Money does not drive movies. A textbook example of that happened right here in Wallace, Idaho with the 1970's making of Heaven's Gate. It opened in 1980 to poor reviews and earned less than 3 million from a 44 million dollar budget. The devastation nearly closed the doors of United Artists and ruined the reputation of academy award winning director Michael Cimino (1978 Deer Hunter)
Heaven's gate is studied today at the most prestigious film schools in the world as the best example of how NOT to make a movie. That may be its only redeeming feature.
With all the talk of box office, Hollywood would have us think that money drives the making of cinema. But the glitz, glamor and money in the studio media marketing departments, has no concept of how the brilliance of cinema, the most powerful medium in the world, reveals the secrets and inspirations of the human heart.
Anyone who has physically made a feature film from beginning to end knows that there is no amount of money that could excite a person to start on such a venture. It may look appealing at first, but once in the middle of it the "labor of love" aspects take over. Images and ideas, new concepts, light, form, texture, sound and the the magic of stepping into a world we have never known before excites us…not money.
There is no amount of money that could pay for the work and commitment it takes. You either love this art so much you must continue, or you're out on the third strike.
When I started my first film history class I was under the impression that women were new to movie making. How wrong I was. Alice Guy was the first female director. There are pictures of her in her long Victorian dress operating a huge box camera. Lois Weber, invented the convex lens rear-view mirror shot back in the silent film days. The first time I'd seen that was in Jurassic Park. Leni Reifensthal, showed the world the power of visual images with her documentary Triumph of the Will. Apart from Nell Shipman, there are so many women who contributed to the writing and making of cinema, they couldn't be named here. Then along came Florence Lawrence, the first Hollywood movie actress who invented youth and glamour, and the stereotype for women in film was made.
The Lumiere Brothers surely had no idea what that first film projector would inspire. More than 100 years later, we are redrawing the map of movie making that we had in our heads. Digital high-definition has arrived!
"…and now my friends. I address you all as you truly are.
wizards,
mermaids,
travelers,
adventurers,
magicians.
Come and dream with me."
Since we shot most of Distant Location on green screen, backgrounds have to be designed. They need to match the feel of what is going on in the scene, but more importantly they need to reflect what how our characters regarded the afterlife. That requires a lot of research into the lives of the celebrities in our script. These decisions along with the very powerful After Effect tools we have thes
e days on a desktop computer make for a mesmerizing art form. For those of you who have not been introduced to Adobe After Effects, here ya go:
Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe
Systems, in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Its main uses are
the origination of 2D and 2.5D animation, visual effects compositing and finishing (image adjustment, color correction etc.). After Effects can also be used as a basic non-linear editor and a media transcoder.
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