Quote:
Originally Posted by cheekycherry
Open water (the one filmed on cheap cameras in the sea) and Blair Witch Projects are 2 that come to mind.
These films cost fuck all to make, have no stars in them and made MIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLIONS...
What made them so successful?
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My experince as an actor trying to make it in Hollywood was that big companies use "formulas" to make movies; basing the next film on a concept that is "proven to make money"(even when it didn't).
So big budget movies must have certain events in the script to be made and they must "appeal" to the targeted demographic(which is usually where they call the average american a low-educated-racist who loves guns, violence and heroes)
Low budget films therefore have more room to branch out and be more interesting.
The Hollywood Formula:
- Boy meets pretty girl
- Boy sees villain
- Boy humiliates or roughs up bad nigga or spick(prefably in their own hood)
- Boy defeats villain
- Boy is now a hero
- entwined with, violence, guns, property damage, car chase
- Boy gets pretty girl
- Happy ending
My agent refused to peddle a script I wrote because "boy" didn't get "girl" and those were his exact words!
I am a believer that Rocky(I) was a hit because it evaded the formula:
- Rocky(boy) "accepts" ugly girl; sister of friend to get a job
- nigga humiliates boy
- no car chase, only controled violence in ring, no guns, no property damage
- Villain beats shit out of boy in ring
- Ending with just happy to be alive rather than just happy
Sly Stone wrote it himself and refused to change the script and that was a very good move.