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I’ve had a lot of movies that didn’t get great numbers on test screening, but a lot of times the film was able to survive, or the studio still stayed and supported it.

Barry Levinson

I got involved with an acting school and studied for a couple years. They used to have improv exercises that you would work on and you would do improvs.
BARRY LEVINSON

Couple Exercise School
I thought a great line in the What Just Happened movie said, “We’re just the mayonnaise.”
BARRY LEVINSON

Happened Line Mayonnaise Movie Thought
The interesting thing about movies, it’s not always – y’know, you have to have structure etc and all those things, but an audience responds, in many ways, we walk away and certain things stay in our heads that are memorable.
BARRY LEVINSON

Interesting Memorable Way
I’ve had a lot of movies that didn’t get great numbers on test screening, but a lot of times the film was able to survive, or the studio still stayed and supported it.
BARRY LEVINSON

Film Movie Number Screening Survive Time
I don’t know that you can do an absurdist film and just have everybody embrace it in terms of filling out cards. I just don’t think it happens. So you have to prepare an audience.
BARRY LEVINSON

Embrace Film Thinking
I play around with human things, human relationships and that, and allow that kind of talk to work in that way, on that level.
BARRY LEVINSON

Human Human Relationships Kind Relations
It’s always hard to explain why an audience ultimately responds to a movie.
BARRY LEVINSON

Audience Hard Respond Ultimately
There’s no downside to having too much experience.
BARRY LEVINSON

Downside Experience Much Too
All I try to do is create an atmosphere that seems comfortable enough, that it removes tension and everyone feels free. If they feel free then behaviour happens, small moments happen and that’s what ultimately works the best for me.
BARRY LEVINSON

Atmosphere Behavior Trying
A lot of time mistakes are very interesting – you look for the behaviour that’s not the one you expect.
BARRY LEVINSON

Interesting Looks Mistake
We’re never going to be the ultimate-insider look. You can do 50 insider looks at this Hollywood business, and the satire didn’t intrigue me. I think others can do that.
BARRY LEVINSON

Business Hollywood Insider Satire Thinking
No one really has the power, and everybody’s trying to get through the day, and everybody’s nervous and desperate.
BARRY LEVINSON

Desperate Nervous Trying
Studios just sometimes make decisions on their own that you’re always flabbergasted by. It just happens that way for whatever reason – not even pointing fingers, it just is.
BARRY LEVINSON

Decision Happen Reason Sometimes
I never really wanted to be an actor. And that was the beginning of it, I began to write things down and eventually became a writer on a television show.
BARRY LEVINSON

Actors And Television Began Eventually Thing Writing
Craig Nelson who is an actor and is in a show called Coach in the United States. We began to do some improvisational stuff and we used to get laughs and things.
BARRY LEVINSON

Actors Country Laughing United States
I don’t know that you can do it as a satire. I mean, the business is crazy enough as it is. It’s like doing Wag The Dog – we took a thing that was almost completely absurd on one level, and then ultimately those things came about.
BARRY LEVINSON

Crazy Dog Mean
I think test screening works at its best when the audience knows what it’s getting.
BARRY LEVINSON

Audience Screening Test Thinking
I think when Sarah Palin opened her mouth and started talking, the more she talked, the less appealing she became.
BARRY LEVINSON

Appeal Palin Start Talk Thinking
I think we are seeing a radical shift in the business in general. The studios are making much more of the real big extravaganzas and there are other kinds of films that are coming out. I think you are going to begin to see more diversification that we’ve seen in the past.
BARRY LEVINSON

Past Real Thinking
I think it’s a promising time which will show a lot of diversification that we’ve seen in the past.
BARRY LEVINSON

Past Shows Thinking
When I began to think about the head of the family, the storyteller, the rise of television which became the new storyteller, the break-up of the American family as an idea and then Avalon came.
BARRY LEVINSON

Break Idea Thinking Up
I do know when you look at some ballplayer and all of a sudden he is the size of a truck something is wrong.
BARRY LEVINSON

Looks Size Truck Wrong
You don’t always have to have the ending, but you want to have a satisfactory conclusion.
BARRY LEVINSON

Conclusion Satisfactory Want
Even back in the ’90s, I shot certain things on something that wasn’t digital then, but it was on VHS with a smaller camera and we would up it to film.
BARRY LEVINSON

Camera Digital Film
I think certain movies work and that is part of the magic of it all. We can’t truly define why something succeeds.
BARRY LEVINSON

Magic Succeed Thinking
I would give the cameras to the kids in the swimming pools and they would play with them, and then I would collect them and we would upload it. If you’re in the process, you’re there.
BARRY LEVINSON

Kids Playing Swimming
There was a time when I said, “I’m going to go do a television thing,” after doing all these theatrical films, and heard, “Television? Why are you going to go back to television?” It’s an interesting place.
BARRY LEVINSON

Film Interesting Television

I’ve had a lot of movies that didn’t get great numbers on test screening, but a lot of times the film was able to survive, or the studio still stayed and supported it.

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I’ve had a lot of movies that didn’t get great numbers on test screening, but a lot of times the film was able to survive, or the studio still stayed and supported it.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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