Hollywood legendary director

Gambling has always been a standing method in the film and television industry.

Such as guaranteed release, theatrical quota (the opening screen determined at the beginning and the uniqueness for the least period of time in the future, such as some blockbuster movies, why can they continue to be released, there are benefits in this respect), and with actors The starring contract signed by the big names reduces the remuneration and the box office share is also a gamble.

However, many gambling agreements have become the rules.

It's like making a split account based on the ratings. In fact, a set of rules have been formed. How much is given when you break 3 and how much is given when you break 4. Everyone actually has such a standard in mind.

And Lehman's proposal is not excessive, because it is a gambling on the prospects of the project, but who is accurate about the market prospects?

Bill McNico couldn't find a reason not to agree.

As long as the audience rating does not exceed 6, Fox will always take advantage under the same conditions. Moreover, even if the average audience rating exceeds 6, it will not lose much, but the project revenue will be more distributed to Firefly.

Lehman chatted with Bill McNico and asked sternly, "So, do we cooperate according to this standard?"

"Of course." Bill McNico took a sip of coffee, put down the cup and said: "Fox can not participate in the production of the project, but the best partner for subsequent broadcast copyright is always Fox."

"Limited to this TV series."

"Otherwise." Bill McNico laughed.

"It seems I didn't think much." Lyman also laughed.

Now that I have said it.

Then the atmosphere will be much more harmonious, and the trivial matter of blocking fire is not worth mentioning at all.

After talking for more than ten minutes, Bill McNico said that the company had something to leave and Lehman also stood up and sent him politely.

Back at the company, Lehman took the report sent below to watch.

He has a dedicated staff in the production department responsible for sorting out the production progress of each project, so as to avoid problems that he does not understand, and by the way supervise each project.

——Although Lehmann seldom cares about how to shoot, he still attaches great importance to the general direction.

On the report, "Little Sunshine" has selected most of the actors, and has entered the stage of setting-the last step before shooting.

Because the movie itself has a small budget-after all, the small cost.

The selected actors are basically the same as the original time and space. They are composed of director Jonathan Dayton and his wife Villery Farris relying on the friendship during the filming of MV and some familiar little actors who have dealt with.

Perhaps the biggest name in the whole film may be Alan Arkin, who played the humorous role of Grandpa. This old drama character has been very good in many movies with good box office such as "Edward Scissorhands" and "Eros". After reading the script, the old actor was still paid for nothing because of favor, which saved the actor the heaviest money.

As for Greg Kinnear, who played the role of his father, the gay painter and Jack Nicholson in "The Perfect" (Mike in "Flying Over the Cuckoo", the writer Jack in "The Shining", the old version The clown of "Batman") is a powerful actor on the same stage, and because of the "flow theory" that has gradually emerged in Hollywood, there are few opportunities to participate in the work, so he joined the crew at the price of 30,000 US dollars.

The rest, such as Steve Carlisle and Toni Collett, survive in the bottom of Hollywood, joining for $10,000 and $8,000 respectively.

The only trouble is that the heroine Oliv needs a young girl (not more than 10 years old).

For this reason, the crew auditioned more than 300 little girls from major agencies before they picked Abigail Breslin.

This little girl is not beautiful, nor is she as delicate as a doll, but she just makes people look lovable, silly, with a big face, and when she smiles, she reveals two small pear vortexes-Jiao Han Zhong. A little cute, this is the Olive that "Little Sunshine" needs, because it's energetic and sunny.

Moreover, Abigail has the experience of acting in movies. It is also very important not to have stage fright. Otherwise, it would be unnatural to see the camera and definitely not be an actor.

In the end, after signing a starring agreement with her parents, Abigail's pay was only 25,000.

In other words, the entire actor's expenditure for "Little Sunshine" will not exceed 100,000, plus various dragon sets and extras, it will not exceed 150,000. Compared with the production budget of more than 8 million, it is really compressed. .

But most of the independent films actually look like this. In order to save money, some works don’t even look for professional actors and directly mobilize relatives and friends to star in for free. It is likely that millions of dollars have been spent on making a feature feature film and the actors’ expenses It's less than zero and zero of the total.

From the very beginning, Mark Tetotu, as the producer of this project, had detailed calculations. For cross-state shooting, food and lodging are the main expenses, and the importance of equipment rental also requires more capital investment than hiring big-name actors. .

They don't need to think about publicity, don't need to think about traffic to attract audiences, and don't even need to care about results. They just need to put this story on the big screen, and the other is not important.

Perhaps this is the difference between independent production and commercial production.

That's why in recent years independent productions have repeatedly produced movies with good reputation at the box office.

Sometimes, thinking too much, but ignoring some essence.

In Hollywood’s path towards grouping, globalization, and sequelization, it will need popular movie stars to attract fans, it will need to cater to markets in other regions, abandon more localized operations, and it will need to consider various gains and losses, various risks, and various Pros and cons...

The more you think about it, the more it tends to be streamlined, as if the works produced from a workshop look different and have the same essence.

For commercial considerations and for the box office market, this movie is bound to become mediocre and single.

Of course, "Mediocrity" is another way out for film production, but besides "Mediocrity", Lehman also pursues diversification.

He hopes that his own studio can produce various types of movies, whether it is niche art or profound preaching, or even light like landscape movies, cool like space science fiction, and even brain-burning suspense, not for the faint-hearted. Terror, whether it is losing money or making money, he is willing to accept it.

Firefly has already had the confidence to lose money, to make movies that are not popular.

Only when the works are sufficiently diverse can the charm of the sound and picture art of film be better reflected.

After the report was reviewed, Lehman approved the second 20 million funding for the "Spartan" project.

Someone knocked on the door, and then Black walked in.

"Boss, are you looking for me?"

"Well, you look at a script first." Lehman took out the prepared TV script from the drawer and handed it over.

Blake sat down in a seat, read it roughly, and wondered: "Will there be a market for such a subject?"

No wonder Blake questioned. In fact, when Lehman first knew the script, he was also somewhat reasonable about its situation.

If we say that in the script library, the types of projects that are piled up and no one is optimistic about can be roughly divided into three directions.

The first type is that the writing is too bad, and you don’t see it at all;

The second category is that the subject matter is old-fashioned or the subject matter is too sharp, which makes people worry about it, and no one makes it. For example, "Juneo", which talks about the conception of minors, the minors and sexual concepts involved, is still relatively People are afraid of being rejected by the audience or bad reviews, and the investment is damaged;

The third category is excessive investment, and most people don't have the ability to shoot. The more famous examples are "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia".The former is limited by special effects technology, and it was not considered successful until Peter Jackson took over. The latter's first box office performance was not outstanding, and the sequel was even more miserable after it was filmed. Box office alone can no longer pay.

In other words, the third category has high requirements for the director and the technological era. For some scripts, you just can't restore the scene, so no one shoots, because you know your own ability and force yourself to do unsure things for mature capital. , It is obviously impossible.

And the script in Black's hand belongs to the second type of old-fashioned themes and the writing is still not good.

Lehman also dug it out of the trash.

Because as early as 2005, many TV stations such as Showtime, TNT, HBO and so on all looked at the script and dismissed the idea of ​​filming, and their comments were surprisingly consistent-no audience would watch a middle-aged uncle in New Mexico The story of peddler, and the protagonist is a villain."