kguillou
Avenger
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- Dec 30, 2005
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THIS is what I’m saying! It’s not the CGI itself that’s raising the costs, it’s the productions using it as an excuse not to properly plan out their films in pre-production that is.
I don’t know if it’s still this way as I haven’t read up on him recently, but there’s a reason Chris Nolan at least used to be one of the few big-budget filmmakers who always came in on-time and on(sometimes even under)-budget: He’s a planner. His films are meticulously planned down to a science. So his budgets are for exactly what they’ll need and when they’ll need it. Spielberg used to be the same way (no idea if he still is either).
A part of the issue is the way the blockbuster production line works now thanks in no small part to the MCU. It used to be, when you got hired to make a film for your studio, you’d go through and break down a script page by page, determine the budget you’ll need and the TIME you’ll need (which is a huge determining factor in the budget, because a lot of stuff is rented and paid for by the hour/day) to make it, and that proposal would either be rejected by the studio or be given the green light and release date based on that. Nowadays, it’s seems like the studios say “here’s your movie, here’s your release date, now start planning whatever you have to do to make it by that date.” So with that way of working, it’s no surprise that shortcuts would become standard in lieu of proper planning and craftsmanship.
Setting a release date before anything else (sometimes not even a script!) on a movie is wild to me. I get why these “interconnected universes” feel they have to do that, but it does not engender the right kind of planning at all imo.
And not to pick on the MCU too much but with a few exceptions it seems like they, like you said, basically have the movie already planned out before the directr is hired and they pretty much just hire someone to just show up every day and yell "Cut!" and "Action!" Nothing more nothing less. They dont bring in too many artists like Coogler, Raimi, Waititi, Zhao who are usually meticulous with their films and how they look because they just need someone to get the film from point A to point B.