Interviews: Producer Jason Blum
If you don’t know who Jason Blum, it’s time you do as he is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood at present. From his IMDB bio:
Jason Blum is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, a multi-media production company that has pioneered a new model of studio filmmaking- producing high-quality micro-budget films for wide release.
Since its launch in 2000, Blumhouse has produced more than 30 feature films including the highly-profitable Paranormal Activity franchise, Sinister and Insidious.
In the past two years, Blumhouse, a director driven company that helps filmmakers like Scott Derrickson and James Wan tell genre stories that they are passionate about, has produced five movies that out grossed their budgets on opening weekend.
Recently there have been two interviews with Blum. The first in Indiewire:
I read that it’s in your rule book to not to cross $ 5 million when budgeting your films. Does that still stand?|
I wouldn’t quite put it like that. Occasionally I’ll be a producer for hire on a larger budget movie, but with Blumhouse Pictures we mainly focus on micro-budget, under $5 million dollar movies. That’s what we’re in business to do and that’s what we’re in business to make.
Most studios go bigger and broader with their sequels. “Insidious: Chapter 2” was made for a bit more money ($5 million vs. the original’s $ 1.5 million), but retains the small-scaled nature of the first film. What keeps you on point with sequels?
[Laughs.] Compared to the first one, even at $5 million, it felt bigger and broader. I’ve said this a lot, but I fundamentally believe that the higher the budget of a movie, the less risks you can take — unless, obviously, you’re one of five anointed directors who can do anything with any budget. One day hopefully I’ll be lucky enough to work with one of those people, but until then we’re all constrained to a certain degree by budget, and the bigger the budget the less creative freedom you have.
I think that makes sense. If I was giving someone $30 million to make a horror movie, I would want every decision to be looked over by many, many people. But if you keep budgets down, you can let James Wan do what he does, fast, and let him focus on making the movie he wants to make. And if he wants to do something that seems a little out of the ordinary, if the budget is low it’s okay to let him do that. If the budget isn’t low, it’s a lot trickier. For me, personally, it’s just more rewarding at lower budget levels.
The second interview is with Film School Rejects:
Lately there’s been a lot of talk over the implosion of big summer movies. With your business model currently thriving, do you think we will see that implosion and perhaps micro-budget tentpole films?
No, I don’t. I think there will be more lower budget summer movies. I definitely think there will be more micro-budget movies released year round, actually. There will be less 200 million dollar movies year round, as well. I don’t think the market for those movies are going away by any means. In my mind, this summer just had simply too many. Every weekend there was another 200 million dollar movie. The market is saturated. I think there will be a little pullback on movies that size. I love my business, but I’m not in that business. I only do micro-budget movies. Happily, that’s something people are doing more of now.
The reason I love them so much is because they allow you take creative risks. When I was told the third act of the first Insidious was going to go to “the further” and be like a David Lynch movie, it’d be irresponsible to make that movie for 20 million dollars. You can’t have a horror movie where the third act turns into a David Lynch movie. That doesn’t work. When you’re working with very little amount of money, you can try weird stuff.
You’d never get 20 million dollars for The Purge either. Again, the concept is just…I wasn’t right or wrong about it. I was just right about doing it at a lower budget. If I was working at a studio and you pitched me The Purge as a 20 million dollar movie, I’d say, “You’re out of your mind. That concept is too weird. It might work, but it might not work. If it doesn’t work, I don’t want to be 20 million dollars in the hole. If you make the movie for three million, and it works, then it’s a win for everybody. If it doesn’t work, then nobody loses.” That’s kind of my…well, not kind of, that is my business model.
As a screenwriter, if you are looking are looking to write a spec to break into the business, and you like writing genre movies like horror, when you sort through various story ideas to write, pay special attention to the ones that have the makings of a micro-budget or low budget movie. Single or few locations. Minimal actors. Maybe found footage or contained thriller. In other words…
Think Jason Blum.
For the rest of the Indiewire interview, go here.
For the rest of the Film School Rejects interview, go here.