Day: February 9, 2019

Posted in All Posts, Funding, Research

“It’s Given To Me, By Me.”

Posted on by rebeccaawolff
from Lady Bird

I’ve decided to research a movie similar to mine that has been through the business side of filmmaking in order to generate some ideas for how I want to produce, finance, and distribute my film. I chose Lady Bird (2017), which was written and directed by Greta Gerwig. It was produced by A24, Scott Rudin Productions, and Entertainment 360. It was released on November 3, 2017 and distributed in the US by A24.

Early Stages

Greta Gerwig

The first draft of the script for Lady Bird was 350 pages long and had a totally different name: Mothers and Daughters. Director Greta Gerwig spent several years editing the script down to 200 pages and changing the title. She then asked her manager (Evelyn O’Neill at Management 360) if she would be willing to produce the film. Despite not having any prior producing experience, O’Neill accepted the role. Both of them began meeting with various producers and financers, as well as giving the script to select writers. Through this process, they obtained enough financing to account for a $10 million budget.

Production

Gerwig directing lead actress Saoirse Ronan

While $10 million seems like a lot of money, it wasn’t enough for Gerwig and her crew to shoot on location. They ended up shooting at the outskirts of LA, a single-story home in Van Nuys, and Catholic school in Pasadena. Production on the film began in August 2016 and proceeded mostly on schedule. According to my sources,”Gerwig turned out to be a machine when it came to keeping on track, leaving little room for time-wasting improvisation.”

Exhibition

Gerwig interviewing

Lady Bird used platforming as it’s method of exhibition, premiering at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2017 and at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017. Like I said earlier, Lady Bird was released to four theaters in New York and Los Angeles on November 3, 2017. The film grossed $364,437 opening weekend, with an average of $91,109 per theater. It was released to more theaters and made a total of $78,928,896 worldwide.

Interesting Facts

  • Gerwig worked closely with cinematographer Sam Levy in order to build a 110-page shot list that included blocking for every scene.
  • “Every bit as important as the settings was the soundtrack, and Gerwig toiled to assemble just the right playlist of early 2000s music. “No one in Sacramento knew who The Kinks were,” she says of her hometown’s lack of a counterculture. She leaned on Counting Crows, early career Justin Timberlake and Dave Matthews, whose hit “Crash Into Me” plays throughout the film. Gerwig also constructed an on-set playlist of ’90s and ’00s bangers, including selections from Blues Traveler and Alanis Morissette, that she would play in between shot setups.” (an interview with Gerwig, linked below)
  • “If these men — because it’s mostly men that have the money to make movies — had daughters or were raised with sisters, they totally understood the movie. They were like: ‘Yup, that’s my wife and my daughter.’ Or ‘That’s my sister and my mom.’ If they [didn’t], they would say, ‘Oh, do women really fight like that? Weird.'” Greta says in an interview.
Gerwig with cinematographer Sam Levy

Sources