Donald P. Borchers

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1 week ago | [YT] | 26

Donald P. Borchers

"In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call 'photographs of people talking.' When we tell a story in cinema we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise. I always try to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between." - Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980), from Hitchcock/Truffaut

3 months ago | [YT] | 89

Donald P. Borchers

"When I was in Shortridge High School in Indianapolis 65 years ago, a twerp was a guy who stuck a set of false teeth up his butt and bit the buttons off the back seats of taxicabs. (And a snarf was a guy who sniffed the seats of girls’ bicycles.) And ... I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government. Want a taste of that great book? He says, and he said it 169 years ago, that in no country other than ours has love of money taken a stronger hold on the affections of men. Okay?" - Kurt Vonnegut

8 months ago | [YT] | 57

Donald P. Borchers

Quotes from Stanley R. Jaffe, Paramount Studios youngest President (29th August 1970, New York City) at the age of 30:

“The imagination of our children is blunted on television, and their thinking is done for them.”

“The head of distribution shouldn't be reading scripts and telling people to make movies… I don't get that, truthfully. I just don't get it. I will never get it.”

"What I chose to make as a studio head was professional. What I choose to make as a producer is personal."

9 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 36

Donald P. Borchers

Tim Robbins, “The Shawshank Redemption” star and “Mystic River” Oscar winner, recently said that he’s worried about the future of movies given how much algorithms now dictate what viewers watch. And in most cases, the algorithm is leading people to more of the same and not anything unique.

The Shawshank Redemption was made on a budget of $25 million and went on to make $73 million at the worldwide box office. It was nominated for seven Oscars, Robbins compared this with the wealth of movies freshly available on streaming platforms. “You go on Netflix right now, you see what films are coming out and you tell me that that’s the future of cinema?” Robbins said. “We’re in big trouble.”

Robbins currently stars on the Apple TV+ science-fiction series “Silo,” which is now in its second season. He told The Guardian that “Shawshank” is one of the reasons he’s holding on to hope that the algorithm can somewhat be defeated given that most audiences rejected the prison drama when it opened in theaters in 1994.

“We’re at 30 years now [on from] Shawshank Redemption,” he said. “When it came out it got good reviews, it got nominated for Academy Awards, but nobody saw it. It was VHS and [Ted] Turner playing it on his television channel [Turner Classic Movies] that changed that. That is a beloved movie. It remains on top of IMDb as the most favored movie of all time. So I know that a quality movie, a quality television show, will last. Whether it’s a hit or not is irrelevant compared to what people are going to think about it in 10, 15, 20 years.”

Robbins hasn’t made a movie since 2019’s “Dark Waters” and explained that he’s now very picky when it comes to selecting roles because “I don’t want to waste my time on a set doing something frivolous. I don’t want to be there for the sake of being there.”

11 months ago | [YT] | 71

Donald P. Borchers

You are invited to a Watch Party for Motorama (1991)

Sunday, December 22, 2024
@ Noon PST/3 PM EST/8 PM GMT

A Donald P. Borchers Production, music by Andy Summers.

Cameo appearances by Martha Quinn, Flea, Michael J. Pollard, Meat Loaf, Drew Barrymore, Garrett Morris, Susan Tyrrell, Mary Woronov, Allyce Beasley, Shelley Berman, Jack Nance, John Laughlin, Dick Miller, John Diehl, Robert Picardo, Charles Tyner, Sandy Baron, Vince Edwards, Paul Willson, Robin Duke, Irwin Keyes, and Craig Sheffer (uncredited)

https://youtu.be/0uUz988Dwo8

Join myself, veteran B-movie producer Donald P. Borchers, and surprise cast & crew members, as well as other guests in the chat box for a live discussion during the viewing.

1 year ago | [YT] | 17

Donald P. Borchers

Kurosawa expressed the heavy disappointment he felt when he watched contemporary American movies that failed to do anything meaningful with the genre frameworks of action and sci-fi.

During a conversation from the 1990s with Maani Petgar that was published in "Cinephilia & Beyond", Kurosawa explained: “Regarding American cinema, I could say that much better films were made in the past. Today’s American cinema provides the wrong service to the audience. Violence and car crashes are often seen. What pleasure is there in watching such scenes? Old American films expressed human problems quite well, but these days, the American cinema has problems.”

Drawing a comparison with Hollywood classics that had a different approach, he added: “There is no doubt that a film like Jurassic Park is interesting, but there used to be more impressive films in the past. In contrast, films like those of [Abbas] Kiarostami touch the heart and are very beautiful. These new sci-fi, action films, are good but they are not cinema.”

1 year ago | [YT] | 92

Donald P. Borchers

The ARKOFF Formula: Samuel Z. Arkoff's tried–and–true "ARKOFF Formula" for producing a successful low-budget movie.

A - Action (exciting, entertaining drama)
R - Revolution (novel or controversial, steams and ideas)
K - Killing (modicum of violence)
O - Oratory (notable, dialogue and speeches)
F - Fantasy (acted-out fantasies comment to the audience)
F - F***ication (sex appeal for young adults)

Later, the AIP publicity department devised a strategy called "the Peter Pan syndrome":
1 - A younger child will watch anything that an older child will watch.
2 - An older child will not watch anything that a younger child will watch.
3 - A girl will watch anything a boy will watch.
4 - A boy will not watch anything a girl will watch.
Accordingly, to capture the largest audience, zero in on the 19 year old male.

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 29

Donald P. Borchers

You are invited to a Watch Party Saturday, April 1, 2023
7 PM PST/10 PM EST
Robert Kurtzman’s “The Demolitionist” (1995)

https://youtu.be/1N4an8wBzPY

Join famous make-up artist/director Robert Kurtzman, veteran B-movie producer Donald P. Borchers, and surprise cast members in the chat box for a live discussion during the viewing.

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 17

Donald P. Borchers

“I found that the best way to handle [filmmakers] was to hang medals all over them… If I got them cups and awards they’d kill themselves to produce what I wanted. That’s why the Academy Award was created.”
- Louis B. Mayer

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 30