04-15-2016, 02:53 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-15-2016, 03:52 AM by Steven James.)
Many thanks Gelu for clearing that matter up. I remember once trying to tell one of my Thai students in Thai that she was a brilliant student and would do well in life. Apparently I got my tonal pitch wrong on some words and it all went pear shape with her believing I thought she would make a better criminal than a teacher.
Ivor wrote:
Err no he didn't.....
Sorry Ivor, got you mixed up.
Ivor wrote:
Many of the people here are passionate about History and often go to some extraordinary lengths in order to achieve some small historical thing, wouldn't it be great though if the Movie industry for the most part made the same kind of effort.....
I’ve worked on too many movies in which case the crew were more passionate about the movie than the producers or writer. During a scene for the mini-series Anzacs, the actors, following the script, referred to Germany’s last major offensive of 1918 as Operation Michelle. I pointed it out that is was Operation Michael named after the patron saint of Germany. This was the days before mobile phones, so it too 20 minutes to find out via the production office what was what. In that time I had a director telling me if I was wrong he believed I should pay the production company the money lost for the time wasted. How the mistake got to this stage and only revealed on the set is poor standards, but I know of worse.
You have to work in the movie industry to try and understand the beast, and a beast it is. My experience with the American industry is it is a churn and burn industry. Producers are terrified of losing their jobs which comes with a dud movie, so they get actors whose last movies was successful. Then they are driven by surveys, which is stupid as most people never are honest in surveys. Then there is this attitude in the US to cater to the demographics of what they call the redneck 18 male and his pick-up truck. Survey’s tell them over and over again that this where the money is and to make movies for that demographic.
The myth surrounding the block buster making so many millions in a few days is also not painting a true picture. These movies peak rapidly and decline rapidly, whereas some movies and a lot have, made the same amount of money over a two year period. They are slow earners but in the end big earners. Many big budget but bad movies are released worldwide simultaneously with a lot of advertising hype because the producers want to rake in the money fast before word of mouth kicks in. When I was at Newline, take for example the movie Strip Tease. Everyone on the inside knew it was a dud, but with a simultaneous release and an advertising campaign based on here is your chance to see Demi Moor naked, they were hoping to recuperate their money before the paying audience cottoned on. At Newline, we had equipment set up monitoring the takes for every day for all the cinemas in Newlines chain. There was a two day boom then it dropped rapidly due to word of mouth. So for the business end, word of mouth had kicked in faster than anticipated.
Christian wrote:
It is amazing how unable the film industry is, to find good stories, and make the visual part more authentic. In fact, the historic reality looks so much cooler. But they seem not to know this.
It is beyond me how some writers who have written duds, still continue to get work on big budget movies. Also speaking from experience, the script does get changed on the set while shooting, without the writer being informed. One writer I know of, when he went to the premier of the movie he wrote could only recognise one think he wrote, and that was the title of the movie. I’ve seen actors change the dialogue on set and this was done to hide the fact the original dialogue was beyond their comfort zone as an actor. When actors are challenged, they have a tendency to want changes made.
There’s an old saying “the road to hell if paved with good intentions.” That is so true of the film industry, and to list all the shortfalls of the film industry that would make it clear as to why films are made as they are would fill a very large book.
Also movies are not the only ones. I am tired of watching so called historical documentaries that are inaccurate and sensationalist. Too many academics today want to get on TV and are prepared to sprout garbage when they do.
Ivor wrote:
Err no he didn't.....
Sorry Ivor, got you mixed up.
Ivor wrote:
Many of the people here are passionate about History and often go to some extraordinary lengths in order to achieve some small historical thing, wouldn't it be great though if the Movie industry for the most part made the same kind of effort.....
I’ve worked on too many movies in which case the crew were more passionate about the movie than the producers or writer. During a scene for the mini-series Anzacs, the actors, following the script, referred to Germany’s last major offensive of 1918 as Operation Michelle. I pointed it out that is was Operation Michael named after the patron saint of Germany. This was the days before mobile phones, so it too 20 minutes to find out via the production office what was what. In that time I had a director telling me if I was wrong he believed I should pay the production company the money lost for the time wasted. How the mistake got to this stage and only revealed on the set is poor standards, but I know of worse.
You have to work in the movie industry to try and understand the beast, and a beast it is. My experience with the American industry is it is a churn and burn industry. Producers are terrified of losing their jobs which comes with a dud movie, so they get actors whose last movies was successful. Then they are driven by surveys, which is stupid as most people never are honest in surveys. Then there is this attitude in the US to cater to the demographics of what they call the redneck 18 male and his pick-up truck. Survey’s tell them over and over again that this where the money is and to make movies for that demographic.
The myth surrounding the block buster making so many millions in a few days is also not painting a true picture. These movies peak rapidly and decline rapidly, whereas some movies and a lot have, made the same amount of money over a two year period. They are slow earners but in the end big earners. Many big budget but bad movies are released worldwide simultaneously with a lot of advertising hype because the producers want to rake in the money fast before word of mouth kicks in. When I was at Newline, take for example the movie Strip Tease. Everyone on the inside knew it was a dud, but with a simultaneous release and an advertising campaign based on here is your chance to see Demi Moor naked, they were hoping to recuperate their money before the paying audience cottoned on. At Newline, we had equipment set up monitoring the takes for every day for all the cinemas in Newlines chain. There was a two day boom then it dropped rapidly due to word of mouth. So for the business end, word of mouth had kicked in faster than anticipated.
Christian wrote:
It is amazing how unable the film industry is, to find good stories, and make the visual part more authentic. In fact, the historic reality looks so much cooler. But they seem not to know this.
It is beyond me how some writers who have written duds, still continue to get work on big budget movies. Also speaking from experience, the script does get changed on the set while shooting, without the writer being informed. One writer I know of, when he went to the premier of the movie he wrote could only recognise one think he wrote, and that was the title of the movie. I’ve seen actors change the dialogue on set and this was done to hide the fact the original dialogue was beyond their comfort zone as an actor. When actors are challenged, they have a tendency to want changes made.
There’s an old saying “the road to hell if paved with good intentions.” That is so true of the film industry, and to list all the shortfalls of the film industry that would make it clear as to why films are made as they are would fill a very large book.
Also movies are not the only ones. I am tired of watching so called historical documentaries that are inaccurate and sensationalist. Too many academics today want to get on TV and are prepared to sprout garbage when they do.
