Stars in the Future

I actually think that Hollywood type star-fame is being diluted as people from youtube and myspace become more and more stars of their own.

I'm guessing that in the future stars will be much more niche - meaning that people who love horror films may love this actor and she is famous to them (Angela Bettis for example) - but no one else knows who she is. Same for comedy. Then split those categories vertically between age groups and then in z-space between cultural groups. Fame from single projects will therefore become more common and it will be hard to hold onto fame more than a decade - nearly impossible. People will grow out of their demographic and crossing over will be nearly impossible.

That said, there will be a lot more momentary stars.

However... I do believe there will be some crossovers and some people who appeal to everyone. The super-beautiful, super talented types will always retain some crossover appeal. HOWEVER - I think that there has become so much media exposure (both intentional and unintentional) that these untouchably perfect people with either reveal themselves to be or will be sneakily shown to be less-than-perfect.

If I were trying to market a star today I would probably market the fact that they are so mysterious and we don't know anything about them. Rather than talk about who they are, talk about how we don't know who they are.

Starting To Budget

Could this be? A post not about the script but about budgeting? Indeed.

Just a quick thought (as someone who used to make custom excel programs for budgeting long before there were computer solutions).... Independent films need to have their own budgeting format.

The way the studios do it is to include the labor for the departments within the sections of the department. That makes sense when you have 100 people working on something and you are in the department mindset where each person is in charge of their own department essentially.

But Indies don't think this way - they think about the people separately. They're not thinking about the DP in the same category as the camera for example. There are surely other examples that would make things easier to work with as well.

While budgeting this I will try to make my own format, when done I'll post it online for anyone else to follow if they wish.

Script is Out

Script is off to some new readers as well as the Famous Friend who will read it before sending it on to her friend. She may have someone else read it as well.

In the meantime, getting my life back in order and actually starting to jot tons of notes about two other projects. Just things that have been building up in my head over the last couple months but I didn't want to distract myself with. One is an epic sci-fi adventure, the other a kid's adventure film.

Finished the Re-Write

Yep. Re-write is done.

Another nonspecific genre movie to my name. :)

I have this incredible temptation to write something 100% formulae. Just to see if people eat it up and that all the classic "you musts" of screenwriting really do make for "the best" movie. But first... I think I'll enjoy being done with this rewrite.

It's hard to finish a re-write because by the time your done. You're bored with the material.

Review of Previous Horror Script

Since I am not doing the horror film I sent it out to a company looking for horror projects. Note that one company late last year wanted to buy it - maybe more - so it doesn't totally suck - however, this new company didn't care for it. I had the rare chance to talk to once of the people at the company as to why.

The interesting thing about this discussion was that nothing they said surprised me - it was just whether or not that aspect was a good thing or a bad thing. For example - there isn't a lot of running around and physical danger until the end. Well, I thought that was okay - but for them - that was really a horror film sin. It was around this moment that I realized that if I'm going to write a genre film... I am really going to need to play by the rules. Regardless of whether the movies I've been writing are good or not - I've been making bread and calling it cake. No matter how good the bread - if you're looking for cake - it's going to be disappointing.

The conversation made me leap into jotting some notes down for genre heavy movies which play exactly by the rules. I will have to do this for fun at some point and to test my theory now that I seem to have places to send the scripts to. But I would almost say every movie I've written is a genre bender. Maybe not the best career move.

Furthermore... it made me think that maybe what I really need to do is totally leave genre all together - just go on a wild ride of my own and see if I find an audience.

But for now - with the music videos finally over - I'm just about done with the rewrite. Next couple days max. Finally. I am letting some stumbling blocks go - meaning not trying to add in something I thought would be good but just don't seem to be happening. Once I'm moving forward I will address this again.

In other news, I got a call to direct something in September. I like being called to direct. Makes me feel like I do this professionally. :)