Hey everyone, I apologize for taking so long to reply. Iā¦ well, I went to my meeting and then I forgot. I want to say I ended up busy doing X Y Z but I did not. I enjoyed some time with my daughter. As you know I am an actor, voice actor, and have a background in feature film production. I worked for ITN distribution for awhile doing movie poster design and website design and some production stuff.
Someone made the comment movies cost SOOO much to make. Honestly they do not. In a film budget you have what is called Above the line costs and Below the line costs. The Above the line costs are your Talent, Key people etc. paying your actors are expensive YES. But when you hear how much a movie costs it is marketing.
Those old enough to remember back when Jurassic park was released. Do you remember what they said? " This is the most EXPENSIVE movie ever made!!!" think about that for a minute. You had a couple of mediocre actors, Laura Dern, and Sam Neil in one Location with a bunch of plastic Dinosaurs. Most Expensive movie?? NO. Titanic? MOST EXPENSIVE MOVIE EVER MADE!! again. NO. Expensive YESā¦ but what they tell you is all marketing. ANYTHING you release to the public is Marketing. I canāt go completely into this topic as I will end up going down a rabbit hole that is deeper than I have the time to take everyone on the guided tour. Just realize all Movies have a formula. From how they are written to how they are released.
SCREENPLAY
Take the script or Story as an example. To be considered FEATURE LENGTH, a screenplay must be a minimum of 83 pages with the goal being a 120 page standard. 1 page is 1 minute of screen time. Movie theaters hate the long āBraveheartā 3 hour movies. We love them. So we have seen a shift from a the standard 120 min feature to a 90 minute feature. Why? because the goal is not the movie it is to sell as much candy and popcorn as possible. The primary income of a movie theater is food sales. The only time they really make any money off of a movie is if it runs past the two or three week standard. It is more complicated with specific percentages but to simply state things you can get more people in the seats in one day with a 90 minute feature than a 210 minute kevin Costner film. More people in seats = More candy and popcorn. So those wanting to sell a screenplay, Write a 90 minute one location story. I can explain why if you really want to know. Yes, I did teach a college course on screenwriting.
Story
Even the Stories have formulas. You see them all the time. Your brain is attracted to them. This specific formula is what is known as the Great Story but you may not know why you think itās great. Some say itās the actorsā¦ some say its the action, or comedy, or great special FX. well, George Lucas once said āA special Effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.ā A special effect is a tool just like most actorsā¦(you can take that anyway you like") Itās the story but it is HOW the story is given to your brain. As soon as you read this you will now watch every movie differentlyā¦ and go " holy crap that marketing guy on uniswap was right"
THE FORMULA xxxx LIFE SPOILER xxxx
Lets do a standard 120page movie. A few people have written books on this and each has their own take on it just like each movie is slightly different. The thing to do is imagine the movie is a blanket that you have to hang on a clothesline. Obviously you would have one close pin at the beginning and one at the end. The close pins are things that take place in the movie. if you only used twoā¦ your blanket would sag in the middle so to keep it up or āINTERESTINGā you need plot points.
Pages 1-3
the opening of your movie. Meet your Main character, you have the setting, the time, and the MOODā¦ is it a comedy? youāll know within the first minute.
PAGEs 4-10 (minutes 4-10) your main character has a goal. the goal will be stated or. maybe even started. or a problem will arise. Your character may get some kind of information that doesnāt make sense. Or is told something he doesnāt believe and just blows off youāll meet other characters and you will be introduced to possible opposition. But something happens where your character will commit to a goal. this is where you are telling our audience what you are going to deliver to them. āwe are going to grandmaās houseā
Page 30
I am only going this far. because I want you to watch or think about movies.
Next time you are watching a movieā¦ get out your watch. Depending on the length of the film the close pin may be a little sooner or a little later. but trust me it is there. What is IT? It is your page 30 event. Your Big Revealā¦ your Action. or special event that catches everyone by surprise.
in a movie Something happens to keep your character from getting to their goal.
What happens to make Luke Skywalker decide to go off with Obi-Wan?
Of course there are deeper things tied into these scenes. Mainly Character growth and eventually you see the character change or grow. At the end of the movie something will happen where your character will think all is lost. No hope. But then something happens that reminds him of that piece of information at the beginning. The character uses that information to overcome the obstacles and get to his goal but also deliver to the audience what was promised on page 3.
HOLD UP!!! WTF does this have to do with MARKETING and EDUCATION and EXPOSURE. If you sit down and think about it you will realizeā¦ EVERYTHINGā¦ it can DIRECTLY parallel what we want to do.
Page 1. What is our Mood. Who are we. Our image. Our theme. Do we have any comedy?
Page 3. What is our theme, what are trying to do? What is our Message? and What is it we ultimately want to accomplish? What do we want to deliver to our customer?
Page 30 what happens to keep us from our goal? What makes us Change? What happens to Show that we can overcome? What do we commit to?
Lets say you have two pencils, both made to equally great quality standards. now company A says āI make the better pencilā and company B spends the rest of their existence trying to prove company A wrong. still, everyone now knows company A as the better pencil.