week fourteen -

CHC, Schamus

3. What are some of the expenses associated with the Cannes Film Festival (or any festival, for that matter)?

When attending Cannes Film Festival, or really any renowned festival, there are many hidden expenses that add up quickly, just by being a filmmaker. These might include (but are certainly not limited to): making extra prints of the film subtitled in French (includes paying for the translator, the subtitling service, the extra prints, and shipping to France), air fare for everyone except the director, hotel for all of you, typical travel costs (food, drink, tips, etc.), press packets and stills and slides for tons of people, a publicist, and of course, and after-screening party. Moderately this can be done on budget of $150,000.



4. What costs are associated with the “delivery” of the film to a distributor?

Here are some major costs included in "delivering" an independent film to the distributor: converting the original film negative to the check-print stage: $45,000; blowing it up from 16mm to 35mm: $35,000; paying for 'music and effects' re-mixing and master tapes: $40,000; transferring the film to a master video: $25,000; plus, b&w and colour publicity stills and slides, a final script, hires to take care of all the legal work, and errors & omissions insurance. All of this can run you easily between $300,000 - $500,000, before sales and festival costs.



MAYAMAF, pg, 25-45

1. What does Flo Liebowitz mean by “dialogue as behavior”?

When speaking of "dialogue as behavior" in the movie Stranger Than Paradise, Flo Liebowitz is talking about the fact that since [pro]action is lacking within the characters, their dialogue becomes a type of action to propel the story forward. Unlike many other characters that can be determined by their words and their actions (thusly creating "character"), the characters in Stranger Than Paradise are contextualized much more by what they are saying (or not saying), how they are saying it (speed, tone), and when they are saying it (choice to speak, or not). I believe this gets to a much deeper level of psychologically driven writing and directing that is much more rare.



2. What are some of the connections between Stranger than Paradise with the New American Cinema, including Shadows?

One major connection between Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise and other New American Cinema films, including Shadows, and Elephant, Gummo, Slacker and Mulholland Drive are they are much more narratively concerned with character-centered psychosocial processes rather than typical narrative plot structures. This actually coincides much closer with the regular drama and situations of everyday life, yet cinematically, the general public has become so used to seeing a "story" laid out in front of them (often times used to "whisk them away" from their personal drama), that independents like the ones listed above are too "jarring" and "confusing" for the general audience.



3. In what specific ways does Jarmusch’s script deviate from standard scriptwriting structure and format?

Unspecifically, Jarmusch's script deviates from standard form in every way possible. Specifically, it was considerably shorter than most conventional screenplays, only running about 55 pages; was called by Jarmusch himself a "film proposal," and viewed potentially as a blueprint; and a number of scenes contained no dialogue and/or were simply short descriptions of actions. And these are only the ways in which the script deviated, much less the production, exhibition, and delivery of the film, which was shot and shown sectionalized, in order to raise money for the financing; as well as being comprised of only 67 single-take shots, interspersed with black leader; he uses a static camera, mainly wide-angles keeping the viewer a good distance from the action, and has no real discernible structure. All in all, this film is uniquely unconventional and successful in its own right.