Just when you thought was getting good....The old rug pull! Latest info from the film markets is the fewest number of indy movies are being pick-up... and for the lowest prices. Why? Simply because there is now a glut in the marketplace. The very things that made it easier for all of us to make good looking movies, i.e.; Hi-Def cameras like the Sony EX1 and fantastic editing systems like Final Cut Pro with the Studio II bundle, have also allowed a bunch of other folks into the pond. Many with marginal talent, yet they get to muddy the waters. I'm even reading posts where video guys are bemoaning that falling marketplace and saying they think they'll get into feature moviemaking as a what to make some money?!?! What? That's truly a grasping at straws. Let's see... you have falling income now, so let's go out and spend, spend, spend on a high risk venture that has a history of not making the investment back? Duh... Yeah, that's the ticket! And there's the message. From the outside, moviemaking looks profitable, but I ask you, who do you know in Sacramento that has made "profit" from making movies. Maybe one or two I can think of, but that's it.
Now I didn't say I'm going to quit making movies. What I am saying is, I have to be even more careful on the budgets in order to even have a chance to make a profit. I'm not going to look at those inflated $750k to $2million budgets because if I have to self distribut (which is most likely going to be the case), I pretty much have guaranteed I'm going to have a substantial loss. My thinking is to keep the budgets around $80K to $150K and I might have a chance.
Fred Casanova is preparing to mount The Studio Center Logo onto the building.
As you saw in previous photos, Fred built the logo himself... Talented guy, besides being our chief Final Cut Pro guru!!
The finished logo is being mounted into it's final position... It's really cool. Wait until you see the back lights !
Ryan Todd was in the studio again...this time as producer, with Chad Turner directing a spot for a communications company. As usual, Dave Bunge did an amazing job of lighting the three sets... From the simple table-top work , to a hip lounge scene, to the fun "walk up the side of a wall" greenscreen trick. Eric Maddox brought in his Sony EX1 High Def camera ( just like the one we have in-house! ). Toby Annis and Mike Booth headed up the crew of about 7. These guys are all pros and shot the whole thing in a day.
If you've been by The Studio Center anytime in the last few months, you might wonder where you are. All you'll see is the "915" near the front door. Since we repainted the building with new colors...and a bit more sophisticated I might add... we had to paint over the old logo. That was OK because we had plans for a new metal sculpted logo to go in it's place. Since this is also a piece of art, things just take longer than you might expect. But as you can see, the work is in progress! It's really gonna be cool!
Wow...It was great fun...and we sold a lot of stuff... Although I was the first to break my first rule: We shouldn't just sell stuff to each other. Craig Witter had a Matthews BeefyBaby light stand that retails for $200 and he was only asking $10 since it had a broken set screw ( I knew I could fix )... My 10 bucks came out of my wallet so fast... and it was only 8:30! Didn't realize it later that some others were running to get some cash to buy these bargains. Ya know, it's the Quick and the Dead at these sales.
Well known Northern California on-camera talent Jim Finnerty was in the studio last week doing a green screen spot with our High Definition Sony EX1 camera. The guy is amazing. Not only does he nail the spot on the first take, the subsequent takes are all about giving the producer a number of different reads so they have a great choice when they get to post production edit. This is the prime example why people say it pays to hire a pro... Ya get it right the first time... and it looks more than right, it's great!!
