Poll: Do you like zombie movies? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: Do you like zombie movies?

#51

Post by sharkbrainguy » Wed, Mar 18, 2009, 11:14 PM UTC

froo wrote: post #43

sharkbrainguy wrote: post #15

Is a digital animation studio a startup? It doesn't really have a huge scaling potential does it? Your output is constrained by your animation stable surely. The closest analogue to a breakaway product or hot patent would be a hugely popular IP, but you don't need to be a studio to develop a property. Perhaps you intend to develop animation productivity tools and the studio provides the opportunity to dogfood. That k…

Is a digital animation studio a startup? Why not? I wouldn't have thought startups are limited only to webapps/software? We're building from the ground up? It doesn't really have a huge scaling potential does it? Why not? You don't think Pixar (800+ employees) and Dreamworks (1400+ employees) started out as large companies did you? In fact, to further illustrate my point, I'll actually give you a rough timeline on ho…

I don't use "startup" generically to mean any small/new company that hopes to one day be big. That isn't to say that my definition is definitive (what?) or that a small company that doesn't fit into it is less worthy.

I've always used the term startup for a company whose potential earning is not constrained by its size. Who are developing something that will generate wealth that is disproportionate to the size of the company.

With a software startup the duplication cost for their product is practically nothing therefore they could fill up their target market overnight. With a web-app you can server tens of thousands of customers relatively easily.

The market is the only real constraint and this puts these small companies on almost equal footing with the big companies in the same market.

With every animation studio it seems that the potential to generate wealth is constrained by their size (and their skill but the scaling power of skill is finite).

The power of a successful IP to generate disproportionate wealth is the exception (and is often independent of the studio).

The Disney story to me re-inforces the idea that in this space, to compete you need more people and your ability to produce is directly proportionate to the number of people you employ.

The growth curve doesn't look like a startup to me, when they were small they did shorts, as they grew over years they did features.

If they had developed a way for 12 animators to make a feature of that could compete with the features being made by 100-200 animators then sure, they were a startup (by my entirely arbitrary definition).

Although where Disney (the company) innovated (IMO) was by producing a product that the other studios couldn't no matter how many employees they had unless they had the disney training and skills.

I've written way too much for how "compelling" my point is so I'm stopping here.

Re: Poll: Do you like zombie movies?

#52

Post by froo » Thu, Mar 19, 2009, 12:47 AM UTC

sharkbrainguy wrote: post #51

froo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a digital animation studio a startup? Why not? I wouldn't have thought startups are limited only to webapps/software? We're building from the ground up? It doesn't really have a huge scaling potential does it? Why not? You don't think Pixar (800+ employees) and Dreamworks (1400+ employees) started out as large companies did you? In fact, to further illustrate my point, I'll actually give you a rough timeline on ho…

I don't use "startup" generically to mean any small/new company that hopes to one day be big. That isn't to say that my definition is definitive (what?) or that a small company that doesn't fit into it is less worthy. I've always used the term startup for a company whose potential earning is not constrained by its size. Who are developing something that will generate wealth that is disproportionate to the size of the…

If they had developed a way for 12 animators to make a feature of that could compete with the features being made by 100-200 animators then sure

Aah, I think we have some wires crossed here - I'm not trying to make films to start out with, we're going to be building episodic content, basically webisodes to start with.

One of the inspirations has been, very roughly, the sitcom model. Artificially limiting your sets, characters and creating story week after week. Also, since a lot of things will be set up in advance, the pipeline changes considerably to something that Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks would do.

The cost of production for episodes after the initial artifact production is, for all intensive purposes, the cost of the animators + voice talent, so it is a scalable model in that sense.

Think about it like the TV show Frasier. They essentially used 4 sets, 5 main characters, several occasional characters, one fictional character and a slew of extras to create 6 seasons of content.

If you keep the voice talent inhouse (utilise people around you) then the numbers of employees required goes down and so does essentially your cost of production, which is the limiting factor really for why stuff doesn't get made for the web.

3D animation is a totally different beast to 2D (unless you go with a cutout style) in that it is essentially a form of puppetry with digital characters. If that makes sense?

The purpose of this thread was (for me) to get some intelligent feedback on the Zombie genre and a rough estimation if I'm in the right ballpark or not. The genre itself lends itself well to being something that can be produced with a small outlay in human capital which is why I'm investigating it.

Re: Poll: Do you like zombie movies?

#53

Post by ojbyrne » Thu, Mar 19, 2009, 4:08 AM UTC

unalone wrote: post #47

ojbyrne wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think all genre movies are the same. It just takes good writing, and that usually means 1 in 10 are great, 2 in 10 are entertaining, the other 70% suck.

It also takes good direction. I appreciated that fact a lot more after Shaun of the Dead . That said, it's hard to sort out the good stuff from the crap when you've seen nothing.

The thing about Shaun of the Dead is that it transcended "genre" - that's the key. It wasn't a zombie movie. It was a comedy ... with zombies. Transcending is always worth big bucks.

Re: Poll: Do you like zombie movies?

#54

Post by jeffool » Thu, Mar 19, 2009, 5:31 AM UTC

jacoblyles wrote: post #40

jeffool wrote: post #37

Ahhh, finally, a question on HN I can answer! Firstly, I'm a huge fan of the zombie apocalypse. -So, why do I like it? I love the genre because, by far and large, because it creates a reality that works very counter-intuitively. Sure, zombies are a threat, but bigger picture, they're just a background concern compared to the threat that other people present, and that's where the meat of good zombie apocalypse media r…

What did you think of "Planet Terror" in "Grindhouse"?

I thought it absolutely enjoyable in an entirely non-zombie way. I loved the movie as it was great fun, exciting action, and gore abounds, but, I do not consider it the type of super-personal 'zombie film' that I love so much.

In fact, for two excellent types of such super-personal films that predate the modern zombie film (1968,) look at Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944) and Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1957, though he's best known for Serpico). Both include small groups of people completely reliant upon each other to make it (to a verdict, or to just survive.)

That said, I also absolutely love Robert Rodriguez and his style of "grab the camera, we're about to make a movie!"-filmmaking. I think he's able to relate his energy in a way that usually takes AAA directing (I'd categorize his style as one of 'potential' over 'polish,' but he's also capable of selling what he's doing to the viewer, two characteristics that work amazingly in tandem, at least for me.)

So, what did I think? In short, I absolutely loved it, but I didn't mention it because I don't think it fits in with what I love about zombies.

Re: Poll: Do you like zombie movies?

#55

Post by herval » Thu, Mar 19, 2009, 9:00 AM UTC

"zombies are a metaphorical representation of man's consumism, herd behavior and contained aggressiveness - the whole 'brains' thing is nothing more than a representation of the deliberate consumption of our minds done by traditional media and general mass market byproducts..."

- my wife

ps.: I love zombie movies!!!