B-Film Requirements

[Sugar_Nads]

How many here believe that DV features meet the B-film criteria?

Please be honest and provide a few examples if possible. Thanks

[mr. henry]

i gotta run so in a nutshell,...

sure they can be produced on dv, just like they can exist on super 8, 16mm, imax, etc...

the theory of what makes a movie b is WHOLE nother story...as you know...

zip it up and zip it out,
-mr. henry
www.310am.com

[Scott]

Definately DV (direct to video) is the B-movie of today. Drive-Ins were the best way to show a B-movie and indoor Theaters had the serials and shorter films about 1 hour long.  Direct to Video isn't a good outlet for B-movies really.

Wouldn't it be cool if DVD's  all came out with double features. The first film would be the Main Feature that would have shown months earlier at the theater and the second film on all DVD's would be the B-Movie or what we have come to know as the DV movie or B-movie. Just like the old days. That way todays low budget films would get a larger audience and maybe more effort would be put into a low budget film as those involved would know that everyone would see their product. Not only that, but a big time studio or director would possible have their own second string crews producing quality low budget film.



Post Edited (12-22-04 19:21)

[Sugar_Nads]

I agree, DV features are definitely the B-films of today. The only problem is that the technology has become so affordable that we now have teenagers trying to make films. As a result, we as consumers have to weed out all the extra crap before we finally strike gold. (or so to speak)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing teenagers in general. I just think that mature minds are more capable of producing quality product.

[Menard]

Mature minds produced the majority of the product that is the reason for this website. If the equipment were not becoming cheaper, we would not have to sort through the crap as it would be served to us on a silver platter, only by the studios. I like the idea of independent ingenuity; and if it produces crap, it gives us another movie about which to talk.--Bob

[Mr_Vindictive]

I have absolutely no problem with DV features.  I love Digital Video and honestly believe that one day it will kill celluloid.  It's just so much easier to use and edit.  It's perfect for the aspiring filmmaker.

Quite a few big films have used DV lately.  Hell, look at Robert Rodriguez's film version of Sin City which will be coming out soon.  Tarantino directed the film for one day and said he'll never go back to regular film.  

All you need is a camera and a laptop.  You can watch your daylies right there ON SET!  I see no reason why DV won't be the next standard in all films.  

The prices are dropping dramatically as well.  Check out this amazing Canon XL2 digi cam for only 5,000!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1027012&CatId=129

All in all, it's an easier, cheaper, more flexible medium than regular film.  I love it.

[Sugar_Nads]

$5 Grand for a Canon XL-1?!  *BOOH!-HOO!-HOO!* It's still way outta my league... : (

[dean]

Mature minds are not what is required to make quality product.  It just all depends on what sort of product you are after.

For example: a recent short film festival held at my university was won by a very immature, but ultimately very smart film. [it was titled 'our attempt to win first prize'] My film about an evil toy clown who seduces a friend of mine to kill me and another friend also got shortlisted, though perhaps for all the wrong reasons.

Besides, if we were talking about B-movies, then i doubt that mature minds are a requirement, especially since we like b-movies [why else would we be here]

That being said, there are the occasional b-grade [ish] movie being released
to the cinemas which are quite enjoyable.  There certainly a lot of hollywood movies which have b-grade plots about them when perhaps they really shouldn't...

:-P

[Sugar_Nads]

dean wrote:

>
> Mature minds are not what is required to make quality product.
> It just all depends on what sort of product you are after.


Like I said, only mature minds can produce quality product. Name one teenager that has directed and or produced a blockbuster. Nuff said... ; )

[Menard]

So, let me get this straight now. If it is not a blockbuster, then it is not a quality product. Does that mean then that Masterpiece Theatre does not show quality product? 'My Dinner With Andre' is not a quality product? By the way, does anybody know how old Steven Spielberg was when he directed 'Duel'? I do know that Samuel R. Delany had his first story published at the age of 17 and that Robert E. Howard had a magnificent writing career from his teens until his death at 30. I use a registry editing program on my computer that was written by a 15 year-old. And where would computers be if it were not for a bunch of young people who were too pigheaded to listen to mature minds that told them that was a nowhere industry? Yes, mature minds have experience over young minds. Mature minds also get set in their ways and stale and occassionally need a jumpstart.--Bob

[Sugar_Nads]

That may be so Menard but it is the mature intellect that is struggling to maintain order within a crumbling society overun by foolish neophytes.

[Menard]

Is it not those same foolish neophytes whose enthusiasm advances technological and social change where if left completely in the hands of the old guard would stagnate? No doubt both need each other. One is a catalyst, one a stabilizer. Could too much of either be unhealthy?

Bob

[Sugar_Nads]

No, you can never have too much order, Mainerd.

Sure we need each other but my argument was for film making not invetions that all the cynical, young pricks develop everyday. BIG DEAL so we have new technology, new ways of thinking... alot of good that will do us the way things are going now.

Better pray we don't nuke or get nuked because we'll be enjoying our technology with radioactive fallout. ; )

[Menard]

Cute take on my screen name (:

[Menard]

Does your arguement "we can never have too much order" take into account oppression? Or are oppression and suppression supposed to be good ideas? Are we supposed to check someone's ID before we allow them to publish a book or produce a video rather than judge it on its own merits? Certainly experience has taught me how to better temper myself in my words and actions; but at the same time I envy the enthusiasm and energy I used to have and which is inherent in a young person. That same enthusiasm breeds creativity and experience teaches how to tame and develop that creativity. I am a better writer than when I was younger, but then I had more desire to write when I was younger; if I could marry the two. By the way, since when did social change become a recent invention?--Mainerd...I mean Menard (: