It’s easy to confuse quality and value in the filmmaking process.
When you buy a really well built car, you are buying quality. Quality manufacturing. Quality parts. A great car should delivery you great quality. But, it’s not necessarily great value.
Spending $75,000 on a car which may be manufactured superbly will cost you more than it’s more econmic alternative in class and in maintenance. You still get from your door to your office in the morning. But the lower priced car may deliver you more value.
Take a rubber duck, for example. Does a three year old care if the duck was bought at the dollar store or at some high end shop? No. They just want to play with a duck. To them, the value is the same. No difference.
In filmmaking, it’s the same. There are countless examples of high “quality” films that cost a lot to make. Production value galore, but they deliver no “value” to the audience. That is to say, they don’t like it. Period. Why, because somewhere along the line, quality and value got inverted.
It’s a difficult equation. And it’s not always right. But when making your film, think about what represenets quality and what represents value. A great story will always deliver great value. But great quality won’t always deliver deliver great value to audience.
Now play!