Christian Filmmakers

Just a thought:

This is from a purely practical POV, nothing theological here. 

Films with blood & gore automatically lose me as a potential viewer because me - and others like me - are rather squeamish. (I look away at the scene in SW:IV when Obi-Wan cuts off that creature’s arm, even, just because I can’t stand to see that)

The world is not completely composed of, well, guys who like realistic battling. We girls like action well enough—but some of us are squeamish and would sacrifice realism if it meant the violence would not be as graphic or intense.

So while there may be an appropriate time and place for realism in violence, do it with the knowledge that there are people who will miss out on a great film because they can’t stand the violence level. Weigh those facts carefully.

**note: I am not trying to offend by making generalizations about either gender, but in my experience, girls are more sensitive to this than boys, possibly because we are more emotionally involved and hate gross stuff anyway. Just remember that when I’m making these statements about girls not liking that kind of stuff, I am one! and I have all girls for my friends… I’m not making this up! 

EDIT:
I think I heard somewhere that PG films have the biggest audience…but don’t quote me, I don’t remember where I read that.

Eric Boellner wrote:

Just curious, do you think that Jerry Bruckheimer (producer of POTC trilogy) believes that stealing and murder are not only acceptable, but something to be encouraged?

Actually I don’t really care what Jerry Bruckheimer believes. Its his fruits that i’m looking at. I may never meat him and if I did I would never really know what he was thinking when doing these but one thing I do know is that God looks at the heart but we can only look at the action of other to try and understand whats in there heart.

Again great points you brought up Calix. I do understand that I can’t just ask someone to tell me how to live my life, I have to gain understanding through God’s word to really know what he wants me to do.

Jenni, I like what you brought up. Speaking for myself there are many films I would love to watch but do not because of the violence and gore involved in it. To tell the truth there are many time where I actually will close my eyes or walk out of the room when its just to much. Take Watchmen for example, I tryed watching that and well…. I ether was fast forwarding or had my eyes closed through the thing because of how much they where showing.
Power Rangers, thats my style…lol :D I think thats why I like older martial arts movies to is because they rarly show anything to gory.

The ROI (return on investment) examined per MPAA rating is an interesting - and oft-misunderstood - study.

The highest-grossing films tend to be PG or PG-13. 

Avatar is PG-13, Sherlock Holmes is PG-13, The Squeakuel is PG - in fact, only two of the top ten films last weekend were R.

However…

While R-rated films tend not to generate extreme revenue streams for the reasons you mention, they also tend to lose less money - ironically, for the reasons you mention!

Just as there are people who will pass over PG-rated films (and, to a lesser extent, PG-13) there are people who won’t watch a non-R actioner, horror or comedy because they find such stuff too restricted for their tastes. 

And R-rated consumers tend to be more faithful when it comes to the kinds of product they support - in other words, there are fewer of them, but they spend more across the spectrum of available titles (they go to the movies more and rent more films.)

Which means - if you’re hedging your fiscal bet - then an R-rated film, on the whole, tends to be a safer choice than a PG or PG-13 rated film (depending on your marketplace and distribution scheme.)

I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing. 

But if I create a movie specifically to appeal to Jenni, I might possibly miss appealing to Eric, just as the reverse is true.

Which is why producing is so much fun - figuring out which story goes where!

Because what’s Calix’s First Rule of Producing, kiddies?

Know Your End Use.

Cheers,
Calix

(...imagine the work the poor studio rep had to do to keep Guy under an R… wowsers…)

Jenni, I get what you’re saying.  It’s more of a producing consideration, as Calix pointed out, than a moral one.

In one of the first scripts I started writing, I took precautions and limited myself so that I could hit a PG-13 rating (which I actually forsook, when I found that a lot of PG-13 action thrillers were failing unless they were either star-studded or based on pre-existing properties).

FWIW, PG-13 has the highest domestic gross in the top ten from each rating, with about $1bil over PG, and $2bil over G or R.

Ironically, the top R-rated film of all time is The Passion of the Christ - who knew Christians had the rep for best violent movies!

Eric Boellner wrote:

who knew Christians had the rep for best violent movies!

I don’t think you mean “rep” - I think you mean “latent ability” - which would be obvious in 20/20 hindsight with just a bit of thought…

Cheekily,
Calix

(...tied into that whole “the healthy don’t need a doctor” idea…)

Hmm, yes perhaps.

By the way, I suspect several therapy sessions were required before Guy could get the PG-13 on Holmes…

So knowing what types of people watch each type of movie would be a good thing, huh? That’s what marketing research is for, correct?

So is that something that writers need to determine, or producers/directors?

This is actually a quite relevant subject for me as I prepare to get back to work on Chasms sometime after I get off restriction and clean up a few other little writing projects…he he he, sometime soon, I hope…anyway!

At this point, I have one particular scene that could be “violent”. A character gets run through by a sword. My aim was for the film to appeal to teenagers (it’s a sci-fi/fantasy), and probably get about a PG rating.

Is this something I should be concerned about, as a writer? I mean, I have a specific idea in my head of to what extent the violence should be, and I would hate for the movie to get rated higher just because of that one scene when I want it to be a movie that even squeamish teenage girls would watch… (the MC is a teenage girl)

Basically: when I write it, will the film look just like the script?

Or maybe this is a question for me to take over to Screenwriting or Directing or something? (I don’t mean to derail anyone’s thread here!)

Well, given that this thread is about violence in films, it totally pertains!

A writer should be as aware of the intended audience of a script as the producer, if not more so.  When a producer listens to a pitch, the first thing he’ll be thinking of (aside from “Who the heck is this?”) is “Who will watch this?”

So as a writer, you definitely need to be keen to the differences various elements will make in what audience you can expect to entertain.

As an obvious example, you can’t put the F-word in a Pixar film!

As far as your script goes, unless you write it intentionally, I doubt anything you put in your script will wind up being something you’re not comfortable with.

I know that regardless of what I write, I will not make a film that I’m not comfortable watching, simply because I have no tendency whatsoever to write such things into my scripts.

On the topic of script-to-screen fidelity, don’t count on it.  Haha.  It really depends on who you give your script to, but it’s quite likely to be completely different (and yet, ironically the same) by the time it reaches the screen.  But that is another matter. 

Eric Boellner wrote:

As far as your script goes, unless you write it intentionally, I doubt anything you put in your script will wind up being something you’re not comfortable with.

So the style in which I write it will determine the level of graphicness shown…? I mean, if I don’t say the word ‘blood’ in connection with it, there will be no blood? [using that as a completely random example]

And, if it matters, I’m writing a spec script, I think it’s called, not a shooting script. Plain narrative, no camera directions.

Eric Boellner wrote:

On the topic of script-to-screen fidelity, don’t count on it.  Haha.  It really depends on who you give your script to, but it’s quite likely to be completely different (and yet, ironically the same) by the time it reaches the screen.  But that is another matter. 

Yeah….......

I just wouldn’t want the other filmmakers who I may not know personally who are working on my script to get it ‘wrong’. I put a lot of time and energy into this script, and it’s now in pieces in various notebooks and pieces of paper and computer files as I try to make new plot decisions, and spend more time and energy on it to bring it to its proper completion…
I’m just a little attached to the project.

Well, if you want to make sure the filmmaker gets as close to your vision as possible it would be a good idea to make a treatment for the script, thats prity a glorified synopsis.