Uganda’s Tarantino and his $200 action movies (2015)
bbc.com
bbc.com
Bigger budget movies, meanwhile, can spend millions of dollars on CG and break immersion entirely.
$7k budget. I'm not so interested in time travel but I have an unlimited appetite for normal people inventing things in garages. I don't need super-stars, exotic locations or special effects, just good ideas and good dialogue.
The disbelief, the checking and checking again. The "this must be wrong" feeling.
I can't think of another attempt that I have seen that has quite captured it in the same way – other portrayals seem to feel inauthentic.
Does anybody have any suggestions for things that explore this theme well?
They can work for minimum scale, and get a percentage of profits (Sandra Bullock and Gravity). The trick with Hollywood accounting is to know to ask for a percentage of the rights-owning entity, since the production entity is a loss vehicle that earns no income, and the licensing entity only earns a small markup for its "work" licensing the movie.
The distribution entity is frequently a third-party company or parent company. Distribution entities might get paid a % of revenue (most common if third-party distributor), a fixed or calculated fee for distributing the movie (i.e., Fox and Star Wars), or it might effectively own the rights altogether and get all of the revenues (Disney and other parent-company distributors, otherwise unncommon). In rare situations, the rights-holding entity is the distribution entity (i.e. Blumhouse).
And even for those, working for a minimum fee, non representative of their actual asking price, for indy productions or movies they believe in and want a share of profits, is common, and is more or less the same.
(If you get normally $5 million per movie, doing one for e.g. $200k plus part of profits is not that different from doing it for profits only).
[1] He tells the Daily Mirror newspaper, "I said right off, 'Don't give me anything, you are taking a risk, let's make the movie for $16.5 million, let's keep it cheap, no one takes a salary. Let's just get a certain percentage, the back end, and then we'll split that.'"
The gamble paid off and Twins went on to gross $216 million at the worldwide box office, making a lot of money for the two lead actors. Schwarzenegger adds, "In the end, we made more money than we ever made on anything else we've done."
There are more details about the deal in his autobiography, I recall that Arnold became much more involved in the marketing of the movie than he had been in the past, scheduling press junkets, public appearances etc.
[1]https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/373216/Arnold-Schwa...
A few years ago, I traveled around Africa, including Uganda, using public buses (an adventure in itself) and they would frequently show movies or music videos. Many of the music videos were local hip hop artists, rap music often blended with local traditions. The music videos were no different form the bling-bling videos in the US and you can tell they all needed at least one white girl. Obviously, there were must not have been many options, so for the majority it was some girl that I would not label as "music video" attractive. My assumption was that they must have been the local Peace Core volunteer.
Kampala, like most African cities, is incredibly hectic. Not sure how he found someone randomly.
"Watching a movie can be a raucous affair - films are translated into local languages such as Luganda by VJs, or video jokers, who add their own jokes and improvised commentary, live."
Have you seen Hercules Returns
But you know where all of this started ? In 90's with movies of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. We grew up not understanding what those "Chinese" were talking about but we (still) enjoyed it. We didn't know why they would start fighting ( unless it's about saving a girl, revenging a murdered parent...) but we enjoyed. At that time some cool guys started translating those movies to us with their "knowledge" of Chinese ... Lol.
I distinctly recall that he for instance had only one guitar case on hand, so if you pay close attention, you'll notice that our protagonist (an innocent mariachi with a guitar in his case) and the bad guys chasing him (sporting lots of guns in their case) use the same guitar case! Now that's props on the cheap...
This strikingly resembles it.
Lalalala....ACTION! Supa Kicker!
The passion is inspiring.
EDIT: Vice also did something on these guys (it seems all the BBC does these days is recycle content) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy0OOVTmsJI
But it was a productive, fun time. Now with all the high end resources and tools I have, it's not as fun and surprisingly, less productive.
A similar thing has happened to game development, it is rare to see a monetizable game made by a single individual.
Objectively different, more complex, and intricate? Absolutely.
I'd also argue the most complex games are something like Dwarf Fortress or Ultima Ratio Regum. Both of which were made by 1-2 people.
The way of writing "use cases" for dwarf fortress is also a lot of fun and probably doesn't scale up with a large insustrial team: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_story.html
There are games like Rimworld which try to imitate DF's charm, but go further with a team, professionalism, and better funding. But while it's more polished and "balanced", it doesn't come to the same level of craftsmanship. You also don't get the same goofiness as a necromancer who slices off your finger, animates it, then pokes you in the eye with your undead finger.
Where does that happen? Ultima ratio regum?
It's full of crazy details, like falling down the stairs, cracking a rib, and dying when something pushes the rib through a heart. Or that time when someone found out mermaid bones were valuable and set up structures to trap, breed and "harvest" mermaids.
Even the 'bug' list is a fun read: https://m.imgur.com/gallery/ROa2C
I remember when I swapped out flip flops at the office for proper shoes. It felt painful, like a part of my soul died.
And thats when the spirit dies and you get a soulless product which sells, but does not satisfy.
It is about balance. Enthusiasm alone gets you nowhere, but mixed with skills ...
So, it's like making those Ugandan movies with fun and passion for $200 with a compact camera, and making the 1000th Hollywood BS superhero movie with $300 million budget.
"But he admits that this [use of sewage in the film] puts off distributors, whom he has accused of "trying to copy exactly what is done in the West and exactly what is done in Bollywood and Hollywood". "I'm going to show the world the kind of life we enjoy or we grew up in," Nabwana said in an interview for the 2012 documentary Wakaliwood. "It's called a ghetto life but you know it's good… and it's hostile."
In a sense, you, and perhaps we as well, are the directors being referred to here. We're trying to build something that could become a global juggernaut, so we can be prone to making the product excessively complex, because that's the way it seems like things should be. Nabwana on the other hand is of the '1000 true fans' variety. As long as the he continues to deliver what entertains them, it doesn't matter if the movie was made for $200. With each additional movie, he improves upon his craft.
Netflix ought to give these guys a budget and let them run wild.
PR material for the movie "Cannibal mama - I hope to meat you" cracked me up. :-D I feel this is a subculture that could be interesting and funny.
Trailer here: https://vimeo.com/120747455
But how was he able to afford the expensive adobe products?
Joking ... probably the same way most of his audience sees his work.