I originally sent this to Erin. But she said I ought to send this to the group as a blog.
(She is probably too busy now. Duh. [Sorry Erin])
Erin,
There are a number of good writers here, and I suspect at least a few of them would like to see their work turned into a movie. I also suspect that we have some here people who have talents that are needed to make a movie.
Of course, there is the problem of how to pay for such a thing. Even if it were done as a computer animation, you trade paying graphic artists for paying actors and set designers/builders and even if you save *some* money you still have to shell out a bunch.
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But maybe there is a low/no cost way to do this.
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Have you ever heard of Second Life? It is a virtual world on the internet. You sign up, select an avatar, and go exploring. Most avatars are human, but they can be anything you want. It has been several years since I was there (it's kind of addictive and I finally had to go cold turkey, so WATCH OUT), but at that time you could spend as much time as you wanted and never spend a single dime.
Or, if you wanted you could spend real money to buy things like custom clothing, or build custom houses or buildings. Or islands. Maybe even continents.
Or create a custom avatar - even non-human.
I read somewhere on the net that the Gross Planetary Product of Second Life was several million dollars (in real money, in 2011) per year. There are alleged to be several people, not affiliated with SL, who have set up business there and make enough *real* money to be able to quit their real-world jobs.
Someone created a duplicate of downtown Dublin, Ireland. I never went there but according to several people who did, and had also been to the real Dublin, it looks just like the real thing.
Someone build a duplicate of NCC 1701, the original star ship Enterprise. I did go there, and it was very complete. Bridge, Sick Bay, Engineering, turbo-lifts, etc. No crew though.
I went to a place called the Republican Cafe. There was a large room with a bar, fireplace and couches and chairs. I met and talked to people there about lots of stuff, especially politics. One night I found out that they were doing a radio pod-cast in the real world, and we were the studio audience.
I went to various restaurants and bars, and to parks and malls and board walks. One beach-side restaurant had an unusual sound effect. When you walked around outside near the beach, you could hear the occasional fly or mosquito.
The thing that most people do in SL most of the time is talk to other people. You can speak and hear using a headset, or you can type. Translators allow you to talk with people that speak different languages. They work better with text than with speech.
One of the most interesting places I visited was the headquarters of Second Life Marxists. Never in my dreams did I ever imagine I'd have the chance to talk to a real live Marxist - let alone a room full of them. It was fascinating. And I met my first non-human avatar there. A devil, with red and black skin (no clothing), horns and hooves. Nice guy (? with no genitalia of either sex how can you be sure ?) but sort of strange.
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There are programs available on-line (some are free) that allow you to record video and audio from a computer. Some are generic, some are SL specific.
I don't know what it costs to do custom stuff like clothes, furniture, buildings. But some stories could be done with all generic stuff and a literal zero budget if you can find volunteer actors to drive the various avatars.
Lots of neat public places to do the acting and lots of other people to serve as a backdrop.
Food for thought,
T
Comments
Another option...
Another option...
If you have some 3d modelling and animation skills, Valve has a free product called Source Filmmaker.
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thliwent,
Thanks for commenting.
Another great free option is Blender (from the Blender Foundation). It is said in some reviews to be as powerful and full featured as $5,000 per seat products like the pro versions of 3DS Max, Photo Shop etc. Some of the demos I've seen are mind blowing.
But it can take months or even years to learn how to do things from scratch.
All you need with the SL option is a screen play and some friends and some free screen capture software.
Like I said, it's food for thought. I'd love to see some of the stories here translated into movies.
T
animation
Haven't got involved in any of it, but it seems a lot of high end animation is now coming out of Thailand and of course Japan. Maybe a capital venture of several writers and others picking a story and pricing it with several of the animators as to the cost?
Then there is an independent film festival. If the movie was made, they could premier it there. I want everyone to know there are NO guarantees in life. Each business adventure is a risk. Money made or money lost is a gamble just like Vegas. The breakout new thing is on the cutting edge and can go either way.
One last thought. Have you considered something like GoFundMe as venture capital seed?
Keep me in the loop if you will
Thanks
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Some details
Hi Barb,
You know, as soon as words like "capital venture" are uttered most people (IOW those with less than six or seven zeros in the bank) stop listening. It's a shame because these same people often have some great ideas.
I love high end animation and CG. Frozen, Avatar, the Tinker Bell movies, the Matrix movies. But it is not a must have for this to work. Good animation is more than acceptable, especially as a proof of concept. Photo realistic rendering is less important than smooth character motion and a good script.
I've played full immersion video games with cartoon graphics and smooth motion and a reasonable story that ran circles around other games with stunningly realistic graphics that were jerky-stop-start and/or had no real story behind it (e.g. kill anything that moves).
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I believe that it is possible to do a movie, on a literal zero dollar budget, using a platform like Second Life.
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Resources needed:
Back when I was active on SL I looked around for competitors. The few that existed could not hold a candle to SL. That may have changed. But the point is that SL would be good enough.
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IF we were to complete a first, simple project then the other issues you mention (reward vs. risk, GoFundMe/KickStarter, launch/premier venue, enhancements to animation and/or CG, etc.) can be addressed on subsequent projects.
I suspect a lot of the members of BC would be willing to spend a dollar to watch something like this, once it was actually available. (We could donate the money to the Kitty in the Hatbox. I like cats. Dogs are OK, but ...)
We get the experience and the kudos and some street cred, BC gets a boost in the bank. I like win-win.
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So here is how I see this in my mind's eye.
We start with a small group, say four or five of us. And we have a short list of stories that we all become familiar with. And we go to Second Life and create an account and an avatar for each of us.
Then we get together on an occasional or perhaps regular basis, inside SL. We wander around and become familiar with the various places publically accessible (when I was there on a regular basis, several years ago, I was surprised at how many buildings were deserted) and talk about them and how they could be used for one or more of our story candidates. And we could talk about how the stories might be adapted to fit the available "sets".
As we come to a consensus on a story and a set and so on, we could then practice some scenes from the story. Once we have selected a video capture program we could worry about things like camera placement and lighting and produce an actual video of one of the scenes. And then another.
We might need to bring in more volunteers to "act" (drive a character avatar).
Small steps, followed by more small steps. But over time we learn and grow. And if we are good enough, and lucky enough, we might actually make this happen.
But if we fail ... all we lose is some time. And some face, I suppose.
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If and when 'investment' money becomes involved (in a second or third project for example), it will be crucial for all participants to understand about risk. It is real and it is substantial, and I will not be part of any plan that misleads anyone on this.
From the things you said it sounds like we are on the same page in this regard.
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OK Barb (and anyone else looking over her shoulder with some interest in this), comments and criticism are solicited. I have thick skin, so even if you call me names instead of poking holes in my ideas, I will survive.
Of course, I'd rather have you poke holes in my ideas than in me.
That being said, I'd really rather have you tell me how good my ideas are ;-)
T