The above video is The Making of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You will be creatively energized.
In 1954, Walt Disney risked losing his studio by putting all his money and borrowing another 1.5 million dollars, on the largest production in the history of Hollywood, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The big action scene in that movie was the fight between the submarine crew and a giant squid. The scene was initially filmed in front of a sunset colored backdrop in calm weather which made for a boring and fake looking scene. The wires holding up the squid's tentacles were visible, and the squid itself looked extremely fake in the clear sky.
Finally, after wasting time and money, writer Earl Felton told director Richard Fleischer to restage the squid battle during a night lightning storm at sea, so that it was not only a fight against the squid, but with the storm as well. Fleischer said;
"I told Earl that it was a great idea and then met with Walt to tell him about it. Walt didn't hesitate for a moment. He said, 'Yes, that's the way to do it. Also I'll have the designers make you a better squid as well.' However, the extra money that we spent to re-film the squid scene used up the money for the entire production. We were only mid-way through filming and would have to be shut down. And there was also a chance that Walt might lose the studio."
To make matters worse, Disney was building Disneyland at the same time and had used part of that money to re-do the squid fight. Director Fleischer said:
"They had to get in the bankers to get completion money. I was on the set that day wondering if we would come to work the next day. It was really that close. The bankers viewed the footage of the movie that we had shot. Word got back to me that they loved the footage and would give Walt an extra million and a half dollars to finish the picture."
The squid scene became a classic and made the movie a big hit. But that was accomplished only after a great loss of money by filming it the wrong way first.
Storm scenes at sea had been a stable of movies since the silent era. Why hadn't anyone thought about filming that squid fight in a storm in the first place? It would have saved a lot of time, money and risk if only anyone, even the studio janitor, had said, “Say, why you don't film it in a storm at night?” before they went ahead filming it on a calm sea at sunset.
However, realistically speaking, it's difficult to come up with the right way of doing things in business all the time. But when you have a large amount of time and money at stake, remember to think out the best way to achieve your goal. Maybe you'll get it right the first time.
- Keep producing,
Paul
More success stories are in How to Live the James Bond Lifestyle. Read the sample pages: http://goo.gl/IsNrU
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