How Joss made Serenity so quickly and cheaply.
WARNING: Spoiler stuff in linked article.
If you like that movie-making kind of backlot stuff, this explains how Serenity was made for $40 million and looks like $100 million. Like Robert Rodriguez, Joss is a film maker who knows what he wants and how to get it done fast.
"In TV the attitude is: 'Tell me what we have and we'll build around that,' " says Whedon. "Feature filmmaking seems more like, 'Give me everything and then I'll choose.' "I have a lot more respect for directors who know what they want and plan how to get it than those who improvise and try all kinds of ideas on the set and then edit down hundreds of hours of film.
There are some great scenes in Taxi Driver because Scorsese allowed Keitel and DeNiro to improvise on the set, but ultimately it's the director that should be in charge, IMHO. I like the stories about the Wachowskis or Tarantino making storyboards for every scene and sticking to that when the film is made. Start with a vision, and execute that vision. Don't keep trying stuff until some shit sticks to the wall.
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movies
1 comment:
Shocho,
There's a factor here that I think bears consideration. I don't necessarily believe that the incredible sets or special effects got shorted and that a brilliant solution was arrived at to make them look better. Remember that in a $100 Million blockbuster, a large portion of that budget goes to Cruise / Willis / Arnold / etc. There are no "stars" in Serenity. The biggest star in the picture is (dear God, am I about to say this) Stephen Baldwin. I would be curious to see how much these guys got because none of them really have the resume to command a huge salary.
By the way, I like Jane and thought his role was great comic relief.
Anyway, just food for thought.
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