage of the rights-owning entity, since the production entity is a loss vehicle that earns no income, and the licensing entity only earns a small markup for its "work" licensing the movie. The distribution entity is frequently a third-party company or parent company. Distribution entities might get paid a % of revenue (most common if third-party distributor), a fixed or calculated fee for distributing the movie (i.e., Fox and Star Wars), or it might effectively own the rights altogether and get all of the revenues (Disney and other parent-company distributors, otherwise unncommon). In rare situations, the rights-holding entity is the distribution entity (i.e. Blumhouse).
    - coldtea 8y ago
      Contrary to popular belief, not all actors work in the USA, and are under SAGAFTRA. And even for those, working for a minimum fee, non representative of their actual asking price, for indy productions or movies they believe in and want a share of profits, is common, and is more or less the same. (If you get normally $5 million per movie, doing one for e.g. $200k plus part of profits is not that different from doing it for profits only).
- rchaud 8y ago
  This is pretty much what Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny de Vito negotiated with the studio that made Twins in 1988. [1] He tells the Daily Mirror newspaper, "I said right off, 'Don't give me anything, you are taking a risk, let's make the movie for $16.5 million, let's keep it cheap, no one takes a salary. Let's just get a certain percentage, the back end, and then we'll split that.'" The gamble paid off and Twins went on to gross $216 million at the worldwide box office, making a lot of money for the two lead actors. Schwarzenegger adds, "In the end, we made more money than we ever made on anything else we've done." There are more details about the deal in his autobiography, I recall that Arnold became much more involved in the marketing of the movie than he had been in the past, scheduling press junkets, public appearances etc. [1]https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/373216/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-and-Danny-DeVito-made-Twins-for-free https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/373216/Arnold-Schwa...
johnchristopher 8y ago
Usually they got scoffed at - even here - with `but I go to the movies to relax, I go to the movies to have quality man'.

dpwm 8y ago

One of the more under-appreciated things about Primer is that the first half-hour-or-so really excellently portrays a raw engineering feeling. The disbelief, the checking and checking again. The "this must be wrong" feeling. I can't think of another attempt that I have seen that has quite captured it in the same way – other portrayals seem to feel inauthentic. Does anybody have any suggestions for things that explore this theme well?

kowdermeister 8y ago
Contact (1997) has a great discovery flow.
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  I disagree. Main character is convinced she's right despite the odds. Primer, they try to figure out how something's working.

baragiola 8y ago

There are plenty of good independent films