You, either a Studio with the rights to a Movie or a Producer creating an independent film, have the Movie Pitch as a baseline. As a Studio you can change anything that wasn't locked down in contract, although angering producers (especially one good enough that you bought something from them) is often a bad strategy for future purchases.
The Studio Budget
Each Studio will have their own budget. You start with $0. Know why? You can go into debt in this game. Massive debt. And it will be this debt that will cause your Studio to crash and burn, because the Box Office is unforgiving. If you can't turn a profit on your films, recouping the money to pay back the debt you accrued making the film, and then make a tidy profit for yourself, then no bank or investor will have faith in you. You won't be able to borrow money. Without the ability to borrow, you will be unable to make more movies. Then you will go bankrupt, and game over for you.
As such, each Studio can decide how to budget a movie, disregarding the prediction of the GM to the expenses if they like. The movie may still go over budget no matter what. And remember that cutting costs can frequently cut the quality as well.
Choosing a Director
The choosing of a Director can sometimes make or break a movie. Some actors won't perform well without the right type of director. Sometimes a Director will be unused to high budget films and overspend drastically, putting you in a sticky situation. Or a Director could be given a movie out of his area of expertise (genre) and just screw it up.
Therefore each director has the following information:
Name:
Notoriety:
Salary:
Nationality:
Caliber:
Genre:
Specialization:
Temperament:
Name is obvious, Notoriety is level 1 to 5 with 5 being the most, salary is how much he costs per year of production, Caliber is how good of a director in general he is from A-F, Genre is his Genre specialty, Specialization is the Crew Specialization he specializes in such as Audio, Visual, etc.
Temperament is a new term for the game. The rest you have seen before above. Temperament is an important trait of the director that will affect his movies. Perhaps he has anger issues. Such a trait may drive some actors to fall apart while others may revel in the motivation. Frugal could be a trait, or motivator, former actor, gentle, etc. There is no set list.
It is important you understand this because you will be creating NPC directors for me. 2-3 per person will be plenty to give a good variety.
Choosing a Specialization
You can choose a specialization your director doesn't have, but less likely to get an award and will be more expensive.
Choosing Actors/Actresses
Much like the Director although less so, actors and actresses and make or break a movie. Acting is huge and no matter how good the movie is, if your people can't act well, it will flop. You will also be creating actors and their info, which is simpler than directors:
Name:
Beauty:
Salary:
Nationality:
Caliber:
Genre:
Temperament:
Beauty is how attractive they are, sometimes an important attribute. Other than that, they are the same as directors. I should note that posting thumbnail sized pictures of your created actors and actresses can be helpful to put a face to the name that will be in your movies, but it is not required. You can also use pictures of either real actors and actresses or just random photos.
Also, I should note I will be assigning the salary cost for directors and actors.
Production
Production of the movie is kind of hands off once you choose all the factors. What will happen, will happen. Most movies take 1 turn (1 year) to be produced, and sometimes delays will cause them to take longer. Some movies will even start off at 2 years, and rarely 3.
I must note that Turn 0 will start the game. Then all the movie creation will happen, Studios will buy movie rights, etc. Turn 1 update will have no Box Office Results. The next turn will consist of the same deal as the first, except the movies first produced will be going into Theaters, meaning the Turn 2 update will display the first results. So be careful, by the time you get money back you will already be deep in the hole. Now if you are making an independent film, yours WILL be in the update because of Film Festivals which will be posted as options and you will put your film in one or a couple of these in the hope of awards, notoriety, and cash prizes. Any dvd sales if you go that route from the festival will come the next turn, when the box office results come out.
Foreign Sales
Sometimes a movie may include controversial content, and be banned in certain countries. Sometimes that sam controversial content could make it a blockbuster on domestic shores. You have to play it by ear, but beware that international sales might end up being a large part of your income. You might even want to market your movie specifically for the international market instead of american viewers, which can be done in a variety of ways, such as choosing an international Director or actor, or using a movie pitch from a producer that is famous internationally because of previous blockbusters or independent film festivals.
The Box Office
Once your movie is finally at the Box Office, there is little left you can do except spend yet more money on advertising. Just pray and hope you break even, and if your lucky, get rich and famous.
However you
do have to schedule the slot the movie will premiere in. There will be 3 slots throughout the year: Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Christmas Day. You have to choose which slot you want your movie to premiere in. Be careful, if you put 2 movies in the same slot they will be competing against each other as well as your competitors. It is up to you whether you want to match your big blockbuster against the competitions big blockbuster, or go for a mismatch that might result in a higher box office total against weaker rivals. Different genres might also be more successful at certain times of the year.
