Putting the Business Back in Show Business
The Whisper production recognizes that there is a business side to “show business.” Our project is more than just a creative endeavor, and one key to its success will be to control the cost of the project.
The most profitable film of 1998 (based upon gross return to budget) was not Titanic, but The Full Monty. This sleepy British comedy/drama with no-name talent, reaped more than $246 million worldwide, while costing approximately $3.5 million to produce.
The most profitable film of 1999 (based upon gross return to budget) was not Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menance, but The Blair Witch Project. This independent film’s global box office was $220 million, while its production cost, including post-production was approximately $1 million.
In 2006, the independent film Borat was surprise hit. It had a North American theatrical box office of $128.5 million and a total worldwide gross of $257,349,549. Borat was made with a modest production budget of approximately $18 million. In comparison, the mega studio film Mission Impossible III had a reported $150 million budget, a $134 million North American theatrical box office and $397 million worldwide gross. The gross theatrical profit for Borat was approximately $239 million; and for Mission Impossible III approximately $147 million. Borat, not only had a significantly lower risk factor, but did $92 million more in gross profits than Mission Impossible III.
Our film project is being produced without the frills associated with Hollywood. Every dime will be spent to either increase the level of the film’s production values or to reduce the level of risk. However, our approach will not jeopardize the feature quality production values of the project. Dollars will be spent where they will be seen and appreciated by the audience — on the screen.
The Whisper production is utilizing a dose of common sense, modern business practices and innovative ways to increase production values while at the same time controlling cost — saving millions of dollars in production expenses.
Many of the people involved, believe so strongly in our film’s future success that they are contributing their time and knowledge and will only receive performance based compensation, as back-end profit participants.
Thousands of hours and substantial resources have already been invested in developing this project. We are working to make the film in preproduction and to identify potential problems before they happen and then seek to eliminate, counteract or mitigate their potential negative consequences.
For example, the Whisper of the Blue shooting script has evolved into a first-rate screenplay. Unlike studio developed scripts, frequently with 120 to 150 pages, our shooting script has been streamlined to an absolute minimum number of pages needed to tell the story and produce a feature length film. Extra pages require extra time and money. Fewer pages means greater focus and fewer problems.
Additionally, we have a very high confidence level that we can capture on film each scene as depicted in the script. All elements and scenes that were difficult to film or posed undo risk to cast and crew, schedule or budget, have been eliminated or modified to mitigate the potential risk. This was done with no cost to the story.
If you would like to read our Whisper script, you can download it for free.
Tags: blair witch project, borat, box office, film production, mission impossible 3, production expenses, profit, script, star wars, the full monty, and titanic
