• henfredemars@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    I met the author… a guy who wrote the script for one of the pictured movies. He was doing stand-up comedy on a cruise ship. He said yes, they are all terrible, but there’s a certain audience for them and they’re quite profitable.

    He said I want you to think of me when you’re forced to watch one of these. I want you to know who is responsible, and that I’m very sorry.

    • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      They probably cost next to nothing to produce, so even a small audience will make them profitable.

      I wonder, if you could just cycle through the same 5 movies without anyone noticing.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        They are definitely lower budget than ‘normal’ movies. But even as a low budget it still requires all the same production staff, camera, sound, editor, crew park staff, food services, wranglers, casting etc. The cheap part is unknown actors and not a lot of travel. Source: my wife has done background work on many movies and TV shows. As background they get paid to sit until call time. so scene maybe half hour, but all the background people waiting get a full hourly pay and all the food you want while waiting. You will notice on hallmark they zoom in tight so background is barely visible, this helps not having a large set of background people. in one movie at the mall they had my wife shopping and walking back and forth. it works for the scene but if you watched it closely you would notice the same lady in every scene carrying different boxes or bags.

      • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        They have two movies that are the same exact movie but told through two different main characters point of view. Same scenes and everything.

        It’s actually an interesting idea on paper. And Hallmark is probably the perfect way to do something like that.

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Hallmark red and hallmark blue. There are certain characters you can only get through trading with someone who watched the other film

        • rotopenguin@infosec.pub
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          1 year ago

          The idea worked out pretty well in “To every you I’ve loved before” and “To me, the one who loved you”.

          I somehow doubt Hallmark did quite as good a job of it.

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        It is kinda weird they haven’t made the Teletubbies decision to stop making new episodes once they have enough to loop. Once they have, what, three hundred? Then they can fill twelve hours per day from Halloween until Christmas. Shift those by a few movies every year and people will catch a whole different set based on when they watch TV.

  • CIA_Chatbot@normalcity.life
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    1 year ago

    Here’s a script idea:

    Suzy Citygirl has to plan the perfect Christmas pageant or Bernard Bigbiz will fire her from her job at the Joyless Inc. Little does she know when she gets sent to Tinytown, Vermont on business she’ll meet Matty McSmall town. He owns the struggling local tinsel factory and needs to sell enough tinsel by Christmas or else his grandma won’t be allowed to have the surgery she needs to remove the tumor from her holiday spirt gland. Matty is also single dad that was widowed by a freak tinsel lathing accident and the little girl loves Sally Citygirl from the beginning and secretly helps her dad see past his pain.

    With minutes to spare in the Christmas pageant/tumor deadline Suzy convinces Mr. Bigbiz to buy enough tinsel to save the Christmas pageant AND remove grandma’s tumor! But after throwing the perfect pageant she realizes Mr. Bigbiz is a terrible boss, and moves to Tinytown permanently. She falls in love with Matty, and gets a job at his tinsel factory. With her big business skills the struggling tinsel factory grows three sizes that day.

    Mr. Bigbiz is ruined. He realizes the error of his ways and comes to Vermont to apologize. Now he too works at the tinsel factory, and loves life now. But don’t forget, throughout the movie the cast interacts with lovable bearded old man who may or may not be Santa, because wtf, why not?

  • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Wealthy socialite Human Woman had it all, ceo of the top you feel bad magazine, house on top of building and even a tiny enslaved bark beast, the only thing Human Woman was missing was a chemical reaction.

    Human Woman receives a electrical waveform, Human Woman’s Human Grandmother mush box has stopped, Human Woman emigrated in moving iron box to original location, meeting Human Man also from original location, chemical reaction happens and Human Woman And Human man become human Couple

  • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Just once I want a man in a red sweater and a woman in a green dress [sobs].

  • KaleDaddy@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I live in a small town in Vermont, my girlfriend grew up here but moved away to New York City and has recently returned. She hates Christmas and I love it. Ive been trying to get her into the Christmas spirit. We were picking a Christmas tree when i realized we’re literally following the plot of these stupid movies and i now i keep mentioning how i need her big city business skills to help save my Christmas themed bakery

  • Sigma@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    these are targeted at boomers who are already programmed to feel guilty about about any decision that effects profit margins.

  • lemmiter@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Not trying to be racist but it’s almost always a man and a woman who are both White - and probably a Black side character if they are feeling generous.

    • const_void@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      If they do have an interracial couple it’s always a black man with a white woman. Never the other way around.

    • rgb3x3@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Hollywood’s (meaning movie and TV producers in general) default is white and straight.

      The hetero norm is changing slowly, but the white norm is still very much a thing. Typically for a movie to feature a predominantly POC cast, it’s directed by a POC and listed as a POC movie, rather than just… well, a movie.

  • kool_newt@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I love these movies, I think part of it is that holiday movies are some of the only light-hearted movies around that aren’t for kids. I don’t care that they suck in real terms or are all the same (something about xmas brings enhances my tolerance for terrible music and movies), I do wish they Hallmark knew about POC and LGBTQIA.

  • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I assume this was the same for the Harlequin Romance Novels too? I knew a few women over the years that had a bunch of these books. They seemed to digest them like monthly magazines.

    In some ways it’s sort of a business dream to be able to keep repacking the same nuts and bolts to make something slightly different for consumers who will keep paying. It’s pretty efficient.

    Still I’ve not read a Harlequin Romance nor have I seen a Hallmark movie. This doesn’t mean I’ve not seen all of the Star Wars movies or a good majority of the Marvel ones.

    • frosty99c@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      “In some ways it’s sort of a business dream to be able to keep repacking the same nuts and bolts to make something slightly different for consumers who will keep paying. It’s pretty efficient.”

      Madden. FIFA. Call of Duty.

  • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    When you have that almost perfect Stable Diffusion prompt and you’re trying to figure out what you have to change to get it that last little bit.

    • clb92@feddit.dk
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      1 year ago

      What about the predictable beginning and the predictable middle part, between the beginning and the end? I usually just skip those too.