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shooting films Academic
Recently, directors have started filming multiple movies belonging to a series together, rather than filming each one separately and individually. The reasons for such a thing are quite obvious- saving time, working in a more concentrated way on the series as a whole rather than a few pieces, better availability of the crew, etc. Overall, it saves much time and energy. But does it also save money? Does the filming of a series rather than separate movies save money and is financially better and wiser, or is it the exact opposite which is true?
Generally speaking, it is logical that filming the entire series, or a few movies of the series, does save money. It is a well known fact that "time is money", and since time is saved in this method of filming the series or several of its movies together, it can be said that money is also saved.
To be more specific, since filming a series at once saves time due to more concentrated and intense work, it also saves money paid to actors and crew, for example.
Also, if the actors and crew are working on several movies all at once, they're likely to finish shooting them faster than they would have had they shot each movie separately.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that in order to execute and commence the production and work on a movie, it is necessary to assemble the crew, and working on a few movies one after another avoids having to find new crew, or contacting the old movie's crew to see if they're available, or even around. Actors tend to be on the move, whether they're beginners looking for a break, or famous celebrity actors who film movies all over the world, and may be out of the country, working on another movie. Hence, the availability of the crew and actors is very problematic, and can be avoided by filming several movies together.
Moreover, filming a series saves some costs. Equipment, settings and backgrounds, as well as arrangements and payments for locations can all be used for more than one movie, especially if it's a trilogy or some other sequel series, which presents a continuing plot. These can reach great amounts of money, and using them for all the movies and all at once would result in a substantial reduction in costs, meaning more profits and fewer expenses.
Despite all the advantages possible, financial and otherwise, the dangers of filming a series at once cannot be overlooked.
First and foremost, it isn't known in advance whether the movie will succeed or fail. Investing resources in each movie can reach millions of dollars and more, therefore investing in a few movies means risking dozens or hundreds of millions of dollars, and if done, there is no guarantee of success. Should the series fail at the box office, the huge amounts of money poured on producing and executing the film will all be lost.
Some claim that if the movie, transformed from a book or a series on television, already has a large fan base, the potential of fans going to watch the movie is greater than the risk of losing the money invested in the movie. The idea is to use the existing fan base and attract them to come and see the movie. Seeing as how they're fans, it's not supposed to be very difficult.
However, in my opinion, the financial risks in such an undertaking (filming a series instead of several separate movies) seriously outweigh the possible benefits. It isn't wise to rely on fans, because some may not want to watch the movie version, or the critiques and review of others may deter them from watching the movie if it isn't good.
Therefore, I believe that after releasing the first movie and carefully witnessing how financially beneficial it was, if at all, then and only then is it wise to film several movies at once. Only after getting results and seeing the popularity of the film is doing such a thing reasonable.
This is why if I had the rights to a successful legal mystery series, for example, I wouldn't immediately film a few movies together, but first see how the first one does at the box office, and then, if it is successful enough, I would film the others together.
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