Garden State

[DerekEastham]

Hey everyone,
I just want to do my small part to get people interested in Zach Braff's feature film debut, "Garden State."

I've seen Writer/Director/Star Zach Braff's film twice now, and I still can't get enough of it. I saw it first at the Seattle International film festival, and then again tonight. Tonight however, Mr. Braff was there and held a nice Question and Answer session with the audience after the film.

As the entire event was hosted by thewarrenreport.com, the only real networking group for filmmakers in the seattle area, the audience had many great questions to pose.

He talked about the challenges and surprises along the production path, and it was really very great.

Besides all of that, the movie is fantastic. It's genious on-par with Donnie Darko... but don't confuse me here... I said it's "genious" like Donnie... not "Like Donnie"... it's very much not donnie darko.

Ok, all confusion aside,
Check out the movie whenever you get a chance. The entire film is great... the writing, directing, acting, cinematography, editing... you name it, the film accomplished it.

Hope you all check it out.

 

[DannyG]

**eh hem**

http://www.studentfilmmakersforums.com/showthread.php/142-Latest-inspiration?highlight=Garden+State



yah i can't wait myself. hoping to see it when im out in LA in August. there was a Chicago screening here just a couple days ago but the group organizing it really dropped the ball on communication. they put plugs out on IMDB for "free passes" and after emailing them regarding how to obtain these passes, they only responded with very vague unhelpful replies and the passes were swallowed up before anyone really knew what the heck was going on. Glad to here the encouraging review Derek! im psyched.

 

[DerekEastham]

Sorry Danny,
Hadn't joined the forum back when you posted that one!
That is too bad about the Chicago screening... really sad.

Mr. Braff asked everyone to spread to word... so mostly, that's
what I'm doing...
until I get a chane to pay to see it again when it comes back to
Seattle in August.

Good luck seeing it in LA! I'm sure a screening wont be hard to
come by then!

 

[DannyG]

no apologies man, i was just messin around. I hear things are a bit more pricey out west so I don't know if my 7 bucks will be me a ticket there that it would here! (don't worry, i would never leave the state with only 7 bucks as my budget)

 

[DerekEastham]

hahaha,
Well, in Washington, matinee tickets at my theater are 5.75 right now... in LA though, they're probably more like Seattle, which is around 6.25... although it might be even a little higher, just because it's LA.

Night is more money... 8.50 at my theater, 9.00 in seattle... maybe a bit more in LA.

Just a heads up for ya.

 

[DerekEastham]

That's the east coast for ya...
I'd heard once that they were as much as 11.50 to 12 bucks a pop... just the costs of operating a theater in a big city like that...
though seriously,
only a very tiny percentage of the ticket money goes to the theater, and actually get's sent to the corporate office... but really, it's pennies...
99.999999999 percent or so of the money goes back to hollywood and get's distributed as royalties based on contracts.

I'd pay 15 bucks to see spidy2 though... I loved it!

Oh, and I kinda did pay 15 bucks to see garden state... but that wasn't a ticket cost, but the cost of a membership I bought to go see it...

Think about this though...

NYC ticket = 10.25 per ticket
Spiderman 2 budget = 200,000,000.00 (reported)

The actual cost of making the film is likely something more than 200mill... because a lot of times they don't include all of the star's rates or royalties in the budget numbers, and other such things, like the cost of printing all the 35mm distributed prints on film...

even so...
a single ticket at 10.25 is only 0.000005125% the cost of making the film...
even after raking in 180 million dollars, they've still got to rake in another 120 or so to begin making an actual profit... and the more they bring in, the more they'll put toward spidy 3...
I'm sure they'll hit their 300mill mark easily enough... but after that they'll still hope for some more... internationally they'll pull it in and be fine...
but that's just a little glimpse at the financial risks associated with filmmaking...
especially in the hit and miss release scenario.

WOOHOO!!!


Oh...
little bit of info for everyone about Garden State:
Budget: 2.5 million
They had video play-back (which is astounding at such a low budget)
They could only shoot the film in a 30-mile radius in NJ
Mr. Braff created his "dream soundtrack" while writing, and sent it out with his script when it was being passed around... the entire "dream soundtrack" ended up becoming reality!

Inspiration comes from everywhere!