A Quote by J. Michael Straczynski

Budget grows out of the story. If you're writing a story with people caught in an elevator for most of the film, you're pretty sure it won't be a $200 million movie. — © J. Michael Straczynski
Budget grows out of the story. If you're writing a story with people caught in an elevator for most of the film, you're pretty sure it won't be a $200 million movie.
I'm not sure if my story will become a movie. Some of my western friends sent my story to people they know in the movie industry. But one consistent response was there aren't any main western characters in my story, so it's unlikely to be made into a movie in English.
With independent film, simply because they don't have the money to make a big-budget film, they're forced to make a story that's important to them, that they would like to see on film, a personal story that people can relate to, about people, where you can see the love of the characters.
To find a good story, you’re generally going to find it in independent or lower budget movies... I wouldn’t mind doing a big budget movie if it had a great story.
I made the film to bring the story of Islam, the story of 700 million of people, to the West.
Yeah, it's an origin story. But you very quickly get into the origin and then it's off to the races. It is an origin story, certainly, but it's not like the movie ends and somebody stretches. It happens pretty quickly and I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about it, but I think when people see that first hint, they'll be pretty excited about it.
When I was writing the story of 'Omerta' I was not writing it to make a film or something. But when a filmmaker like Hansal Mehta picked up my story and turned it into a film, I thought that now I can consider myself as a legitimate writer.
I don't know what the misconceptions are, but I approach a small budget, artsy, independent movie in the same way as a big budget, commercial Hollywood movie. I don't get into those [details]. I have to get into my character and I concentrate on that, on the story, on researching, and on certain training if I have to be prepared physically. I think that's the most important thing.
The greatest compliment a writer can be given is that a story and character hold a reader spellbound. Im caught up in the story writing and I miss a good deal of sleep thinking about it and working out the plot points.
Essentially, the scripts are not that different. Let's say, in literary terms, it's the difference between writing horizontally and writing vertically. In live television, you wrote much more vertically. You had to probe people because you didn't have money or sets or any of the physical dimensions that film will allow you. So you generally probed people a little bit more. Film writing is much more horizontal. You can insert anything you want: meadows, battlefields, the Taj Mahal, a cast of thousands. But essentially, writing a story is writing a story.
The story was such that I couldn't make a graceful ending and then make a graceful new beginning. I could have, but I didn't want to. So, it isn't the most graceful way of writing a story. This new story is, I think, is pretty good stuff. I'm pleased with it anyway.
The critics mostly review the budgets when they go to see a big-budget movie. They are out to get a big-budget movie. On the other hand, if they review a picture that is done as a graduate thesis by some college film student for $25,000, it is almost sure to be admired and respected.
I'm drawn to a good story, really, as I hope most people are. For me, it's the story that's going to stay with you eventually, not necessarily the genre. I go to watch a film because of the story, not because it was a Western or a comedy.
It's my story ["Selling Isobel"].I chose to write a screenplay about it because I think film is the quickest medium to get a story out, rather than writing a book.
The movie business is not about the money. Of course, you need money to make the movie. If you have a small budget, adapt yourself. Having $200 million dollars doesn't ensure that you're definitely going to make a good movie. There's so many examples that prove that.
I think that as a director, especially when it comes to writing the script, which I also do, and I'm also the first one to visualize this story, I think contributing to the film industry means I'm able to take the best of a story and translate it well into a movie that can be released in theaters.
Animation story boarding works differently than live action story boarding. The story crew along with a writer really does shape and create the film - the world and it's characters. We meet almost every day and brainstorm the plot of the film. It's a highly collaborative process - and we continue to improve the story until we literally run out of time.
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