Do not have cash to blow:(

[Charles Martin]

> From: Gerhard Kuhn <suspice at hay.net>
>> If you don't have the money to do a project correctly, why bother?
> If Steve Jobs saw the way you work, with what you work he might also
> say why bother and jump in a lake.
>>
You seem to be operating off two VERY flawed assumptions:

1. The most expensive way to do things is always the best way to do 
things.

2. That someone who wants to do their best and someone who spends money 
are always two different people.

> As far as I remember you can only spend a dollar once so you need to
> make choices, I'll have this, I'll do with out that.  That is the way
> the world works for most of us other wise we would all be driving
> $100,000 cars and living in $1,000,000 houses.
>>
Yes, most people have to make these choices. I certainly do. When 
someone tells me they want to write good screenplays and they have $200 
to spend on writing better screenplays, I would tell them that this 
money is better spent on Final Draft than it is on a day's rental of a 
24p camera. Wouldn't you?

> I remember this movie that followed none of your advice had no budget
> and the script if there was one was probably written on a used napkin.
> This was the Blair Witch Project most people considered it a successful
> project.

I'm friends with a couple of the Haxan people. Their office is right 
across town, and I chat with them regularly. Nobody (certainly not me) 
has ever said that a low-budget or resource-constrained project isn't 
worth doing. Bear in mind, however, that the Blair Witch Project was 
CONCEIVED and TAILORED specifically to their limited resources. It 
would not have been done in "mock-documentary" style had they been able 
to afford 35MM film cameras. It would not have been edited the way it 
was if they had been able to afford top-notch editing suites. (Much of 
it was actually edited on a Powerbook, just FYI.)

What I *did* say is that if you are interested in writing professional 
screenplays, invest in professional tools (and professional learning). 
Final Draft can't turn a piece of shit story into an Oscar-winning 
screenplay, but given that feature screenplays sell for $200,000 or 
more (and even hour-long TV Drama screenplays sell for $50,000 or so), 
an investment of $200 that will help make your story presentable to the 
industry seems to me a worthwhile use of funds -- if you are serious 
about screenwriting.

> I would encourage the guy with ideas and
> a notepad over some stale fart with all the latest gadgets.

Again, this "I must have gadgets or I am worthless" mentality is one of 
your OWN INVENTION, not based on anything I said or anything that has 
appeared here in this list. Nobody here said that the latest or most 
expensive is always the greatest. That's rarely the case in my 
experience. But just because you CAN get by with shooting on a consumer 
DV and editing in iMovie doesn't mean that your project wouldn't 
benefit from a 3CCD camera and Final Cut Pro. Some projects don't 
demand better tools. Some do. That's your call. All we're saying is 
that if you are serious about putting out professional-level work, part 
of the investment you MUST make is in professional-level tools.

_Chas_

"Here is the thing you will learn from really using an OS X Macintosh, 
and must somehow accept on faith if that's what it takes to get you to 
Switch: Apple makes design decisions based on a sincere desire to make 
your life better." -- Glenn McDonald