Market your story first and then the book? Turn it into a movie! I can help.

[Movie Magic]

I had no idea it was a trilogy even.  Very interesting.

[TimothyEllis]

I had no idea it was a trilogy even.  Very interesting.

3 books, 3 movies.

The books are held up as being truly bad writing. But the movies are half decent. The ending to the third was a bit weak though.

[Movie Magic]

Half decent.  Yep i agree.

I just tried to watch the first one.  Made it about halfway through it before I just couldn't take it anymore.  lol. Wow did those movies make a ton of money though.  I knew they had to be financially successful if they made three of them, but wow did they do well!  Super intrigued now about the genre I've never heard anyone else in the business talk about "erotica".  It might be a fantastic genre for indie films.  However such a movie could never be made super cheap.  I'l thinking $75k to $100k realistically.  Maybe $50k if the story were geared toward super low budgets.

I presume this movie, and most of the erotica books that are doing really well are targeted toward women?  Can anyone chime in about this?

Also there is no way R rated nudity would pass QC (quality control) for the big AVOD streamers.  However, if I'm right that this genre is more for women, I think it might be even better and reach a larger audience if it were shot in a very tasteful and much more suggestive way.  To be blunt, wouldn't be able to show nipples.  Everything else would be fine though.  Even shooting it that way it's going to take longer to shoot the erotic scenes and finding quality actors willing to participate in such a film will require much higher pay for the talent.

Thanks again Lorri for pointing this out. 

Again, wow did those movies make a fortune.  Very interesting.

[TimothyEllis]

Super intrigued now about the genre I've never heard anyone else in the business talk about "erotica".

50 Shades is not erotica.

It's supposed to be BDSM Romance, but it failed pretty badly on the portrayal of BDSM, by all accounts.

It's basically a female urban fantasy about the poor girl who catches the bad boy rich guy, and rehabilitates him into a nice guy. With nudity.

The nudity sold it.

[Bill Hiatt]

Personally, I fell asleep watching the first movie, which I don't think is the effect erotica is supposed to have.

More telling, students of mine who whipped out their fake IDs and got in to see it generally reported that they were bored. Not the reaction that I was expecting!

Clearly, some people liked it. But I think the movies mostly rode on the success of the books. A lot of people went to see the movies because of that.

As far as the future of Hollywood is concerned, I think movie theaters are in decline in the same way bookstores are. When you can watch the movie at home, and the popcorn is a lot cheaper, why not do it that way? Theaters are still open partially for reasons of nostalgia. I notice the Stranger Things two-hour finale is being show in theaters as well as on Netflix. And some movies that become cult favorites continue to pack late night showings.

As far as movie length is concerned, the streaming services are still packed with two-hour movies and one-hour TV shows. Attracting viewers doesn't seem to be a problem yet. Shorter forms exist, but they aren't yet dominant, at least as far as I can tell, though they are certainly popular on venues like YouTube.

[Post-Doctorate D]

As far as the future of Hollywood is concerned, I think movie theaters are in decline in the same way bookstores are. When you can watch the movie at home, and the popcorn is a lot cheaper, why not do it that way? Theaters are still open partially for reasons of nostalgia.

Bookstores are in decline because books, whether physical books or eBooks, are easy enough to buy online.

We've had big screen TVs and at-home popcorn for ages now, so I don't think that is the reason for any decline in movie theater attendance.  I think the problem there is that the theaters don't focus on the customer experience.  If people are disruptive, doing drugs, or whatever, they need to be kicked out so everyone else can enjoy the movie.  Food and beverages need to be more reasonably priced.  The seats need to be clean and not sticky or anything.  Same for the floors.  Theaters need to focus on making sure movie-goers have a good experience.  Otherwise, yes, you might as well wait until the movie is available to watch at home.

[Post-Doctorate D]

If the movie is released in America, they have to pay the actors royalties, but they're usually called residuals.

If I remember right and if things haven't changed, that's only if they are SAG members on a SAG production.  Otherwise, the contracts can be more flexible and don't necessarily have to include residuals.  There is (or was) also a non-voting class of SAG members where actors can be SAG members and can take on non-SAG productions.

Who's gonna be the one to write the residual checks?

The LLC would handle that.

[Bill Hiatt]

I quite agree that theaters need to focus more on the experience, at least from my last memory of them.

I just at some stats that suggests attendance is climbing again.

Going to movies can be a nice social experience. It's more about that than the movies themselves, most of which are fairly quickly available at home. Some of my cinephile friends are quick to point out the superiority of the big screen and the heightened audio experience. But movie tickets are about as much as a month's subscription to most popular streaming services, and some streamers are less than that. (And Prime Video is free with prime.) So if one watches several movies per month at home, the savings really add up.

[Lorri Moulton]

I don't read steamy romance, but my understanding is that it's all about the "female gaze" and that's found in Outlander.  The nudity, the love scenes, the flirty scenes, are all about the woman's pleasure. 

Yes, there's a ton of violence, lots of rapes (which is why I don't watch it), but I have many friends who are madly in love with the actor who plays Jamie.  And the landscape in Scotland is stunning...the music is lovely.  It has a lot going for it, but I just couldn't get past the violence.

ETA:  There's also a lot of dark romance, which I don't read...but it seems to be showing up in many subgenres.  My feeling is why yell at young men about showing respect, then have them see you reading about brooding men who feel they own their women?  Again, not my cup of tea, but if it makes others happy, enjoy.  Just please keep it away from kids.

[Movie Magic]

If the movie is released in America, they have to pay the actors royalties, but they're usually called residuals.

If I remember right and if things haven't changed, that's only if they are SAG members on a SAG production.  Otherwise, the contracts can be more flexible and don't necessarily have to include residuals.  There is (or was) also a non-voting class of SAG members where actors can be SAG members and can take on non-SAG productions.

Who's gonna be the one to write the residual checks?

I agree wih this.

The LLC would handle that.

[Movie Magic]

Thanks for that info Lorri.

Yes, only union shows are required to pay royalties or residuals.

[Movie Magic]

There are lots of sites licensing music for affordable rates and believe it or not, decent but less experienced composers for the score are not super expensive these days.

Keep in mind that we are not going to be creating anything that will directly compare with multi million dollar films.  But there is a huge market for Micro budget content as well.  Look no further than YouTube for confirmation on that.

[Bill Hiatt]

I've never studied them in depth, but I've noticed a lot of stock sites with reasonable licensing plans for music, so this doesn't surprise me.

[Movie Magic]

For what it's worth everyone, Love at Lookout Lake has now been released on Tubi etc.

Here's a link:

https://tubitv.com/movies/100050774/love-at-lookout-lake

[PJ Post]

We have enough musicians here to handle the music. No point in wasting resources or having to compromise. 

[Bill Hiatt]

Let's keep all the specific details about the current project in the private thread, now that we have one.

I'll just say here that I appreciate the offer very much, but remember that this is a low budget production. I don't want to be in the position of asking my fellow forum members to work for lower than their normal rates. There are alternatives like stock music that can be licensed relatively inexpensively.

If anyone wants to say more on this topic, let's move that to the private thread at https://writersanctum.com/index.php?topic=6486.0

[Bill Hiatt]

For what it's worth everyone, Love at Lookout Lake has now been released on Tubi etc.

Here's a link:

https://tubitv.com/movies/100050774/love-at-lookout-lake

I just watched on Tubi.

It sure doesn't look like something that was made for $25,000. I guess it was actually somewhat more, since Nicely did the post work. But in any case, it doesn't look anywhere near as low budget as it was. It's amazing what can accomplish on a low budget.