Anything Goes : A film that "feels" like a novel? by Les Butchart

Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic ... films with depth, stories that go beyond the norm in terms of resonance and literary reference.

Great questions, Les! I'm all about popcorn thrillers so I'm the last screenwriter to talk to about depth. The shallow popcorn thriller writer guy jus wanted to say hi! :) My man

The audio was so terrible. If I am straining to hear most of the dialogue in this film, it is not working. @Les Butchart

LindaAnn - The audio in this film is superb, and your comment makes no sense.

Dan MaxXx - you're wrong, but entitled to your opinion. There are many types of films and approaches to storytelling. You are making many assumptions about "novel." Many novels have great locations, great characters, etc. But if you don't know what's gothic about the trailer, then you don't know what gothic is. Read Flannery O'Connor or Faulkner and your eyes will be opened.

Vitaly, I'm not playing that game - it doesn't interest me. Most the entertainment world doesn't interest me. It's strange times. Most filmmakers are treading old ground, IMO, looking for marketing hooks and whatnot instead of actually making something of merit. If you don't relate to my film, no worries, just means you're not the audience I made it for.

Hi Vitaly. I appreciate your advice. However, you have no idea who I am. I've co-produced two other features - Esposito and Elephant Sighs. I've edited features, done sound and lighting for features, wrote/directed/produced Lake of Fire and a suspense TV series called The Hive, now in post. I also do business/legal for my own films and for other filmmakers. I'm currently setting up a spy/thriller, a Bigfoot movie, and a reality TV show. I've been producing for 40 years and I know about AFM. Lake of Fire is an original drama with a southern gothic tone/feel/themes. If you've read Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, Ron Rash, William Gay, Harry Crews, Barry Hannah, and Cormac McCarthy then you would know exactly what southern gothic is. The Cohen Brothers are often using the southern gothic idiom - Blood Simple and No Country for Old Men are good examples. Just because it's "southern gothic" doesn't mean the idiom is southern - Nathaniel West was from NYC, for example, and he used the idiom. It's not "goth," either, though goth came out of English gothic lit, as did southern gothic. My audience for the film is intelligent filmgoers, not the AFM crowd. It's a small audience, I know. I only do work that appeals to me in terms of story, style and themes. I don't care what others do, and I don't cater to a mass audience. Well, not normally - my Bigfoot movie is mass audience, certainly. Anyway, I joined Stage 32 hoping there might be some folks who actually know film and perhaps even know literature and art generally.

Agreed. And I'm fine with making money, btw. Our "spy/thriller" and the Bigfoot movie should have festival appeal and see good foreign and US TV sales. Dramas like Lake of Fire are basically dead, everything is genre. I'm just not interested in anything but original stories, and if it fits a genre for sales purposes, that's fine. For crowdfunding, we're moving to a tokenized approach, tokens and crypto. But the legacy distribution system is just too wiggy, too untrustworthy, imo, so I'm playing the game differently now. I know Lake of Fire is enjoyable, I've sat with festival audiences and at other screenings. It's just very indie in more of an arty way. It's not a good time to make films if you expect to make good money. My reality show has far more potential sales-wise, and we start shooting it this weekend. With one episode, we can shop it around, and we'll see what the market says.