“Our picture Dinocroc,” says Corman on his recent work for cable television, “about a prehistoric crocodile, played Saturday night on the Sci-Fi Channel and got one of the highest ratings of the year, so we’re already planning Dinocroc 2, which will be made this fall. We’ll also be shooting Storm, which combines a giant storm at sea with a smuggling operation, in Hawaii sometime in May.”
The decline in opportunities for theatrical distribution has led to Corman’s company New Concorde shifting heavily towards television in recent years. “I have to say that, unfortunately, in today’s world no more than about 10 to 20 per cent of our pictures get theatrical distribution. A number of years ago every picture we made got theatrical distribution, but in the 1980s it started dropping a bit and in the last five to six years it’s accelerated to the point where only a minority play theatrically.
“I like to see the picture on the big screen. I grew up with that. I lived with it most of my life, however you have to accept the circumstances. I think there is a possibility that we will be increasing our output for theatrically driven films as digital projection comes in. One of the big problems for us has been the cost of prints and advertising. Advertising we can’t do much about, but with digital projection we can cut the cost of prints heavily.”
Cinema versus TV
As to whether shooting for television is any different from his past exploits in film, the experienced filmmaker is quite definite. “To me it is no different whatsoever; the director and the editor may put a little bit more emphasis on close-ups in television than you would do on the big screen, but other than that it’s all a visual medium. We shoot the full frame so it can be adapted to anything.”
Genre pictures were once the domain of low-budget cinema, but have now become the mainstay of the Hollywood Blockbuster, in movies such as The Matrix, Independence Day and Van Helsing. “That hurts us. It hurts us because they’re going to our core audience. When Jaws came out many years ago, Vincent Canby, the head critic for the New York Times, wrote, ‘what is Jaws but a big budget Roger Corman film?’ He was right, not only was it bigger, I have to admit it was also better. When Jaws came out I felt that it was striking right at the heart of what we do. A little bit later Star Wars came out and that just put one more nail in the coffin. We’re still here, but that’s just one of the reasons we’ve retreated to video and television; particularly cable television.”
With ever-increasing budgets lavished upon such popcorn fare, today’s audiences have a much higher expectation of the production values and special effects that they are going to see in a genre film. “Twenty years ago we could make a low budget science fiction or horror picture that would satisfy the audience, but when they’re seeing Spiderman and similar films coming out we just cannot compete.”
But with television, where budgets are generally smaller, the competition is less fierce. “For instance, Dinocroc, which has been a solid success for us, clearly did not have as many computer graphics effects or impressive effects as you would find, say, in a Jurassic Park, but they were enough for television, where the difference in our special effects and the major studios is less evident than on the big screen.
For New Concorde to compete theatrically requires a different approach. “I would like to get back into more of a straight dramatic picture, such as the film Saint Jack, which I produced and Peter Bogdanovich directed. That won the grand prize at the Venice Film Festival. Another picture, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. We’re cutting our production a little bit and increasing our budgets; it’s partially a business decision, partially artistic. I think we have a better chance theatrically with that type of film because we’re not attempting to do a low-budget computer graphics film. It’s really more my own desire to move back into that area.”
Recent advances in digital technologies have had far reaching effects for low-budget filmmaking. Digital video has provided a far cheaper method of making features. “We have shot several films on digital. When we come to distribute those films in the United States it makes no difference whether they are shot on digital or on film. Overseas, however, we get less money for a digital movie, particularly from Germany, which seems to be very much wedded to film. So we’re still shooting the bulk of our films on 35mm. Our lower budget films went to digital, but have come back to 16mm. We expect digital and particularly hi-def to increase around the world, so I would think that within a few years our lower budget films will go back to digital. Sometimes these technologies take longer to get public acceptance than you anticipate. Actually, I think the public acceptance is already there, it’s just that some of the distributors are not aware of it.” Like most people in the industry Corman is very much looking to the future of HD. “That’s where we’re going. It reduces the costs all across the board, both in the production and in the distribution of a film.”
The great mentor
During the 1970s and 1980s Corman’s company, then New World, was at the vanguard of foreign language film distribution, introducing the works of Fellini, Bergman, Truffaut and Kurosawa to the US. “During a ten year period we won more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film than all the other companies in Hollywood. When I sold New World in the 80s and started New Concorde I sold that distribution arm with the company. Miramax and New Line came and picked up where we left off. I may get back into that – I’m not positive. We’re re-evaluating the company and we’re making some changes now, and that’s one of the directions we may take.”
Also responsible for establishing the careers of many directors, producers, writers and actors, the Roger Corman Alumni reads as a who’s who of movers and shakers in Hollywood. Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Jonathon Demme, James Cameron, Joe Dante, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, Gale Anne Hurd, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson all started with Corman. But who among his current staff will burn as brightly in tinsel town in the future?
“We have several young directors who I think are very good. Brian Clyde did an urban film for us called Rage and Discipline, which has won several awards at film festivals. It’s about a group of black amateur boxers in Harlem. Henry Crum has filmed a picture about Mexican street racing gangs – that’s car racing – called Rolling Thunder. Those two directors in particular are very good.
“For young filmmakers coming into the business either from a producing or a directing standpoint it is essential that you get some sort of experience before you do your first film. Although it has been done, it’s the minority of people who have jumped in and succeeded on their first film without some preparation. When I started there were very few film schools, now there are almost too many. Frankly, I question the credentials of some of these film schools. It’s probably the best way for a young filmmaker to start, but it’s not the only way. Another way is simply to work on a crew and observe what’s going on around you and learn from that, and then maybe go out and shoot a short subject; particularly with digital you can now shoot an experimental film very inexpensively.” America was slow to recognise Corman’s drive and talent in his early career, obsessed as it was with the big studio movies, until European critics, particularly of the French New Wave, marked him out as a force of cinema to be reckoned with. 50 years on and this truly independent filmmaker finds himself the subject of numerous books, publications and documentaries, and has received many awards for his contribution to cinema, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; is he now satisfied?
“I think so. Nobody has the career you exactly want. I might wish that some things had gone a little differently, but by and large I’m happy with where I stand and I’m still working. I might have stayed a little bit longer with directing.”
Since 1970, Corman has only directed one film, the unusual time-travel sci-fi fantasy, Frankenstein Unbound (1990). “I had directed almost 60 pictures in about 15 years and I was just tired of directing. I had planned really just to take one year off and then come back to directing, but during that year I started New World and one thing led to another.”
Roger Corman has been given many titles over the years from King of the Bs and The Best of the Cheapest to Hollywood’s Wild Angel, but he would prefer to simply be remembered as a ‘filmmaker’. “I have written, directed, produced and even acted occasionally; I just love the process of making films.
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David ValentineDavid Valentine is a freelance writer and filmmaker currently working with arts organisations and education providers to support community filmmaking projects for young people. He is also a proponent of Free Media. |