# Film industry people - do you know you're making a bomb? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346 "2015-11-12T01:44:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/1 "2015-11-12T01:44:42Z")
I see a lot of movies, many good, some dreadful. When you’re making a movie, particularly one with people who have done good work before, do you know that you’re making a turkey while the shoot is still happening? Is it impossible to know that early? Are you concentrating on the trees, the forest being someone else’s problem? Are you just happy to have the work? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/2 "2015-11-12T01:52:40Z")
Certainly _someone_ thinks they’re making a good movie (or, at least, a profitable one). Ed Wood, for instance, truly felt he was making decent films. Phil Tucker, director of the laughable **Robot Monster** , thought years later he had “achieved greatness” (given the restraints). For most actors, you take the job and do the best you can. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/3 "2015-11-12T01:52:40Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I see a lot of movies, many good, some dreadful. When you’re making a movie, particularly one with people who have done good work before, do you know that you’re making a turkey while the shoot is still happening? Is it impossible to know that early? Are you concentrating on the trees, the forest being someone else’s problem? Are you just happy to have the work? While I’m not directly “in the industry”, I know plenty of people who are. And I did a lot of background work for a few years a while ago. The general consensus is that people are just happy to have work. And most projects are total rubbish, never to be seen by most people. However, there are a few gigs where you can tell production has gone all out to make a decent moive/show and you have a pretty good idea it will do well, maybe not really know if it will actually be “good”. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/4 "2015-11-12T01:56:51Z")
I’m currently reading [Road Show](http://www.amazon.com/Roadshow-Fall-Film-Musicals-1960s/dp/0199925674/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447292855&sr=1-2&keywords=road+show), an examination of some of the disastrous movie musicals of the 1960s. Surprisingly there doesn’t seem to be much connection between how good or bad the production process is and what eventually turns out. Troubled productions ended up successes (e.g., _The Sound of Music_) while smooth ones fell flat (_Finian’s Rainbow_). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/5 "2015-11-12T02:33:10Z")
I think many people know halfway through that the project isn’t coming together and they’re now desperately flailing while they try to salvage something from it. They may know by the end of that if it’s likely to fail. I believe shooting schedules may change soon, so that a short break is included in the middle, just three to six weeks, so they can breathe, regroup, look at what they’ve shot, see what’s missing, and then come back into it re-energised and with reshoots and inserts now easily achieved as part of the main shoot (rather than expensive pick-ups many months later). If they do make this change, I think many more movies could be saved from inevitable failure. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/6 "2015-11-12T02:44:18Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > The general consensus is that people are just happy to have work. George Clooney once said even if you’re in a bad film, at least you’re acting and not having to wait tables somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/7 "2015-11-12T02:55:16Z")
I’ve spoken with friends of people who worked at Lucasfilms while they were making _The Phantom Menace._ The project was so huge that any one part of it, built by an entire team of people, might only have a few seconds of screen time. They were given specific instructions for what they were supposed to do and how it would interact with the rest of the things happening around it, and it was all so disjointed and compartmentalized that they usually didn’t have any idea what was going on in the movie until they had worked on it for months and months. Apparently there was a certain amount of slack-jawed horror when they saw how things were not really pulling together as well as they had hoped… by which time there was no way in hell to fix it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/8 "2015-11-12T03:12:45Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > While I’m not directly “in the industry”, I know plenty of people who are. And I did a lot of background work for a few years a while ago. The general consensus is that people are just happy to have work. And most projects are total rubbish, never to be seen by most people. However, there are a few gigs where you can tell production has gone all out to make a decent moive/show and you have a pretty good idea it will do well, maybe not really know if it will actually be “good”. Someone on another site said that she’s been peripherally involved in the Canadian film industry (don’t recall how) and she said that the majority of projects are scrapped at some point, usually because everyone involved realized it’s going to bomb and they’re simply cutting their losses. The big hits make up for it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/9 "2015-11-12T03:25:07Z")
As long as it’s in production, the crew gets paid by the hour. Whether it hits or misses doesn’t matter much to them. Unless it’s so bad they call off production. The minor cast? Who couldn’t use work or an opportunity to be noticed? The major stars? Tony Curtis was once asked in an interview why he did so many cheezy movies AFTER he got his Oscar. His reply was brief and mentioned alimony, child support and children’s tuition. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/10 "2015-11-12T03:33:57Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Tony Curtis was once asked in an interview why he did so many cheezy movies AFTER he got his Oscar. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/11 "2015-11-12T03:36:51Z")
And then there was the 1938 musical trainwreck _Daddy’s Boy,_ which abruptly ended in mid song when the crew refused to continue. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/12 "2015-11-12T03:48:14Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I believe shooting schedules may change soon, so that a short break is included in the middle, just three to six weeks, so they can breathe, regroup, look at what they’ve shot, see what’s missing, and then come back into it re-energised and with reshoots and inserts now easily achieved as part of the main shoot (rather than expensive pick-ups many months later). If they do make this change, I think many more movies could be saved from inevitable failure. That sounds quite rational. I can see how the old system made sense with film and all these special skills that would come to bear weeks to months later, but it is possible to cut a rough edit and mix while you’re shooting on a digital project. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/13 "2015-11-12T03:50:58Z")
I’ve worked on a few clunkers, and it can be hard to tell. Just as often as you get a good /bad feeling about a project, you’ll be surprised that it turns out better/worse than you thought - if the director was a total asshole, but the movie turns out OK, then he was obviously saved by good editing. 😉 And no one wants to get a reputation for negativity - since the competition for jobs is pretty strong - so even if it’s obviously a bad movie, you may never hear an honest assessment from the crew. People are generally just grateful to have the work, and will do the best they can while they’re on the job. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/14 "2015-11-12T03:58:09Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > As long as it’s in production, the crew gets paid by the hour. Whether it hits or misses doesn’t matter much to them. Unless it’s so bad they call off production. The minor cast? Who couldn’t use work or an opportunity to be noticed? The major stars? Tony Curtis was once asked in an interview why he did so many cheezy movies AFTER he got his Oscar. His reply was brief and mentioned alimony, child support and children’s tuition. But Tony Curtis[never won an Oscar](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000348/awards?ref_=nm_awd), and almost all of his best work came _after_ his one nomination. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/15 "2015-11-12T04:22:23Z")
And who knows what will be a good (or at least popular) movie and what will be a flop? Do you think the people who made _[Ride Along](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408253/)_ were thinking they were making a great movie? I doubt it. But the movie had [a $25,000,000 budget and made $134,938,200 in domestic box office](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ridealong.htm) - so it was a success. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/16 "2015-11-12T04:44:54Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > And then there was the 1938 musical trainwreck _Daddy’s Boy,_ which abruptly ended in mid song when the crew refused to continue. I just looked this up. That didn’t really happen; it’s part of a Spinal Tap-esque “re-enactment”. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/17 "2015-11-12T06:05:10Z")
No I think they are often pretty clueless until the movie actually hits the theater. I’ve read at a couple of the bad Star Trek movies that they held this big red carpet premiere and were surprised that the movie got booed and hissed at by the fans. I really think some Hollywood types are so high up in themselves they cannot see crap when they are making it. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/18 "2015-11-12T06:23:33Z")
Quite a while ago I got into doing sound work on films (boom, assisting the sound recorder, etc.) for a short time. These were _ **all pieces of crap** _–made for direct-to-DVD (or video) release, to foreign markets. I had no control over which productions I worked on. Basically I just hooked up with this one sound recorder who liked me, and that was the type of movie he always got, and he would call me. Of course my experience was with one particular type of production, but I can safely say that no one gave a shit whether the movie was good or bad (most of the production workers never saw the final cut anyway, and didn’t want to). No, the vast majority of the production crew just liked the idea that they were “in the industry.” This was evident from the excruciating meal breaks. We’d be stuck in some warehouse in southeast L.A. or somewhere like that, and I’d have to listen to all these fuckheads try to drop as many names as possible in every sentence they uttered, hoping to give the impression that they worked with all this big talent. Who knows if it was true–it didn’t really matter, though I doubt it was. But that was all they cared about: the idea that they were “in the industry.” It was both pathetic and annoying as hell, and was the primary reason I stopped doing it (along with the unpredictability of the work). The sound recorder himself was the only agreeable person I worked with. He was this Italian guy with a really thick accent who would say insulting things about the lousy actors into my headphones during the filming whenever I did boom, which made things more amusing at times. > [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > As long as it’s in production, the crew gets paid by the hour. Actually, no. Most jobs are paid a set amount per day, and a “day” could be up to 15 or so hours, depending on how things go. (Of course these were non-union productions). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/19 "2015-11-12T06:43:31Z")
The story goes that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher once threatened to make Lucas say some of their lines. It is not clear they knew they were making a great movie. I’ve been on the set of a few episodes of a TV show, one of which I think was great and one good but middling. No way of telling during filming. I guess I’m not skilled enough to tell from the script. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346/20 "2015-11-12T07:14:01Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The story goes that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher once threatened to make Lucas say some of their lines. It is not clear they knew they were making a great movie. One of the best things about _Star Wars_ is the way the cast is clearly not taking the movie altogether seriously. It gives the whole film a relaxed, fun vibe. The absence of this feeling is probably the second-worst thing about the prequels. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-industry-people-do-you-know-youre-making-a-bomb/737346.md?page=2)