Yeah, but they were just looking for a title for a movie that had already been filmed. It wasn't about coming with an idea for a film.
Not that I'm bitter about my titles not winning or anything . . . .
Monthly, Wanna Pull yer Hair Out, Syfy Thread...
- Thread starter cylkoth
- Start date
Yeah, but they were just looking for a title for a movie that had already been filmed. It wasn't about coming with an idea for a film.
Not that I'm bitter about my titles not winning or anything . . . .
Hey, I don't watch them all! I do have my standards, ya know.And yet you keep watching those movies.
I do check out the handful that may look like they'll be a decent yarn especially if a familiar actor in it, and avoid the rest.
Part of me fears that the network being defined by these schlock fests, rather than their attempts at higher quality . The more successful they are, the more the execs seem to embrace them. I f they were as good as the older generation B movies, I don't think you'd hear the kind of complaints we regularly go off on. There's just no comparison between say Dinocrok, and Harryhausen's It Came From Beneath the Sea.
Hey, I don't watch them all! I do have my standards, ya know.And yet you keep watching those movies.
I do check out the handful that may look like they'll be a decent yarn especially if a familiar actor in it, and avoid the rest.
Part of me fears that the network being defined by these schlock fests, rather than their attempts at higher quality . The more successful they are, the more the execs seem to embrace them. I f they were as good as the older generation B movies, I don't think you'd hear the kind of complaints we regularly go off on. There's just no comparison between say Dinocrok, and Harryhausen's It Came From Beneath the Sea.
Yeah Eric Roberts needs you to keep his career going.
They really need a Chirstmas themed one called "Santa Claws". Heck, for those movies we could come with all kinds of plots and titles.
I f they were as good as the older generation B movies, I don't think you'd hear the kind of complaints we regularly go off on. There's just no comparison between say Dinocrok, and Harryhausen's It Came From Beneath the Sea.
To be fair, there were a lot of old B-movies that weren't as good IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA. Harryhausen was the cream of the crop. DINOCROC probably compares favorably to, say, THE SHE-CREATURE, THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, or WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST . . . .
Let's not view the B-movies of the past through rose-colored 3-D glasses!
Well... yeah. Would you expect them not to embrace something successful?
^^I would expect (want) them to see how they can still make money and garner strong ratings by upping the quality, not just settle for mediocrity that... makes money.
They go for quality where it matters, in their original series programming and (at least theoretically) miniseries events. But they have to fill the rest of the schedule with something too. And the general public doesn't always want quality. Sometimes they just want junk food rather than wholesome nourishment.
I agree that sometimes people just want "junk food" entertainment. I know I do, even if I prefer stories with meaning and resonance. But has SyFy actually tried to create something "high quality" with their low budget? Or do they use their low budget to go strictly lowbrow? Just curious.
Well, I felt the back half of the low-budget Flash Gordon series on SciFi (as it was then spelled) was a high-quality show, although the first half-season was rather lacking.
Anyway, the attempt to generalize this to some universal policy of the network doesn't really follow. What matters is, this is a particular type of programming that they've discovered is successful and economical, and thus they've continued to pursue it. That doesn't mean it's the only thing they're doing or that they're applying its approach to everything they do.
Anyway, the attempt to generalize this to some universal policy of the network doesn't really follow. What matters is, this is a particular type of programming that they've discovered is successful and economical, and thus they've continued to pursue it. That doesn't mean it's the only thing they're doing or that they're applying its approach to everything they do.
I'm 27 and I consider myself to be post-Spielbergian. Generally I don't have much affinity for B-grade monster movies (unless Joel Hodgson or Mike Nelson is riffing on it). But then, I have a hard time stomaching some of the A-grade monster movies passing in theaters these days, like the Resident Evil series.
Besides, why settle for bad production values to go with your bad writing? There are tons of atrociously written SF/F films out there that still got the A-grade treatment when it comes to sets & FX: Dragonheart, Eragon, The Golden Compass, Highlander II, The Last Airbender, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, etc. Then you've got stuff like Doomsday, Dragon Wars, & In the Name of the King that got theatrical releases but only feel a few steps removed from your standard SyFy fare.
Although, I will admit that I liked Transmorphers better than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. At least in Transmorphers I could usually tell what was going on in the action sequences and it had a lesbian couple.
But Transmorphers: Fall of Man was admittedly worse than anything Michael Bay could vomit up during his worst nightmares. I especially loved the scene in Fall of Man where the one woman tried to explain the difference between an alien & an extra-terrestrial. Something about how one attacks you as a friend & the other attacks you as an enemy.
I love that there are people in this world other than me that know who Musetta Vander is. (The random generator put her in a zombie movie with Lance Henriksen. I'd probably be game for that.)
EDIT: But it makes me sad to think that Anaconda Swarm is a likely fate for a woman as talented as Diechen Lachman.
Yeah, but these aren't theatrical movies, they're direct-to-DVD movies that have a lot less money available.
I never thought of her as obscure. She certainly left quite an impression on me. And she has a very memorable name on top of her other memorable attributes.
I felt the story definitely went places in the back half, once they abandoned the Smallville-ish Earth-based approach that so weakened the front half and instead shifted the storytelling almost exclusively to Mongo. The storyline escalated to a very effective climax and ultimately a resolution that worked very well as a series finale while also setting the stage for a continuation if one had been possible.
As for resources, that's something they didn't have, but they figured out how to make that an advantage. Instead of trying and failing to create effective spectacle and action as in the first half-season, they accepted the limitations of their budget and instead focused their stories on characters and ideas, making for much stronger storytelling. That's how you do high quality with low budget.
As for resources, that's something they didn't have, but they figured out how to make that an advantage. Instead of trying and failing to create effective spectacle and action as in the first half-season, they accepted the limitations of their budget and instead focused their stories on characters and ideas, making for much stronger storytelling. That's how you do high quality with low budget.
Yeah, I've been trying for ages as well... Just cos these movies are cheap doesn't mean they shouldn't have fun dialogue and characterisation. If I was in charge of one of those indie companies I'd be poaching Big Finish writers like nobody's business...
I still haven't forgiven SyFy for 1) that stupid name, and 2) Not rerunning Charlie Jade.
Hey, don't forget us Trek writers, too!
For the record, my friend wrote the classic FLU BIRD HORROR, filmed on location in Bulgaria!
Hey, don't forget us Trek writers, too!
Indeed, I just mention BF because they have a pool of experienced (audio) scriptwriters.
Haven't caught that one yet...
Hey, don't forget us Trek writers, too!
Indeed, I just mention BF because they have a pool of experienced (audio) scriptwriters.
Haven't caught that one yet...
Don't worry. You'll get your chance. They rerun it all the time . . . .