No Budget FilmMaking Ultra-Pack

9 Responses

• Comment by Amanda
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  If I had every ounce of control over it… yes.

• Comment by Rachel
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  It depends… it would be interesting… but I would rather have no movie adaptation than a disappointing one. If the director and screen writers were talented and stayed true to the original vision, and the actors were able to pull off the roles well, then yes, that would be amazing. If they were going to change something important to the original written work (like it’s meaning), then no.

  I’m not saying I would need (or even want) total control over it… and I understand some details and situations are altered… but if it changes the meaning of the story or the way a character is portrayed then that would be too frustrating to deal with. The specific features they chose to exclude, include, and change (and how they would do that) would determine whether I would be up for it or not.

• Comment by Paulie
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  I would do it. It would be cool to see my characters brought to life, and I would like to see how someone else interprets my story and characters.

• Comment by Sarah
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  Same as Amanda, if I could tell everyone what to do, and how I imagined it, then yes. Also, if it was a major blockbuster and I got paid lots for it!

• Comment by Joss
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  HeII yeah. That can only mean more readers for my books, and, if the movie is a success, more publicity for me as a writer, and possibly opening more opportunities to write other types of work besides novel.

  But, it depends on who is making the movie. I wouldn’t agree to a student produced film and I’d have to think about an independent film being made of my book. Just in case you don’t know, independent films are films that don’t have major movie studio backing, so they have trouble being distributed and getting publicity and they’re usually made with a small budget; fewer people know about them because they appear in only a few theaters.

  And, just FYI, producers, script writers, and film studios have their pick of the crop when it comes to making books out of movies and most authors aren’t going to get full control – not unless they’re financing the movie themselves. Most books are not made into movies, which is why most authors would consider it an honor to have someone interested in their book, including the opportunity it can bring them. Unless your book is selling like the Twilight or Harry Potter series then the authors aren’t going to have much control. The more popular the book is then the more willing film studios will be to negotiate and let the author have a say – and all of this is because they feel the film will bring them (the studio) lots of money. Just sayin!

• Comment by Taliah
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  Yh but only if i had control over who was making it , read over scripts first , casting , and the final edit

• Comment by Silly Turtle
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  Same as Amanda. If my characters were portrayed by someone I didn’t see fit, the sound track was not my choice, or the setting in the movie was wrong, I would be stupefied. I write my novels as if they were movies, so I have an exact vision. Unfortunately, it can’t all turn out as you plan, but it could turn out better.

  Also, its one of my goals is to become a movie director – so I hope I’d be able to have a slight chance at gaining all control if this was opted at me! Mwa haha

• Comment by Steven J Pemberton
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  I would be torn between increased fame and fortune on the one hand, and the risk of my book being ruined on the other. It would be nice to be rich enough to afford to be able to say "no, I’m not going to let you make a movie of my book" – because then I’d be in a position to dictate some terms.

  The author usually isn’t in a good position to negotiate over a movie adaptation. Often he can’t afford to turn down the money, and the studio doesn’t care about making his book in particular into a movie. They just want to adapt a book that enough people have heard of, so if the author makes too many demands, they’ll just go on to the next one on their list.

  I wouldn’t demand complete control, even if I thought I could get it. While I know something about film-making, and have made several short films on non-existent budgets, people who make films for a living know far more about it than I do, and would do a far better job of it. I accept that some things would have to be changed, and a lot would have to be cut out – a faithful adaptation of most books would be at least six hours long. But at the same time, I’d want the movie to be respectful towards the book, and be true to the essential nature of it. But words like "faithful" and "respectful" have no place in a contract (because they’re too open to interpretation, not necessarily because lawyers are slippery scumbags).

  What I’ve heard some authors manage to do is to get the movie studio to give them a veto over the studio’s choice of director and/or scriptwriter. So the author can’t ensure a good movie, but can prevent a bad one.

• Comment by _
  July 10th, 2010 at 2:35 am

  Only if every event that takes place actually happens and nothing is taken out or changed around. I’ve seen good books turn into disappointing movies, such a shame.

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