Notes big studios and filmmakers should take from District 9.

This summer may be looked back upon as the summer that turned it around. It might be the last summer studios and filmmakers throw millions of dollars at the screen for no particular reason. Why? District 9.

Tips for the Producers of Major Motion Pictures

1. Don't Get a Star to be in your movie, just because they're a star.

Today many big-name actors get paid millions of dollar per movie, racking up the budgets to levels beyond what they should be, why do you think "Funny People" cost $75 million to make? Big-name stars. A role should be cast based on the actor's performance, not on their box office potential. The fact is, Russell Crowe isn't going to bring in more than his $20 million price tag, just based on his name. Will Smith will, but not Russell Crowe. In "The Lord of the Rings" none of the stars were box-office gold at the time, and honestly they aren't box-office gold now either. But they were good in "The Lord of the Rings", and that's all that really mattered. "District 9" had no names that were even recognizable, but some really solid performances. There's nothing wrong with hiring a big-name star, and then asking for a lot of money-they worked hard to get where they are-but don't get a name, just to get a name.

2. Don't pay your director $70 million.

Targeting "Transformers 2" here, Michael Bay was given $70 million and a cut of the profits to do the movie. That left $130 million for everything else. The original film cost a total of $150 million, so unless he got paid more then $20 million the first time around, the second movie was actually cheaper. Director's deserve to get a fair cut of the movie, but more than a third of the budget is ridiculous. If they want more money, give them a bigger cut of the profits afterwards. If they're really worth your time, they'll end up making as much or more money and everyone wins. If your movie fails to recoup it's massive budget, everyone loses.

3. Have the effects serve the story, not the other way around

Millions of dollars are put into visual effects on big-budget films, and much of that money doesn't need to be there. Pointlessly long cg sequences look good in the trailer, but at this point they're not likely to put butts in the seats. Don't waste money on overdone and pointless effects that take away from the story and just add to the run-time. And another word on cg, if you can't do it realistically don't put it in the final movie!

4. Don't have useless characters in a film.

"District 9" only had 3 or 4 real characters, but we knew and cared about all of them. "Transformers 2" had too many to count, and they didn't mean anything to anyone. Don't dedicate screen time and money to characters with no purpose and no personality. Save money on the actors, shooting of unnecessary scenes, and end up making a better movie in the proccess!

Tips to the studios

1. Don't make every crappy script you get into a movie.

January, February, April and August are all considered dumping grounds for crappy movies that studios don't have any faith in and pray they might make a quick buck on. Don't make so many movies and your studio will look better, you'll have more money to work on other pictures with and if other studios follow suit, there will be a less over-crowded box office.

2. Don't be afraid of the filmmakers, but don't try to be them

If your Director/Producer wants you to fund a ridiculously budgeted movie, just say no. Watch the budget and make sure they aren't spending ridiculous ammounts on stuff that doesn't matter. Make sure they follow the above tips, but don't try to do there job. Give them all the creative freedom they want, within the set budget.

3. Don't play favorites

Obviously certain movies get much bigger pushes by their studios than others, and that's okay. But don't dump something out with no promotion. Many times I've been caught off guard, because a movie was released that I'd heard literally nothing about.

In conclusion, if the Filmmakers and studios start following these tips, they'll get away from their ridiculous budgets, and Hollywood will be less of a crap-fest. We'll see less $100million+ budgets. We'll see less struggling talent and fewer overpaid stars and fewer actors who can't act worth crap getting great movie deals. And fewer movies being screwed up by the studios and pointless characters/effects/plot twists.

I can sum it all up in one word: Think.