I await the trolls' take on this story:

"iMovie is old news. Most award-winning films at Sundance are made on Microsoft MovieMaker. Independent filmmakers are switching over in droves. Give it up, Apple."

...with stuff like supplying a subject line.

Um... thats a really good point about iMovie and low budget film making... yeah.

So just WHAT is a Bill Gates lemming doing at a Mac-oriented site ??

Talk about trolls !!

Thanks to the power of our new comments engine, I was able to split the political rant off to its own thread in the Politics forum.

If any of the posts left seem to not make sense, that's why.

In the meanwhile, if you like a good political rant, make sure you stop by the politics and philosophy forum.

Guardian and macworld uk reports..
A film edited in iMovie has been a surprise hit at the Cannes Film Festival, earning a standing ovation when it was screened.


Tarnation is an autobiographical home movie, directed and written by Jonathan Caouette. It consists of a mixture of photos, film footage and answer-phone messages, and cost only Ј124 to make.


Caouette told The Guardian: "Making a movie is not as difficult as it's made out to be. Hopefully this will be a catalyst for people who didn't have a voice before to go out and make a movie

Edit: As this post was part of the same political rant I already split from these article comments, I have moved it there, as well. - Bryan]

My daughter snatched my digital camera (with much gritting of teeth and admonishments to Keep An Eye On It! from me) & took it to school to snag pictures of her classmates -- including some silly stuff -- during the last two weeks of school. She then dumped 'em into her iBook, fired up iMovie, and started Ken Burns-ing.

With a little advice on adding titles in iMovie from me, and a few technique pointers from her mom the video editor, she made a little slideshow that the school showed at the awards/closing ceremony on the last day of school Friday. Everyone loved it.

iMovie is like a cardboard box; imaginative kids will make it into anything they want.

That's totally cool, Dirt Road! That's what the iApps are all about, IMNHO.

This video wasn't made for $218.32. Quit being lazy with the facts! The costs of all the original equipment used in acquiring the video should be inluded in the total (VHS home movies, Super-8 experimental films, a suitcase full of photos and audio tapes), as well as Sir Prance-Alot's iMac.

Johnny Poster

Shall we count their clothes, too, Johnny? Heck, they probably used cars they already had, too. We should count the cost of that, too. Plus, they were living somewhere, right? Better chalk up their rent..

When an amateur is making something using tools they already have, the cost of those original tools is simply not counted. This is particularly true in the film business.

For instance, El Mariachi and Blair Witch are two famous low-budget flicks. I do not believe that anything the directors already owned was included in their prices.

Quote

Bryan wrote:
Shall we count their clothes, too, Johnny? Heck, they probably used cars they already had, too. We should count the cost of that, too. Plus, they were living somewhere, right? Better chalk up their rent.

Quote

Bryan wrote:
When an amateur is making something using tools they already have, the cost of those original tools is simply not counted. This is particularly true in the film business.

Quote

Bryan wrote:
For instance, El Mariachi and Blair Witch are two famous low-budget flicks. I do not believe that anything the directors already owned was included in their prices.

Johnny,

You've done nothing to negate any of my points other than to suggest that the over/under on a film's rating has some sort of relevance to the points I was making, and to claim sovereignty over the truth merely because you are in the film industry.

Do feel free to bring in some facts to back up your opinion. I am interested in your opinion, though I am less than impressed with the delivery of that opinion.

As I understand it, you are suggesting that the purchase price of equipment already owned when making an amateur film should be counted towards the cost of that film.

That's just silly.

Even if it were the case, however, and anyone cared at all about the cost of the iMac and the camera that someone brought into a project, you're talking about a film that cost a few grand.

That's pretty cool.

In the meanwhile, I stand behind my post, and the points I made in it.

Also, you have a private message from me. You can access it in the forums. Your comment account is also your forum account.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

Quote

Bryan wrote:
Johnny,

You've done nothing to negate any of my points other than to suggest that the over/under on a film's rating has some sort of relevance to the points I was making, and to claim sovereignty over the truth merely because you are in the film industry.

Do feel free to bring in some facts to back up your opinion. I am interested in your opinion, though I am less than impressed with the delivery of that opinion.

As I understand it, you are suggesting that the purchase price of equipment already owned when making an amateur film should be counted towards the cost of that film.

That's just silly.

Even if it were the case, however, and anyone cared at all about the cost of the iMac and the camera that someone brought into a project, you're talking about a film that cost a few grand.

That's pretty cool.

In the meanwhile, I stand behind my post, and the points I made in it.

Also, you have a private message from me. You can access it in the forums. Your comment account is also your forum account.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

Thanks, Bryan. That's the point that all this whole political sideshow is missing completely... if you have a story to tell, iLife helps you get it down.

Have you ever seen the site http://theoneminutes.org/ ? There's a neat concept, to tell a story in 1 minute of video. If you know where you're going, you can get away without scripting it -- just shoot, capture, edit.

"Do you not think it absurd to compare their clothing, their car, and their home, to the specific video equipment that was needed to acquire the video they used for their masterpiece?"

Okay, Johnny Poster, lets try it your way, and see what happens. First you count the cost of pre-owned gear into the film. Thus you calculate a budget of several thousand dollars.

What happens when the same director goes on to produce other films with the same gear? Do you count the whole purchase cost of the gear towards every film the director makes? Do you retroactively cut the first film's budget each time another film is made that shares the gear's cost?

The reason that you don't count the cost of your car in the budget of the film is that you would have paid that same cost even if you had never tried to make the film. The same applies to borrowed gear, and items that you already owned. Only if they had blown up the mac, or somehow rendered it unsellable would the full cost of it count towards the films budget.