Breaking Into Hollywood, Movie Star Attitudes & Industry Problems [Podcast]
John Schramm and Danny Murray tackle viewer questions in a rapid-fire mailbag session covering the current state of breaking into Hollywood, whether they'd prefer making divisive or universally liked films, and cinema trends they're pushing back against. The discussion reveals their frustrations with young movie stars who don't care about movies, the "Netflix look" that cheapens films, and theaters that give away entire plots in trailers. They conclude by identifying the three biggest problems causing Hollywood's decline: poor screenplay development, deteriorating theater experiences outside major cities, and the need for more affordable subscription models to get audiences back in seats.
Full Transcript: Kinolime Mailbag - Rapid Fire Q&A
Participants:
John Schramm - Head of Development, Kinolime
Danny Murray - Creative Executive, Kinolime
Danny Murray: I think we're seeing this now get pushed back against, thank God. But it is young movie stars not really caring about movies.
[0:19] John Schramm: All right, we got a fun rapid round of the Kinolime mailbag, which I love to do. So Danny, you got some questions that came in through the social media channels. Why don't we rapid fire?
Danny Murray: Cool. Okay, so the first one we have, does being outside the Hollywood bubble make it harder to break in or is that less of an issue than it used to be? What do you think?
John Schramm: In my experience, I think it's easier to break in now. As a writer, easier now. So when I moved out to LA in 2012 to pursue film, this is like pre-Zoom, it was you had to get out there like you know, hit the pavement. You got to like someone, a DEA agent once told me like if you want to hunt elephant you got to go where elephants roam, you know? So like all right that makes sense. So, you go to LA.
Nowadays, I don't know. I think like you can network. It's much easier, I feel, with Zoom. Everyone's taking meetings remotely. We're doing this remotely. You're not even next to me.
Danny Murray: No, this is—
John Schramm: But you know what I mean? You're not even real.
Danny Murray: I think it's easier, but at the end of the day, you still got to write a good screenplay. So, in order to get the meeting, you need to still write the great screenplay. But, I do think it's easier to network and kind of break in. But I would still say if you can, it's always good to still go where the elephants roam for those reasons. What about you?
John Schramm: I think it's I mean I think it's easier to make stuff yourself, but I think in order to you know have a career, especially in writing or in development, it's probably much harder than ever if you don't have connections. You know like we just saw last year like there's a 25% reduction in WGA writing jobs. That hits even harder when it comes to writing assistants, when it comes to people in mail rooms. But there's also more writing so there's 25% reduction in what we had but don't forget the last several years there's been an increase because of the streamers needing content so it evens out.
But I don't know like I think at the end of the day if you need to write and you desperately need to get your film made, you can do it now in a way you've never been able to. But I think in order to really kind of put yourself into a career that can hopefully pay you and you could build your way up, I don't think it's ever been harder.
Danny Murray: Could we compromise and say move to the San Bernardino Valley and just go once a week and Zoom the rest?
John Schramm: I think that's a great idea. Okay. Yeah. Next up, what do we got?
[2:55] Danny Murray: Okay. Would you rather I mean I think that this one's gonna be fairly obvious, but would you rather make a film that's divisive but adored by 50% of people or a film that's mildly appreciated by everybody?
John Schramm: Divisive in that it's debated whether it's a good film or not or the topic?
Danny Murray: Yeah. Do you want would you rather make Salt Burn or F1?
John Schramm: Neither.
Danny Murray: Yeah, exactly.
John Schramm: No. I would rather make a film that gets I'd rather first tell the best story that's in my heart and if it's divisive and half the people get it or appreciate it, I'd rather have that than be adored. I don't want to I don't want to be the McDonald's factory there.
Danny Murray: Yeah.
John Schramm: You know, totally. It's way better to What about you?
Danny Murray: Oh my god. Yeah. Who wouldn't want to make a movie that you know you have like your own mini convention for and then if you walk down the street people are screaming? I would love to be screamed at. Being Zack Snyder seems so fun. You know what I mean? I think his movies I don't like his movies, but there are people that would die. There's a small minority that really love the Snyder cuts.
John Schramm: Yeah, it's incredible. Like that seems so fun. And I think it's good. Like if you ever actually hear him talk, he seems just like the best guy. Like it's like it's really doing something having it's like the perfect equilibrium. So I would do that.
Danny Murray: What we got next up? Are there any trends you see dominating cinema today that you're actively pushing back against?
[4:25] John Schramm: All right, so this is something I feel very passionate about and it's like nothing new, but it's like the Netflix look, dude. Like digital flatness. It's like looks like everything was shot with, you know, a ring light through an iPhone. There's like this flat lighting, this plastic skin tone. I cannot stand it. It cheapens the film, the movie, and you just instantly know like this is going to be mediocre, you know, content. And I use the word content purposely for that.
What about you? And I have two more, but let's go to you.
Danny Murray: Yeah, I think and I think we're seeing this now get pushed back against, thank God, but it is young movie stars not really caring about movies, you know, like there was like—
John Schramm: That's so awesome. You're so right.
Danny Murray: And I really, it's kind of disgusting to me when anyone gets the opportunity to like work in the coolest creative field in the world and get compensated well for it. And it's just kind of a thing they do. That really makes me feel icky. And I think in the last few years, you know, like all of the movie stars coming up, I think there's kind of been such a push back to that like Jenna Ortega. It's one thing even like retrospectively to look back and say maybe I shouldn't have made that movie but to be in the moment like a few years after success and be like I should have never done this movie. Well, how did you—you got this movie which launched your career? You know, you can't really kind of—or I don't watch movies which is another funny—but yeah.
[5:51] John Schramm: So that I have two quick ones on the writing side. One, lack of good thoughtful twists. I watched Primal Fear the other day just again it's like you know the twist obviously incredible like movies don't have the great twists anymore and a lack of a really compelling subplot. I think films stories are structured just to get like to go quickly into the plot and the story engine and they have to throw in a love subplot or whatever and it's just paint by numbers but the compelling subplots I find are missing. I just thought that was something that I would like to see.
You know, I had never seen a Michael Haneke film until it was my birthday a couple days ago, and I've always heard amazing things about The Piano Teacher, and I came in totally blind. And I didn't really know what I was getting into. And that's a film that, yeah, just kind of creeps and creeps along with like the underbelly of its subplot until you get into something so dark and harrowing that just gets more and more grim until you know the film ends, spoiler alert, with your main character stabbing herself in the heart and walking away from her career pretty much.
Danny Murray: Not a great birthday movie.
John Schramm: No, but it's a great example.
Danny Murray: And you had a rough birthday to begin with. You just were going all in.
John Schramm: I had the most adult birthday ever. It was just a complete nightmare.
Danny Murray: He turned 25 and literally life just came on him about everything that he needed to do adulting, booking every doctor's appointment before you know I just can't do that until I hopefully get Medicare, you know, when I'm in my 60s. But yeah, that's a great filmmaker.
[7:31] John Schramm: Yeah. God, I've got more next. What else we got up? Anything else?
Danny Murray: Yeah. What do you think are the three biggest problems in Hollywood causing the general decline in the industry?
John Schramm: I think lack of quality screenplays that are being made. I think that cinemas need to do more to get people in the theater. I think they're charging probably too much. I do like if people are going to spend $18 or more on a movie ticket just for one plus popcorn, whatever. You know, it's going to cost you like if you bring a date it's going to cost you $100 to go see a movie that you're not going to probably like. Like why would you spend $100? Like you can go to $100 and get like a really amazing meal at a restaurant that you know you're gonna like.
So I think they got to bring the cost down or do something to drive an incentive to get people in the theater. I thought of something really interesting and please no one take this, but I'm like why doesn't movie theaters just give away free popcorn. Think about it. It cost them nothing. Like literally nothing. Like corn is so cheap. Like the soda guns like that's just like syrup and water. Give away like one free soda and a free popcorn. I think that would drive it up.
[8:48] The third thing, I feel that films give away too much in the trailers. Like you know everything in a movie.
Danny Murray: No more red band trailers. I agree.
John Schramm: Seriously, like they tell you everything. Like I miss the days of where you just got a little snippet. I just watched the new Ryan Gosling trailer that just came out, Hail Mary. And like the trailer was really dope up until the point where he meets the alien. And I'm like, why introduce the alien now? Like you had me at the guy's going to try and save the world. End it there. Go to the theater. And then he's like, "Oh, he befriends an alien." Like Flight of the Navigator. Like that's that. Why are you telling me now there's an alien? I was like so shocked they gave that away. So shocked.
Danny Murray: Yeah. I remember it's one of my favorite trailers ever is the Breaking Bad film El Camino.
John Schramm: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Danny Murray: It doesn't tell you anything. You don't know a thing.
John Schramm: I know. It was awesome.
Danny Murray: And it's so It's a great trailer. Everyone should check it out.
What are your three? This is going to be hard because I think I took three top.
[9:46] John Schramm: Well, I mean I think they fall towards the same general underlying things, which is like I would like to see studios invest more in development and I would like to see, you know, screenplays be nitpicked and fostered in a way that they probably haven't been in my entire lifetime, right? That's one redirection towards story.
Another thing that I think I've never really gotten a chance to fully understand until I traveled the country more because I've only ever really lived in Los Angeles and New York. I've always had incredible theaters at my disposal and theaters are renovated and there's people in them constantly and there's a vibrant really curious community. Anytime you step into a theater, you have art house theaters everywhere. You have people talking about movies. You have great places to
