2 ms·

I have friends and acquaintances from pretty much every department across the movie business and it never ceases to amaze me how any project ever makes it into

I have friends and acquaintances from pretty much every department across the movie business and it never ceases to amaze me how any project ever makes it into the sunlight. The whole enterprise of filmmaking is so fraught with peril. Movies get canned at the last moment. Movies get made but never distributed because they ran out of funding. Brilliant scripts find many lovers but no takers. The weather will mess you up exactly when you only have one shot at a scene. Your multiple national awards guarantee nothing... you will still spend many years struggling to get your own film produced. And then the weather will screw you over, your producers will bail just before distribution because the political climate changed, and suddenly you will find yourself friendless and alone. Etc. etc. But then there are these flashes of brilliance... Those epic stories. Those immortal dialogues. Moments that shape a generation. Songs that move you to greatness, or get you through the hard times. And I suppose my friends and their ilk live and die for those moments. They are all mad, I tell you. Stark raving mad.

m463 3y ago
sounds like startups.
- adityaathalye 3y ago
  Yes, quite similar, if we also stipulate that the whole "company" is a single project exposed to far more mercurial risks, staffed almost entirely with a dynamically changing hodgepodge of contractors, agencies, and free agents, with a definite (albeit uncertain) completion date. Sometimes, with unicorn-level sums of cash, hustle, and ruthless market competition expended to boot. And where your first week in theaters (two if you're lucky) is where you might make back your money. Avatar, for example, is estimated to have consumed about ~500 MM USD in production, distribution, and promotion. If you spend that much, you are going to elbow out all the competition from theaters and OTT and what have you come launch time.
- jjeaff 3y ago
  Yes, I think you get this similar climate in anything that is highly competitive but subjective. And I think it's the mix of two factors that that create the insanity. The idea that one can pick winners better than a flip of a coin could, and the fact that the pool of talent that could accomplish the goal is actually quite deep. So you have "kingmakers" trying to pretend like they can pick winners with just one weird trick from a pool that in reality is loaded with winners and maybe only a few duds.

m463 3y ago

sounds like startups.

adityaathalye 3y ago
Yes, quite similar, if we also stipulate that the whole "company" is a single project exposed to far more mercurial risks, staffed almost entirely with a dynamically changing hodgepodge of contractors, agencies, and free agents, with a definite (albeit uncertain) completion date. Sometimes, with unicorn-level sums of cash, hustle, and ruthless market competition expended to boot. And where your first week in theaters (two if you're lucky) is where you might make back your money. Avatar, for example, is estimated to have consumed about ~500 MM USD in production, distribution, and promotion. If you spend that much, you are going to elbow out all the competition from theaters and OTT and what have you come launch time.
jjeaff 3y ago
Yes, I think you get this similar climate in anything that is highly competitive but subjective. And I think it's the mix of two factors that that create the insanity. The idea that one can pick winners better than a flip of a coin could, and the fact that the pool of talent that could accomplish the goal is actually quite deep. So you have "kingmakers" trying to pretend like they can pick winners with just one weird trick from a pool that in reality is loaded with winners and maybe only a few duds.