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Re: film production

209.86.212.119

Posted by Kenner on February 25, 2003 at 16:37:36

In Reply to: film production posted by Maiello on February 25, 2003 at 11:34:32:

Frank,

I used to wonder why movies could be so expensive until I began to be around some of the people behind the camera. The amazing salaries of the stars get the public attention and do contribute, but the principle photography, sets, F/Xs, post-production, advertising, and distribution far outweigh the $20,000,000 that Hanks, Roberts, Willis, and Smith are paid.

Examples:

A friend of mine worked in post-production on the first Spiderman and is getting ready to work on number two. The first film was in POST-production for 13 months- that is- the work on the already shot live action and CG and F/Xs went on for over a year. There were over 600 special F/X and CG shots in that movie.

A features assistant film editor is billed at around $200 per hour.

The director James Cameron said that the Harrier jump jet used in "True Lies" cost $20,000 per hour to "rent" and that it spent more than twice as much time in preparation and repair than flying.

I asked Cameron how the shot of the vertically upturned Titanic was made so it created that sense of immense scale. A special set was made for that one shot. That set was FULL SCALE and rotated on an axle to vertical. I would guess that one sequence without the CG characters (like the one that falls and strikes the propeller on the way down) cost $3-4 million.

In the "Abyss", they shot through a large, 4" thick plastic window in the abandoned nuclear power plant tank. The piece of plastic for that window alone cost $18,000. The cost of filling the tank and constantly purifying the water was astounding in itself- $XXX,XXX (I've forgotten the figure) but that's six figures just for the water!

A senior vice-president at MGM earned $275,000 per year 10 years ago, and there are dozens of this level of executive and above at a major studio.

I think a Panavision camera without lens now costs around $500,000.

On the set for a day of second unit shooting of the first "Dr. Doolittle" and the amazing number of people (50+) waiting for hours until a few minutes are actually filmed is amazing- I could feel the meter running. And the real Eddie Murphy was miles away- he doesn't like to be around wild animals! Another good sandwich and coffee..

On short notice, I represented a producer on a simple, one-camera, low budget exercise video that was made on analog video - and on a ready-made set of a network series that 3 hours cost over $70,000. (I got a nice sandwich and coffee..)

I could list astounding costs all day long, but I recommend watching the crawl at the end of a major feature and it will become more clear why the average Hollywood feature costs $30,000,000+ and correspondingly has to earn three times hard costs.

The film world is like the space program- we fuss over the visible astronauts (or the actors), but it's the thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of hours, and the sets, costumes, props, and materials behind the scenes and that make it happen.

We may complain about ticket prices - now up to $10-14 in Los Angeles, but try and make your own version of "Solaris" at home!

Next time, I'll tell you about the cost of producing an opera!

K

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