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Well yea, to do it right costs actual money. But I look at the series 'Ren', they clearly had mostly volunteers helping them and used a defunct studio as their location. I'm sure with all the production happening in Ohio, it would be easy to find some old building to put up some sets.

 

I just wasted a bunch of time looking at the Kate Madison productions, they aren't very good. 'Ren' is by far better then anything else she's done, finally she has an OK cast. However, it's still not very well made. There is no depth to the characters or story. The cinematography is flat and uninteresting. The sampled score is boring and repetitive. I watched nearly all the BTS material and it flabbergasted me how they made everything with volunteer work. Sure, they've got some cool little sets, but you can so tell they're sets.

 

The worst part is, none of what Madison is doing, escalates anyone's career. The products she makes are too amateurish for any buyer to be interested. Even though 'Born of Hope' has million's of hits, it's too big of a production for the 30 or 40 grand they made off youtube. Everyone working on those shows does it on their spare time, which is hard to rely on for a feature film.

 

Couple of notes here: First, thank you for turning me onto 'Ren'. I was not aware of it, and I actually like it the best of most of the 'web series' that are out there - which all tend to be pretty low ball in terms of quality.

 

Yes, my production company already leases studio space in Norwood - what was once a portion of a sheet metal factory. It has been an ongoing ordeal to outfit the space as needed, and I basically do little bits of the project as money comes in. We of course are doing all the studio shooting there, and will be constructing the 22 or so 'sets' (some full sets, some sets with green screen extensions). The space will also include production offices and a screening room when I'm done. As additional funding for future projects, we will be leasing the space to visiting film productions and locals as well.

 

The thing though, you mention that no one is going anywhere in their careers working for Kate. While this is likely true, it could also just be that people do these because they love to work on films. It's possible it's almost like a community theatre project to them - shooting after work and on weekends, etc. I did theatre this way for years, and never expected a payment of any sort. I did it because it was fun to bring a production to life behind the scenes. Some people like to go bowling, some like to make movies maybe? You must admit though, for an all volunteer cast and crew, and little budget - 'Ren' is a pretty amazing piece of work, considering. In fact, it looks better than some big budget films I have seen (which is more a slight on the big budget films than Kate's talent).

 

I certainly would love to get paid a living for my art, as would any artist. However, like I mentioned - some people love art so much it's more of a side project than it is a career for them. All one need to do is look at theatre to see how many actors and crew members slave away for 30 hours a week, 12 weeks on each show - with no money (or maybe a $100 stipend for the whole thing, if they are working at a few select theatres).Yet they do it all the time, all over the United States and the world.

 

The amazing thing about Born of Hope was that they spent 25,000 pounds making it - yet due to it being a fan film - have not been able to monetize it in any way. Sorta of a shame, seeing those millions of views and potential income result in nothing...

 

 

Yea, if you consider games to be photorealistic, then we're talking two different languages.

 

18e.jpg

 

2k-games-photorealism.jpg

 

crysis2_hardcore-4f347cd-intro.jpg

 

While certainly not 1000% realistic, you must admit - it's pretty damn close.

 

 

 

Yea, I can see you're an escapist, that's what happens when you live in the middle of nowhere! LOL :)

 

Fine, I see how it is! I'll just head back to my cabin in the woods, and enjoy my life in the middle of nowhere! I don't need you sophisticated Cali people!!! ;) :rolleyes:

*joking sarcasm*

 

Good debate, Tyler. I enjoy discussing these issues with you and others. Not only is it educational, but it's a good exerciser to keep my mind from going numb dealing with the daily stress. Hopefully others can gleam some information from our debates.

Edited by Landon D. Parks
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Image one, somewhat believable, images two and three, not at all.

 

Building out a studio space? I'm everyone would like to see some in progress shots. How about just a few of the power distribution and your lighting grids?

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The realtime game engines are actually getting quite close - probably close enough that a narrative feature could be mounted using them. After all, Pixar's style has long been - what's the most flattering term - charmingly naive.

 

Not that it's photorealistic, but, given good writing and particularly good character animation, I think people would watch it.

 

P

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Building out a studio space? I'm everyone would like to see some in progress shots. How about just a few of the power distribution and your lighting grids?

 

Well, don't get too carried away there, JD. I didn't say I was building out a Hollywood sound stage. It's basically a space roughly 140' wide x 40' deep. It was one open space with 10' ceilings. My progress so far consists of building out the walls separating the office areas from the stage areas. Power distribution is not yet planned really, nor is a grid. Keep in mind I'm basically getting the place for change because I know the guy who owns the building, and I'm simply putting money into it occasionally and doing work-days when I have the time to do it. I expect we'll be ready to move our editing and other equipment / office stuff in by around October, and that the two stages should be roughly ready to shoot on early next year.

 

Once the stages are outfitted, the plan is to have a lighting grid of 1" bars attached to the ceiling which to hang green screen cycs and set practicals. Since our studio lighting inventory will const of mostly florescent and LED lighting - mostly of the cheaper variety, we are not exactly planning on being power starved.

 

Like I said, one step at a time. And basically, the space is designed to be 'low budget' all around, and not Hollywood caliber. More than likely any rentals that we do will be more local in nature, things such as theatre co. rehearsals and the like. I'm not ruling out the space for 'professional' productions, though they would need to work within the limitation of the space - which is pretty limiting.

 

Perhaps I will take some pictures and maybe start another thread on 'building your own studio', though such a thing will have to wait a while since I'm currently not planning to do another workday til later in May. I just don't have the time between my two businesses and development of this film project. In the mean time, I DO have a rough drawing I did in Photoshop several months ago that sort of outlines (in no real order) what the end plan is for the space. Take it with a grain of salt, though - and it's not the primary blueprints we are using.

 

sketch.png

 

I hope that satisfies your curiosity for the time being.

 

 

The realtime game engines are actually getting quite close - probably close enough that a narrative feature could be mounted using them. After all, Pixar's style has long been - what's the most flattering term - charmingly naive.

 

Not that it's photorealistic, but, given good writing and particularly good character animation, I think people would watch it.

 

P

 

Game engines are pretty good, and CAN produce some pretty photo-realistic looking results. A lot of that comes down to the individual talent working on the game though. Hopefully here soon I'll be a place to be able to start sharing some concept renders and things from my current project. I just cannot really release much information about it yet, due to our seeking an advance pick-up deal from a couple of web television distributors. If they want to brand the project or something of that nature, I do not want to release a lot of development level renderings or information about the project. In fact, mentioning the budget we currently have was probably a bad idea that could bite us in the butt later.

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I think honestly it's become more to do with reasons not to do stuff in LA, which, to be fair, can be quite valid for small or very small productions.

 

I went to a potential customer's home, which in fact is his office/studio/production facility... nice tax write off that...

 

Anyway, the guy produces infomercial content and has set up his operation such that he can provide broadcast quality content.

 

Now... he was a former ABC exec... made a pile of money in that... then decided to leave LA... and his studio/home is about 5 acres in a 'gated' community were most of the homes sit on 5 acres or more... most, including his, have horse stables, and the usual sort of things one expects from that class of people...

 

After the meeting... I came up with an ad campaign for my product... Network plumbers... we fill in the butt cracks of your wireless connectivity... but anyway, the operation was impressive that he could do this... and there is no reason why it can't happen many places...

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In a completely coincidental thread in a different universe... I ran across this website...

 

http://www.the-numbers.com

 

And in particular the table of 'distributors vs box offices' over the last 20 years... the list is pretty long with Warner Bros. leading the top.. with umpty-ump gazillion. and a company called "Lavender House Films" at the bottom... with about $400...

 

http://www.the-numbers.com/market/distributors

 

Don't know how many are based in LA or just around... but after the top ten, the list is 'mostly unknown'...

 

I'd suspect someone who would like to 'sell a film' could use that list in some way to find a distributor that may be interested... if they have a site to describe what they are interested in...

 

Of course it could be the case that all of them have notices "We are not accepting submissions at this time"... or something like that...

Edited by John E Clark
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