Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American independent film producer, director, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema", and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Much of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of low budget cult films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Admired by members of the French New Wave and Cahiers du cinéma, in 1964 Corman was the youngest filmmaker to have...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth5 April 1926
CityDetroit, MI
CountryUnited States of America
People gravitate occasionally to the brilliantly made art low budget films, which is maybe one out of every five hundred low budget films made.
Other writers, producers, and directors of low-budget films would often put down the film they were making, saying it was just something to make money with. I never felt that. If I took the assignment, I'd give it my best shot.
Maybe it's just a matter of getting older and being aware that the market for medium-budget and low-budget films, which is of course what I spent most of my life making, has diminished. And maybe the quantity of ideas has diminished a little bit.
Horror films have been with us forever, so you can't say I originated that in any way, but it sort of brought back a classical way to make a horror film.
I think the art film, or the auteur-driven film - and not only foreign, but domestic films following that path - can get a small share of the box office. And I think that small share may open up a little bit.
I love the process of making films and an incidental satisfaction is the fact that most of them made money.
In science-fiction films the monster should always be bigger than the leading lady.
One of the worst things you can do is have a limited budget and try to do some big looking film. That's when you end up with very bad work.
The safest genre is the horror film. But the most unsafe - the most dangerous - is comedy. Because even if your horror film isn't very good, you'll get a few screams and you're okay. With a comedy, if they don't laugh, you're dead.
In order to create art today, you have to compromise your art somewhat and be a businessman.
When I started in the late 1950s, every film I made - no matter how low the budget - got a theatrical release. Today, less that 20-percent of our films get a theatrical release.
Motion pictures are the art form of the 20th century, and one of the reasons is the fact that films are a slightly corrupted artform. They fit this century - they combine Art and business!
You can make a movie about anything, as long as it has a hook to hang the advertising on.