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Steven Soderberh’s State Of Cinema Talk

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Very interesting - thanks Humberto.
 
I just wanted to pull out a quote that I find very interesting and so true; “So then there’s the expense of putting a movie out, which is a big problem. Point of entry for a mainstream, wide-release movie: $30 million. THAT’S WHERE YOU START. NOW YOU ADD ANOTHER 30 FOR OVERSEAS. Now you’ve got to remember, the EXHIBITORS PAY HALF OF THE GROSS, SO TO MAKE THAT 60 BACK YOU NEED TO GROSS 120. So you don’t even know what your movie is yet, and you’re already looking at 120. That ended up being part of the reason why the Liberace movie didn’t happen at a studio. We only needed $5 million from a domestic partner, BUT WHEN YOU ADD THE COST OF PUTTING A MOVIE OUT, NOW YOU’VE GOT TO GROSS $75 MILLION TO GET THAT 35 BACK, and the feeling amongst the studios was that this material was too “special” to gross $70 million. So the obstacle here isn’t just that special subject matter, BUT THAT NOBODY HAS FIGURED OUT HOW TO REDUCE THE COST OF PUTTING A MOVIE OUT. There have been some attempts to analyze it, but one of the mysteries is that this analysis doesn’t really reveal any kind of linear predictive behavior, it’s still mysterious the process whereby people decide if they’re either going to go to a movie or not go to a movie. Sometimes you don’t even know how you reach them. Like on MAGIC MIKE for instance, the movie opened to $38 million, and the tracking said we were going to open to 19. So the tracking was 100% wrong. It’s really nice when the surprise goes in that direction, but it’s hard not to sit there and go how did we miss that? If this is our tracking, how do you miss by that much?”

Humberto Rivera
 
I was at the talk. He was very entertaining. His remarks were interesting and, to me, very much an indicator of a need to replace - or at least develop a model to compete with - the Hollywood movie making machine.

Surprised there is a video as Ted Hope, the Exec Director of SFFS and the guy who introduced SS, said there wouldn't be any official recording posted. Anyway, enjoy!
 
Overpaid studio executives, bloated "star machine" craziness, too much focus on "selling the product, getting quick cash" rather than "setting the environment and fertile ground for creativity and bringing interesting stories to the screen". No wonder young people prefer smaller, cheaper but often smarter indie films. Just saying.
 
Vadim Bobkovsky said:
...No wonder young people prefer smaller, cheaper but often smarter indie films. Just saying.
Click to expand...

Are you suggesting that most big studio films are made for older people? I feel like most of the movies dominating the market are made for 12-year-old boys.
 
Very interesting and informative, however I don't think anyone here has any illusions about how difficult the business is in Hollywood. But that's not why I make films anyway.
 
I don't normally read something this long but to read the thoughts of an insider looking at the business of movie making from an out-of-body perspective held my interest. What he said will have to be digested over a period of time in order for me to gain perspective. Not something one wants to knee-jerk about since it is information that one should use as a roadmap to move forward. I'll probably want to re-read this in a few days.
 
I was wrong on my Last Reference, (this IS my last Time) here is a quote from “Steven Soderbergh”, it has been take out of the article found at; http://collider.com/steven-soderbergh-digital-cameras-48-fps-interview/

“I’m curious about digital cameras. Right now every director and cinematographer I talk to uses either the ARRI Alexa, the RED Epic, or recently the Sony F65, I’m curious your take on the digital cameras that are available right now.”

“SODERBERGH: I have a long history with RED so I’m partial to RED. I like the way it looks, I like the way it works, I like its size. The Sony camera that’s a nice image, but the thing is a boat anchor. When I first saw the Panavision Genesis I knew that wasn’t going to work because it was bigger than a Panaflex. The whole point is we want it smaller. The thing about the Epic, which can record full resolution without being connected to anything, you know, we have that shot in Side Effects where Rooney puts her foot on the gas, I just stripped everything off the body and stuck the camera behind the gas pedal. Normally you’d have to saw a hole in the car to get that shot. That’s the shit I want. I want to be able to put it wherever I want. That combined with the sort of ethos of that company, which is that they are constantly upgrading. They’ve got a new sensor coming out, the Dragon, that’s fucking insane, like it’s a whole other level in terms of dynamic range, resolution, it’s crazy. I’ve seen the tests on it, it’s nuts. These guys just stay up really late and they’re just never satisfied and they’re constantly pushing it. So I look at it as…if you’re conservative you should probably use something other than the RED, if you’re someone who likes to live dangerously and push stuff then you should be using the RED because that’s where it’s at its best.

A lot of these cameras, you use them and they have text there saying, “Don’t do that. Don’t do that.” Whereas with RED we’ll shoot stuff that will come back, Jim Jannard will look at it and go, “Wow, I didn’t know somebody was going to do that with our camera. Great, lets figure out how to turn what most people would look at as a problem into our next firmware upgrade.” They’re just constantly tweaking. And it’s a great story too because its him, he’s like Howard Hughes; he had the idea, he had the money, he put the super group together, they went and did it and that’s the way innovation happens, you know what I mean? And he’s a gearhead, he’s a camera guy. A lot of these things you look at and you go, “Clearly the people who designed this have never had to use one of these.” Because if you knew you were going to put that on your shoulder you wouldn’t design it that way. Jim was a photographer. He really canvased a lot of people and said, “What do you want? What do you want in this?” And literally talked about how big should it be? How much should it weigh? What should it look like? What should the weight distribution be? What kind of lens masks do you want? He was trying to make something that you could use with your hands that felt intuitive. So I’m really happy that I ended up being a part of that narrative of the development of that camera because it was exciting to watch and the product itself has completely changed the way that I’ve been able to work. My only regret is I wish I had it ten years ago.”

“When do you think digital cameras are going to hit the resolution or the ability that anyone using film is going to say, “It’s time to switch?””

“SODERBERGH: They’ve already done it. Film people are just in denial. They’ve already done it. They passed them a couple years ago.”

“Okay, let me ask you this question, when do you think digital cameras will get to doing what IMAX can do, if ever?”

“SODERBERGH: Oh, they will. I mean the new Dragon 6k is crazy. Take the new Dragon sensor, put a Master Prime on it, shoot it at a decent F-stop, and do a line pairs test where you have this chart that has a series of lines on it…and let’s see.”

Humberto Rivera
 
Humberto Rivera said:
I was wrong on my Last Reference, (this IS my last Time) here is a quote from “Steven Soderbergh”, it has been take out of the article found at; http://collider.com/steven-soderbergh-digital-cameras-48-fps-interview/

“I’m curious about digital cameras. Right now every director and cinematographer I talk to uses either the ARRI Alexa, the RED Epic, or recently the Sony F65, I’m curious your take on the digital cameras that are available right now.”

“SODERBERGH: I have a long history with RED so I’m partial to RED. I like the way it looks, I like the way it works, I like its size. The Sony camera that’s a nice image, but the thing is a boat anchor. When I first saw the Panavision Genesis I knew that wasn’t going to work because it was bigger than a Panaflex. The whole point is we want it smaller. The thing about the Epic, which can record full resolution without being connected to anything, you know, we have that shot in Side Effects where Rooney puts her foot on the gas, I just stripped everything off the body and stuck the camera behind the gas pedal. Normally you’d have to saw a hole in the car to get that shot. That’s the shit I want. I want to be able to put it wherever I want. That combined with the sort of ethos of that company, which is that they are constantly upgrading. They’ve got a new sensor coming out, the Dragon, that’s fucking insane, like it’s a whole other level in terms of dynamic range, resolution, it’s crazy. I’ve seen the tests on it, it’s nuts. These guys just stay up really late and they’re just never satisfied and they’re constantly pushing it. So I look at it as…if you’re conservative you should probably use something other than the RED, if you’re someone who likes to live dangerously and push stuff then you should be using the RED because that’s where it’s at its best.

A lot of these cameras, you use them and they have text there saying, “Don’t do that. Don’t do that.” Whereas with RED we’ll shoot stuff that will come back, Jim Jannard will look at it and go, “Wow, I didn’t know somebody was going to do that with our camera. Great, lets figure out how to turn what most people would look at as a problem into our next firmware upgrade.” They’re just constantly tweaking. And it’s a great story too because its him, he’s like Howard Hughes; he had the idea, he had the money, he put the super group together, they went and did it and that’s the way innovation happens, you know what I mean? And he’s a gearhead, he’s a camera guy. A lot of these things you look at and you go, “Clearly the people who designed this have never had to use one of these.” Because if you knew you were going to put that on your shoulder you wouldn’t design it that way. Jim was a photographer. He really canvased a lot of people and said, “What do you want? What do you want in this?” And literally talked about how big should it be? How much should it weigh? What should it look like? What should the weight distribution be? What kind of lens masks do you want? He was trying to make something that you could use with your hands that felt intuitive. So I’m really happy that I ended up being a part of that narrative of the development of that camera because it was exciting to watch and the product itself has completely changed the way that I’ve been able to work. My only regret is I wish I had it ten years ago.”

“When do you think digital cameras are going to hit the resolution or the ability that anyone using film is going to say, “It’s time to switch?””

“SODERBERGH: They’ve already done it. Film people are just in denial. They’ve already done it. They passed them a couple years ago.”

“Okay, let me ask you this question, when do you think digital cameras will get to doing what IMAX can do, if ever?”

“SODERBERGH: Oh, they will. I mean the new Dragon 6k is crazy. Take the new Dragon sensor, put a Master Prime on it, shoot it at a decent F-stop, and do a line pairs test where you have this chart that has a series of lines on it…and let’s see.”

Humberto Rivera
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this Humberto. Reading many of the posters on Reduser who take the RED line of cameras for granted or who don't get what Jim, accompanied by Jarred, have accomplished has often left those of us who get it, frustrated at times. Getting validation for our beliefs by someone as insightful as Soderbergh melts away the frustration.
 
Mark Toia said:
Love the guy... but he just scared me off making a film.
Click to expand...

I think he has reinforced my thinking on how to proceed in making an Indie film.
 
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