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From: daveb@rtech.ARPA (Dave Brower)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Re: COTTON CLUB (and a shot at Dune)
Message-ID: <113@rtech.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 25-Jan-85 04:15:57 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.113
Posted: Fri Jan 25 04:15:57 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 28-Jan-85 06:42:21 EST
References: <258@vax2.fluke.UUCP> <1752@zehntel.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Relational Technology, Berkeley CA
Lines: 53

> >
> >  Actually, I think it's entertaining enough to pay for its
> > much-ballyhoed self...
> > 					Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
>
> Speaking of money, I really couldn't see where the $40M went on this film.
> The production values were good, but uless they did some massive urban
> renewal on the real Harlem for location shots, it looked like your basic
> $15M-$20M high quality film.
>
>                     Jack Hagerty, Zehntel Automation Systems

One of the problems is that your basic $15-20M film now costs $30-40M to
produce.  Examples:  ``Star Wars'' was shot for 9M, ``Empire'' jumped to
about $20M, and ``Revenge'' to $30-35M.  I'd be hard pressed to say the
last one looked three times as expensive as the first.  And where did
all the money in `Dune' (shot in a cheaper place than NYC) go?

A period studio musical is costly to shoot compared to SF.  Musicians
and rehearsals are expensive compared to models.  It's cheaper to
optically print in a laser blast and synthesize a zap than it is to line
a street with cars from the 20's and riddle them with bullet holes.  And
`real' choreography is more time-consuming ($$$) than trash filler, like
say the `Solid Gold Dancers.'

Cotton Club was GUARANTEED to a small country's national debt because:

	1)  It's a period piece requiring expense bvut not immediately
	    apparent detail.

	2)  It's a musical with formal staging using many musicians
	    and dancers who are to appear on screen.

	3)  Name talent (FFC, Gere, etc.) is not free.

	4)  New York is not a cheap place to do studio work.

That's Entertainment, That's Dancing, That's Too Expensive to do very
often anymore. My five bills were happily exchanged for the 70mm version
of Cotton Club.  +/- 20%, the money showed, which is not bad.  (How late
was your last software project?).

``I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused.''

----------------
-dB {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!daveb

"The closer you look, the worse it gets."
-- 
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-dB {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!daveb

"The closer you look, the worse it gets."