The making of a movie

Olivier

I am a fan of your work. I have not seen Sector 4 yet but I will. Keep up the good work and ignore the negativity. Looking forward to this and your future work.

Stallone should put you in the next Expendables.

Fair enough. Everything you said is inherently reasonable. You have to admit there are some first time directors/actors/movies that hit it out of the park - but of course are the exception and not the rule. Everybody has to start somewhere. I find the attitude that you're taking to criticism far more constructive and admirable than others who just lash out at everyone, making believe they have created a masterpiece and everyone is just too stupid to realise it.

Well said. Many would jump to criticize a movie before knowing the story behind it.

So, technically you're in defense-mode even though no-one has begun the critique?

Hi Olivier. Thanks for stopping by. The only thing I'd like to add is that I believe everything you've said about the massive amount of hard work & dedication required & the opportunities given to new emerging talent etc. It can't be easy though it is the profession you've chosen.

I just wanted to say that on the flipside all the viewer cares about is enjoying what they're watching. If a movie is a true labour of love and yet still there's a lot I don't like about it then the criticism's are still valid and you've just got to "take them on the chin" so to speak. New film-maker, new actors or not it really doesn't matter to the viewer. That's the learning curve of the new talent & the burden they have to bear if their performance/contribution isn't enjoyable. You can not expect support for something if people didn't like it. Not from just the average Joe off the street anyhow - I would hope everyone in the industry would show you that support though. Much as I don't expect support from the customers in my work - and only hear from them when they're unhappy :)

That said the internet's most vocal element are the childish & the trolls and personally I don't visit a page just to whine or criticise but that's what everyone's going to see the most of. The happy tend to not care to vent.

I've not seen any of you work but I'm here because I was curious about this one - here's hoping it's enjoyable!

I haven't seen this movie. It looks fun and like you'll get exactly what you expect from the trailer- a fun action B-movie for the boys. A lot of people criticize movies for not feeling like blockbusters or like a certain genre they expect. I actually love it when you know exactly what you're getting in a movie and get it- and I enjoy a ton of B movies because they are just what I was looking for, and were fun even though they weren't big budget.

That said- I take a bit of issue with your statement "mistakes are made, we are ok with that." As a photographer/ sometime videographer myself, I couldn't disagree more. You should NEVER be ok with something if you know it is a mistake. That is pure laziness and how you get bad movies. Not sure why you would personally be satisfied with mistakes. You try your best, always, and if it wasn't good enough you go back to the drawing board. But don't be ok with mistakes, ever. Mistakes are for your home movies, not distribution.

I saw the low rating and thought to myself, could it be so bad?
If you consider it as an amateur movie made by some friends, it is a good attempt.
However for a commercial movie, there are still a lot of problems that are not budget-related.
Training, (boxing, shooting, close combat) takes far too long.
The rescue helicopter video is poorly chosen; oversized helicopter for such a one man rescue mission and there was to much difference in the overall color of the sites (could have been corrected).

The strokes that the prisoners get to their heads look amateurish.

In the final battle: one moment Nash had his helmet on, then not, then again, then not, then again . ( a problem with what was filmed togheter and the editing ? )

The weapons looked a little to much plastic .

I've worked on movies. Some had no money, some has a small budget, some had a medium budget. I can relate to what Mr Gruner is saying, but I differ a little.

I used to say to my guys, "It's just as much work to make a bad film as a good one." Now that's maybe a little glib and not entirely accurate, but you get the idea. What's the point of putting all that work in on the script, camera work, editing, etc if you're not making something good?

And I also used to say "Our competition is Spielberg." It seems crazy when you're making a film with nothing to think that you're competing with a director who has (effectively) unlimited funds. But there's only so much space on the video store shelves (yeah, this was a while ago), so why should they stock a copy of your film when they could just have another copy of whatever Spielberg's made?

So yeah, when you're making an independent film with no money, of course you can't go head to head with a Hollywood blockbuster, but that's no excuse for making something bad. If you can't write a script, get someone who can. If it's their first script, get someone else. I'm firmly believe that you've got to write a million words of rubbish before you'll write something good. No one can write an award-winning script on their first attempt to write anything. If you can't afford a professional scriptwriter, you've got to find someone who cares enough about writing to have already written their million words of rubbish. That's easy to say, but hard to do. But when you've got nothing, the one thing you do have is the time to get out there and try to find the right person. And the same goes for finding camera operators, editors, etc.

I've watched Sector 4 and it's not a great film. It's not even a good film. But it's not terrible. It's okay. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse. My first feature film was made on cheap cameras in a public park and it was absolutely awful. No one involved knew what they were doing, yet everyone thought they knew best. It was dreadful mess and I'm embarrassed that it exists.

I've been to a lot of film festivals and met a lot of people who were new to the film business. A lot of them talked about big ideas. I remember two guys describing the opening to a short film they wanted to make. They wanted a bird swooping down through the clouds over Paris, right down through the open window of an apartment, all in one continuous shot. I met the same guys five years later and they were still talking about it. It's easy to make the perfect film if you never actually shoot it.

So Mr Gruner has my admiration in taking an ambitious idea, making it into a film and getting it finished and out there. I hope he'll be able to continue making films. He's absolutely right: making a movie is a lot of hard, stressful work and it's very hard to get good distribution.

Good luck to you, Mr Gruner; you've made a good start, mais c'est un travail de Romain, n'est pas?