Jason Blum
Jason Blum
Jason Ferus Blum is an American film producer. Blum is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions. He won the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for producing The Normal Heart, and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture for producing Whiplash...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionProducer
CountryUnited States of America
thinking spending more-money
One thing I am very strict about is that I don't like spending a lot of money on movies because the more money you spend I think the worse that they get.
thinking creating people
I think good suspense and horror is really about creating situations that are relatable, and throwing a wrench in it and watching how people respond to it.
thinking space people
I think the most honest responses to the movies you get to watch are in houses and people's most private spaces, like the bedroom or in your own intimate space. I think that's where you feel safest, so when you're threatened in the place you feel safest, it makes for the scariest situations.
independent actors theater
I really like to work with theater actors. Theater actors tend to do lots of independent movies, and those are the actors that I like.
scary scare easier
The scares are the easier part of scary movies. The hard part of scary movies is what leads up to the scares.
people annoyed looks
A lot of the reasons why people are annoyed at found footage movies is because people look at it like it's easy and that they could do it, too.
thinking interesting people
I try to work with people who you're not used to seeing in scary movies. I think it makes for a more interesting mix, when you're watching the movie.
scary scare elements
Horror is great storytelling with scary elements on top of it, but if you don't have great storytelling, you can have all the scares in the world, but the movie won't work.
falling-in-love creative complicated
You can't be a creative person and not fall in love with everything. Every movie I've made there's a complicated, twisted love affair with.
trying passionate stuff
I really am passionate about making low-budget movies. You can try new stuff and unusual stuff, and you can break the rules.
creative lows budgets
We have creative freedom because of budgets. Ever since I have been doing low budget movies, we've really had creative freedom.
helping like-you feels
I'm a believer in screening movies early, and using the movie itself to help sell the movie. If you can't do that, I feel like you shouldn't be releasing the movie.
thinking trying quality
But one of the rules I don't like to break is we still do - 95% of our movies are low budget. We're offered bigger, larger budget movies to produce a lot, and we don't do them. That's not to say there aren't exceptions, there are a few exceptions, but I try and stick by the rules that produce what I think is the highest quality, most innovative work and try and let the rules go that make us feel like we're retreading.
giving people creative
The model we established was to give creative people complete creative freedom in exchange for betting on themselves, so they work for the minimums you're allowed to work for, and if the movies work in a big way, everyone does very well. If the movies don't, nobody loses too much money. The benefit to doing all the movies low budget is we can tell different types of stories and take creative risks. The Purge would have been irresponsible to do for $20M, but to do it for $3M makes sense.