MovieChat Forums > The Big Picture (1990) Discussion > I Agreed With The Studio's Decisions for...

I Agreed With The Studio's Decisions for Nick's Film


I realize, I was supposed to be behind Nick and his dream film, and at the same time, to see the lameness of the studio head's ideas to make the film mainstream (younger cast) or sexual (lesbian scenes), but I gotta say, the studio had much better ideas than Nick. I wasn't sure if Nick was really talented, or completely pretentious. His short film was purposely a joke (by Guest), the music video (although a great, catchy song) was silly, and his movie idea was horrible. Perhaps this was intentional; like Spinal Tap was a bad heavy metal band that we love or, years later like the small town dreamers in WAITING FOR GUFFMAN were talentless but lovable (this also goes from BEST IN SHOW and MIGHTY WIND)... I realize this is Guest's style, but, in this film I felt that Nick should have had SOME talent in order to back him against the real antogonists, the studio.

reply

[deleted]

Well, it was a sendup of the industry. Freshly minted film makers go studio hopping pitching ideas, or scrounge the cash to build a reel and portfolio all the while working a part time job. That's kind of the process.

The "Abe and the Babe" scene is supposed to make you laugh, along with all the other scenes where studios have their own ideas of what's good and what will sell, and what will fit in with the unspoken guidelines of promoting social acceptance and awareness.

reply

i think you completely missed the point of this film

reply

Yeah, he did.

One of the many reasons I left in the 1990s was a realization that unless you let the producers tweak your film for a socially positive message for society, your project wouldn't get made, or you'd get B-movie money.

The studio scenes do a sendup of the pre=marketing "marketing" process, but byplay or fail to mention the fact that films are highly guarded so that bad messages don't hit the big screens.

As such, in reality, Nick probably would have been able to make his movie, but I'm guessing he would have been given decent money with A-minus talent for a "Movie of the Week" kind of project.

reply