Screenwriting : Insert "Bad Movie Title Here"... if that got made? by Dustin Quinteros

I don’t see motivation or demotivation in them. Just lessons.

I try to stay focused on the story I am writing. Therefore I have a few that will never sell. They are pure to their own logic and core value, but not a commercial idea.

I think if I tinkered with them I could sell them and probably end up with one of these bad films.

one of my guys is successful at making crappy (bad) horror movies. he's done over 200 straight-to-video movies. Owns entire library. Earned enough $ to buy a mansion in a gated community. I asked him if he want to up his game. bigger movie budget like a $1M, or even low $250,000 - he flat out said, no. He's found paradise making crappy movies.

Dan MaxXx - We have someone in our circle who does the exact same thing. He's in the Southeast but he has a Producer in LA who funds all of his movies. All of them are really terrible, some of the worst I've ever seen, that all go straight to video. They all have 1 or 2 stars on IMDb and horrendous, "reeming" reviews but both of these men know this! I talked to the filmmaker about it once and asked all of the "Whys?" and "Hows?" and he said regardless of how they do in the U.S., they make a killing overseas. To each his own, I guess.

It's about finding the business model that works for you Dan MaxXx . No one funds movies to lose money.

I take it more is to be learned from failure than success...even better if it's someone else's failure...

This is going to sound cringe-worthingly smug but I find it very hard to find movies bad.

Film is a strange medium where cheap and bad have become synonymous. There is just so much focus on production value and star power. People will write a low budget movie off as bad simply because the green screen is noticeable or they've never heard of any of the actors. It's cruel and it directly impacts us as writers since it means producers can understandably rather put money into what goes onto the screen than what goes into the script.

We don't really do that as much with other forms of art/entertainment such as music, painting, or even theatre. I had someone send me a link to a movie trailer only a week or so ago and they were crying with laugher at how "bad" it was and how it had gone straight to DVD. It was just a very niche concept and the fact it had gotten a physical distribution deal was a huge success.

Then there's alignment. Not liking a movie does not make it a bad movie but I see this all the time from highly critical writers. The majority of viewers not liking a movie does not make it bad either.

I love watching 70's/80's b-movies. I find them inspiring and respect how many of them were made for the midnight-movie audience and were highly progressive and artistic for their time. Many were made for peanuts in record time using short ends with no access to sound stages, permits, or high-profile talent. It breaks my heart to see these same movies being collectively mocked by critics on YouTube who think it's funny to poke holes in them.

Occasionally, I do come across a film which I feel is objectively bad and that's often clearly because the filmmakers either bit off way more than they could chew, got really sloppy, or started to disrespect their own production. This does demotivate me because it means some investor lost their money and a whole production team had their energy wasted.

Nick Assunto I know exactly what you mean, whether it's "The Room" or "I Frankenstein" which fall into the so bad it's good category or a great satirical piece, one I just recently watched was "Psycho Gorman", but I'm referring to bad bad. I won't call it out by name but what partially motivated me to make this post was a film featured on Netflix, and it's ADR'd and out of sync and also just horrible in everyway possible. I think if this can get shot and a featured spot on Netflix (with no star power) I'm sure I can. Not that I'm saying my scripts are better, but there not any worse. lol Point being despite what you might here from a coverage review or pitch session, there's always someone out there who will like it enough to invest.

Dan MaxXx, I'm very aware of the straight to video demographic, especially in foreign markets. Stephen Segal is a great example of the success you can have, I referring to more mainstream projects.

Craig D Griffiths, I think we're in the same boat. I have a very "niche" script. As one coverage responded "these types are hit or miss" however; it's technically solid, No plot holes, ect., and almost everyone said there's was a large market for "films like this" on streaming services (Shutter came up at least twice). Yet still they all passed or gave low scores. I also don't want to confuse what I mean by bad with box office flops, or poor execution. I guess the lesson for me is there's always hope and don't let yourself get discourage by other opinions if you truly believe in your content..

Nick Assunto exactly, the low budget FX is what made it work though. Retro. Took me back to the days of The Evil dead. Honestly reminded my of one of my favorite Manga adaptations, The Guyver. Almost a hybrid between the two, with a touch of Deathnote, but it also had a great underlying plot and great story telling.

Dustin Quinteros I do like my story (I guess that’s why I don’t change it) I describe it as “Phone booth” with the look and feel of “V for Vendetta” and “12 Monkeys”.

I’ve been told it would make a great stage play. But I can’t think of a dystopian sci-fi stage play, and I do like the theatre.

Thanks for the thread.

As someone who has written films on someone's Bad Movie list - I can tell you that you can't judge a screenplay by its movie.

A screenplay goes through the meat grinder of development on its way to the screen, and often the film bears no resemblance to the script.

Though I could use some of my films as examples - you probably haven't seen them (lucky you!) so here's a big studio film...

DEAD DROP was a hot script about the CIAs version of Q from the James Bond movies - an older inventor who comes up with gadgets for the CIA. One day, the inventor sees a news story about the assassination of a democratically elected President of a South American country who was killed by a gadget that the inventor created! He goes to the head of the CIA and tells him that someone is stealing or selling his gadgets to the bad guys. The CIA says they'll look into it. When the inventor gets home, his house is attacked by killers using his gadgets who try to kill him and his adult daughter. They go on the run, trying to figure out who is the bad guy in the CIA while assassins continue to attack using gadgets he created against him. The inventor created gadgets of his own from easy to find items to defend himself - but he is not a spy or assassins, and neither is his daughter.

It was a fun action script, everyone loved it, bidding war, top star hired, top director hired... and then the director had some rewrites done...

CHAIN REACTION with Keanu Reeves. A huge flop. A terrible movie. He's a blue collar welder who outruns a nuclear explosion on his motorcycle.

So you can't break in writing the terrible film version, you have to write that amazing screenplay - so great that after they run it through the meat grinder, it still comes out good.

I never stumbled upon a bad film. It must be a nightmare. I research a film before I watch it. Often times my research takes longer than actually watching. Many times there is no need to watch a good film after I research it. (yes, i research the labels on foodstuffs at the market and even research the market before consuming)

I have slept through many a film. I just hate getting to the end feeling that it was a waste of my time. I never want my audience to feel that so I always try to understand why it was bad.

I don’t judge movies by lack of production dollars. Budget FX does not affect my judgement. I don’t mind if the Bridge looks like cardboard if the plot is good. I accept movies for what they intended.

However boring gets to me, regardless of star power. I like surprises, plot surprises and unusual stories.

Bad movies I liked, because I was entertained. Waterworld – panned mercilessly but gets better on repeat viewings. Queen Kong – intentionally ridiculous, deceptively funny. TV series Jade - South African – inventive, too good to be bad.

Surprise me and you got a fan.

Bad movies are what got me back into screenwriting. In college I took up the craft and tried to be a film maker. Lack of money and life got in the way. Discussing bad movies years later caused me to retry my hand at screenwriting. It definitely made me say "if that got made", I know I can do better.

There's been some really bad movies made. I wish I'd written some of them...