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| | | | | | | | | | | | | Chris Moore - A Macro View On Budgets
First of all, thanks to all those who watched the show. I hope you enjoyed it. Liz Bronstein, the boss on the TV show side, deserves a lot of credit for putting together a show that was truly good television. So keep watching and logging on.
This week I am going to talk about budgets and budgeting for movies. Here in Friday's update I am going to talk in general about budgeting movies. On Sunday night, come back to the site and I will be discussing "Stolen Summer's" budgeting process and the players involved in greater detail.
The macro view is that any movie can be made for any price. The budget usually is the amount the person financing a movie thinks they can make off that particular movie with a large profit piece built in for them. Do not kid yourself; the American Hollywood system is about making money. It is a business. It is a business of gambling though, where big bets are taken and big rewards are possible. But the budgets and the marketing dollars are the bets the studios and other financing companies take. So they calculate their bets on what they can win. This is the first step in the budget process.
For Project Greenlight, the most Miramax would commit without knowing the script, the director, or the cast was $1,000,000. Their thinking, and I do not know this for a fact, was that they could use Ben and Matt's name and time to promote the movie. The show on HBO would also promote the movie and since contractually they only had to release it in 2 cities in the country, their marketing budget could be close to zero. They were betting that the script and cast would be great and their small investment would pay off huge. A good deal for them.
So now that we have chosen the script and know the director, two things happen. A line producer, the person in charge of the budget and how the money actually gets spent, is hired to do a real detailed budget on the script. Simultaneous to that, a casting director is hired to begin casting the lead actors. These two things are closely tied together, as you will see in Sunday's episode. Who is cast can greatly influence a budget and the budget can greatly influence who is cast. As an example, in the first "American Pie," the studio, Universal, really wanted to make a small bet on an "R" rated teen-age sex comedy. We only spent $11,000,000 and this low budget made it necessary to hire unknown actors. I think it was also better for the movie to have unknown people, but it was mostly due to the budget constraints. The reverse would be "Reindeer Games," where the studio, Dimension Films, believed big in this script and this movie and so they wanted to get the biggest names they could get like Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, Charlize Theron, and Dennis Farina. These types of stars add cost and the budget gets bigger. Since it is not public information I am not saying what we spent on "Reindeer Games," but let's just say it was much more than "American Pie." The irony is that in this case Universal with its small bet on AMERICAN PIE made huge profit and Dimension with its large bet on "Reindeer Games" did not do as well. But on average the big bets win big, an example being "Harry Potter."
Okay so now you understand the bets and the macro way these decisions get made. So now it becomes all about the specific movie. So the line producer turns in the budget of the script. The casting director turns in the list of actors they think are possible for this movie at this time. The director also turns in his or her ideas about how he or she wants to shoot the movie. The producer and studio then see if everything matches up. Usually it does not. And this is where the fights begin. This is what you are watching Sunday night, the battles between the bet Miramax wants to make, the money it costs to make Pete's script, who Pete can get to be in the movie, and Pete's desires on how to shoot the movie.
These are always good battles fought with passion and conviction. It is important to remember though that there are some rules of engagement. First is that big name actors bring awareness to the project as well as their experience. But they cost money and most financiers have their personal beliefs on which big name actors actually bring bigger box-office numbers, so picking the stars is a process.
Second is that there is a hard cost to most things. Movie magic does not mean we have figured out how to blow up a building or change the child labor laws so it is free. These things each have costs, so the question is, do you do them or not? Soon you will hear about "Stolen Summer's" "pool versus the lake'" debate as an example.
Third, and this is most important, is that one can always spend more on any movie. I am sure Jim Cameron still wishes he spent more on "Titanic" or "T2." And Pete is no different; he wants more time, more people, and more money. Please understand that the financier's job is to weigh any increase of the investment with the potential profit. They are in a hard spot because no matter what they do, they are the ones saying no at some point because most producers and directors keep asking until the financier says no. So have some perspective when you watch the budget fight this weekend. That is my macro view of movie budgeting. I hope it adds some perspective to your viewing on Sunday night.
I also wanted to talk about my relationship to Jeff Balis and Pete Jones. In the episode tonight, we introduce Pete as a character, not just the winner of the contest. As the producer of Pete's movie, my job is to not only help him get the movie he wants, but also to spend the money we have wisely. I am not always nice to Pete and I am not always that helpful. I wish it were different, but I have a real investment in this project creatively and so I try to make Pete make the best movie possible and to think all of his choices through. There will be much more on us in forthcoming episodes but I want to just say now that I am trying to help him, and I am his boss, and I do care a lot about the movie. But I am also responsible to my partners and Miramax to make sure we end up with a good movie. You will be the judge of that.
With Jeff Balis, he is a young producer in whom I believe. I have worked with Jeff for a number of years and think he is a very capable producer. I asked Jeff to come onto Pete's movie because I needed someone on a daily basis to be working with Pete and Pat Peach, our Line Producer, to make the movie better. My girlfriend and I were having a baby right in the middle of shooting, and I knew I would not be around, so I wanted someone I trusted to be with Pete. I had just met Pat Peach and Miramax hired him; so I also wanted someone I knew on the set. I brought Jeff in to help me, to help Pete, and to help Jeff. As you will see, Pete, Jeff, and Pat spend much time together and work closely to make the movie a reality and to make it good. At least now you understand why they are all there.
I just wanted to bring some perspective to this and some clarity to what is happening on screen. As their relationships unfold and my relationship to the three of them becomes an issue I will comment in more detail. For now, please watch and see for yourself.
As always, thanks for reading . . . | | | |
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