Art vs Commerce

There is an eternal struggle when you work in the medium of film or television - and it happens on even the most basic level.

There is never enough money or time to do what you want.

I used to think this would change as my budgets got bigger - but the truth is there is no difference between your small short film and the billion dollar film shooting right now. Sure they have more money - but I promise you every day is filled with the same problems.

Not enought time and not enough money.

When you get on the big films - even though the budget is now 60 million - probably about 30 of that is star salaries. And then everyone else is taking their cuts - and you still end up with about the same amount to make the thing as you do on the little projects. Sure you have more toys and can afford better CG - but the fight is the same. (Take that as encouragement, Emily...)

The guys of Dogme95 had a pretty good idea.

Sometimes by putting limits on what you can do creatively- you come up with new ideas you wouldn't have otherwise. I constantly say that working in LA is so much easier than anyplace else because all you have to do is make a phone call and you can have someone who does anything. You need a bug to talk on a phone? There is someone who can train one. You need to make a parking lot look like the desert? Someone can be right over.

I am in China right now. We have a great crew working hard to get the things I want and need. But there are still things that can just make you crazy - even when you're friends.

Budget issues are just one of the headaches.

In America - when the budget changes - we tell someone as it happens. Here - they don't. It's not wrong... its just different.

If I asked someone in the States to give me a budget for film - they would include telecine and processing. Here they don't.

So while I might think I'm making one kind of film - here they might think I'm making another. But the results so far have been pretty amazing - and the cost compared to LA is incredibly cheaper.

But it never fails - on every shoot - you cross this bridge where you are biting off more than you can chew and you have to either eat it or shut it down.

We are crossing that bridge.

Yesterday had some harsh words traded back and forth and some silly things said that in the end all got forgotten over a bowl of beef noodle soup. Thankfully - it looks as if we are done with the money talks and can just suffer through the rest of the creative now.

Our sets are going to begin getting built today. A crew of 5000 Chinese are going to build like mad and get everything up and ready by Sunday afternoon.

We sent our scripts and creative off to our star last night for her approval.

And we got scripts back from the Chinese Ad council last night and we can see how big our problems are there. So today is going to be filled with frantic rewriting and continued planning for the big days next week.

I don't know how things can change and be made better - but I guess that's sort of the nature of the business. Shawn and I used to always budget with a nice pad so that we could shift things around as problems arose. Then - if we got in over our heads - we would just take from our pay to make it better.

Here - they keep it lean and everything extra is ala cart. Which means I constantly get to go back to my boss and say - well... it actually looks like its a bit more than they said originally... and its not entirely their fault cause we added this and this....

Bleah.

Thank God for make-up and Big Mac's - or I wouldn't know how to unwind at the end of the day.