The new management succeeded with the concept of a no-studio studio -- that is; a studio with no sound stages to keep busy, no warehouses full of props and sets and costumes to amortize and no layers of redundant development executives and cadres of technicians.
He'd also heard that the teacher wanted to sell what he had for a million dollars, a sum no studio engineer was likely to supply.
"Raising Hope" premieres Sept. 21 at 9 p.m. ET. Whaddya call a half-hour comedy that isn't a sitcom (no studio laughter) and isn't a mockumentary (no single-camera docu-techniques) but also isn't quite as funny as, say, "Arrested Development" (sacred among fans of postmodern TV comedy) or "My Name Is Earl" or even "Cougar Town"?
Insurgent, The Hobbit, The Interview, some new Chronicle-meets-time-travel thing called Atlas something-or-other and then, finally, a movie with no studio logo, then darkness, a desert and a voice that may have been Andy Serkis or possibly Adam Driver doing his best Brit villain.
But many of them are songs hand-assembled by Brophy, much as he's doing with "Electioneering" — B.K.K. originals that Brophy constructs either because the studios that recorded "official" karaoke versions did bad jobs, or because the song is such an obscurity that no studio has ever recorded a karaoke version.
Of course, the strength of digital downloads, video streaming, upfront cable and TV network sales and physical format distribution (a dying revenue stream) can most definitely help make up for a theatrical shortfall, but no studio greenlights a $200M summer movie with business plans that call for generating half that amount at the global box office.
Mr. Gibson says he spent about $30 million of his own money to make "The Passion," a film that no studio would contemplate.
She sang a capella with no studio effects.
If "The Ben Vereen Story" were a Hollywood screenplay, no studio would buy it.
The pioneer director of these films was Arnold Fanck, a geologist who'd taught himself to use a movie camera, a technical innovator with no studio connections.
"We had no stars, no special effects -- except one fiberglass yak that falls off a cliff into a lake -- and no studio work," Mr. Valli said proudly.
