Writing Movies For Fun And Profit! (35 page)
Read Writing Movies For Fun And Profit! Online
Authors: Thomas Lennon,Robert B Garant
SPECIAL MUSICIANS:
Guys who play instruments that AREN’T so vital that the 20th Century Fox Orchestra keeps them on a full-time payroll, ’cause their instrument doesn’t come up too often. We’re talking lutes, didgeridoos, bagpipes, washtub basses, ouds, aquaggaswacks, bikelophones, juice harps, and the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee.
CHOIRMASTER:
If you have one of these—then, man, you’re doing a fancy movie! You’re probably hoping for some awards or something! Good luck at the Oscars!
VISUAL EFFECTS BY:
The person or company that creates all of the visual special effects.
COMPOSITING SUPERVISOR:
The one making sure the effects look good when they get put into the movie. He supervises everyone involved in this process.
CG SUPERVISOR:
In charge of all the “computer graphics” (computer-generated special effects).
DIGITAL MATTE AND TEXTURE PAINTING:
The people who painted the cool backgrounds that look like Boston in 1776, Dagobah, or Sleeping Beauty’s castle. They paint it small, either by hand or animating it with a fancy computer.
CG MODELER:
Creates (programs) the first CG models of any CG character, spaceship, prop, or animal based on the director’s vision. That model is then used by all the other digital effects guys to create the effects for the movie.
DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS:
Create the digital SETS for the CG or real characters to be composited in front of.
COMPOSITOR:
Uses a computer to put the FOREGROUND ELEMENT—Paul Giamatti, Mark Hamill, or Prince Charming—inside the DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS and in front of the DIGITAL MATTE.
ROTOSCOPING SUPERVISOR:
People who trace over REAL filmed footage to create an animated version of it. Like that awesome A-HA video.
ROTOSCOPING COORDINATOR:
Makes sure the rotoscopers have the footage they need and know what they’re supposed to be doing.
ROTOSCOPOR:
The Korean animator guys who work eighteen hours a day actually DOING the rotoscoping.
CAMERA MATCHMOVING:
Oh my God, this is so hard to describe. You know, like in the later, not-as-good
Star Wars
movies, they would walk out of a REAL PLACE and into a BLUE-SCREENED place—like, they’d be in a set that looked real, then they’d step into JAR JAR BINKS’s world? Well, the “camera moves” in the two halves of the scene need to MATCH, so that the shot filmed by a real camera in the REAL WORLD and the animated shot in the JAR JAR BINKS world match up and look like the same shot. Matching a “virtual” camera movement in a virtual world with the REAL camera movement in the REAL
world is camera matchmoving. If you don’t understand, go find some nerd and they’ll explain it to you.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT:
Could mean they went on a Starbucks run. Could mean they bribed the president of Venezuela to let you leave Venezuela with the film. Could mean they threatened to kill an old lady to let the film shoot in her cornfield.
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE BY:
The DIGITAL print of your movie, transferred from film. You then tweak the colors of your movie in this DIGITAL FORMAT.
SUPERVISING DIGITAL COLORIST:
Supervises all of the changes you make to your movie’s colors: brightening shots, darkening shots, making the sky bluer, the jungle greener.
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE PRODUCER:
Makes sure all of the people involved in color correction show up on time and have everything they need.
THE PRODUCERS WISH TO THANK:
“The producers owe you in a HUGE way … but they’re not going to pay you anything.”
FILMED ON LOCATION AT:
Where they filmed the movie. If it wasn’t shot on a soundstage.
THANKS TO:
“This film wouldn’t be possible without you—but we’re not going to pay you anything.”
ACCOUNTING:
An outside accounting firm that oversees and double-checks the bean counting that the production bean counters did.
LEGAL AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS:
The most anal people on the planet. They check every name of every character in the movie to see if there’s a REAL Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker who might sue you for using his name. They check the name of every restaurant in the script, every business—to make sure no one can later sue the studio for using their business’s name. Every mention of every product—they make sure it’s NOT slanderous. Every song, everything that’s said in the movie—they make sure there’s NOT one in the real world. They make a list of EVERYTHING you might possibly be sued for, write it all up in a 10,000-page memo, and give it to you—to cover the studio’s ass.
TITLES DESIGNED BY:
The person who thought up the look of the opening titles of the movie.
TITLES BY:
The person or company that actually MADE the opening titles.
OPTICALS BY:
Dissolves, cross fades … stuff like that. Computers do it—but the guy at the computer making sure the cross fade looks how you want it to look gets this credit.
POSTPRODUCTION FACILITIES PROVIDED BY:
Sometimes you edit a movie in a post house that’s all set up for editing. That is your postproduction facility.
EDITING EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY:
The company that made the editing equipment. They get paid, and they get a credit.
VIDEO TRANSFERS BY:
The company that makes copies of your movie and gets them out to everyone in America.
NEGATIVE CUTTER:
See DINOSAUR.
LEGAL SERVICES PROVIDED BY:
Let’s say you made
Borat.
If you made
Borat,
a lot of people sued you. You needed some legal services. They also do the contracts.
TRAVEL ARRANGED BY:
The company that arranges the travel for the crew and cast.
RIGHTS AND CLEARANCES BY:
They get the rights to any song, book, TV SHOW, or anything that is legally owned by someone, so you can use it in your movie.
“SO-AND-SO” COURTESY OF, OR “SO-AND-SO” BY ARRANGEMENT WITH:
If a singer or artist is under contract to some studio or record company, that studio or record company must be thanked for letting “So-and-So” do your movie.
COLOR BY:
After your movie is shot, you correct all of the color with a computer—making your movie prettier, or scarier, or more Oscar-worthy. The company that does this gets this credit.
We’d like to thank David Lincoln. Thank you, Glarn.
Page numbers in
italics
refer to illustrations.
action scenes,
172
–73
dialogue and,
156
–59
see also
movie stars
“Adaptation by” credit,
127
difference between,
7
–9
functions of,
5
–6
percentages paid to,
32
Allen, Woody,
24
Anderson, Laurie,
162
“& or AND” in credits,
127
–28
arbitration statement in,
196
–97
process of,
194
–96
winning of,
196
–97
Avatar
,
39
Banks, Elizabeth,
164
“Based on Characters Created by” credit,
127
Bay, Michael,
83
Beer Runners
,
22
–23
Blind Side, The
,
199
Blue Streak
,
77
book rights,
201
–3
box-office bonus,
34
box-office receipts,
xii
,
39
,
54
,
77
n
,
90
,
98
–99,
100
,
103
,
115
,
161
,
167
,
193
,
199
,
211
Brest, Martin,
77
Buddhism,
191
–92
Bukowski, Charles,
168
Burden of Dreams
,
84
Caine, Michael,
27
–28
California condors,
188
California State Income Tax,
33
Campbell, Joseph,
149
Carolla, Adam,
116
Carrey, Jim,
19
cartoon characters,
199
development of,
65
drinking and,
205
Casa La Golondrina restaurant,
132
–33
Cat and Fiddler bar,
132
celebrities,
188
–89
cartoon,
199
descriptions of,
171
–72
of
Die Hard
,
162
hero,
see
main characters
initial letter of names of,
153
omitting backstory on,
160
–61
specific actors as models for,
156
–59
Chaya Brasserie restaurant,
70
parking at,
58
Comedy Central,
108
–9
Comic-Con video presentations,
112
Cotillard, Marion,
116
creative control,
34
credit bonus,
34
