Producing : Making Movies That Matter by Eugene Mandelcorn

I like this question a lot because it asks us as artists to reflect on our motivations and tastes.

As a producer, there are so many reasons you gravitate toward certain projects...story, market, timing, collaborators. Mercenary reasons...Most of my career has been in television, which I’ve always been deeply passionate about. Film came a bit more opportunistically through my work, but I found myself really falling in love with the medium.

What I’m drawn to now are films that bring people together.

Whether it’s a holiday movie, a four-quadrant family story, or something aspirational, I love projects that create a shared viewing experience....something everyone can sit down and enjoy together.

I think that instinct comes from my own memories of why movies mattered to me growing up. It wasn’t just what I was watching, it was who I was watching it with.

For me, that kind of connection is what makes a film meaningful.

Don't see why both can't happen. You can make a movie that matters AND has an audience AND is also great art. Is that tough to do? Hell yeah. But you look at movies like "Sinners" and you realize it's totally possible.

Take a break, go to a coffee shop or take a walk. Normally it comes out from watching something on tv.

I spent a decade working for international organizations before screenwriting. I've found that this means whether I like it or not, my screenplays come from a place of wanting to champion our common humanity. I set out to write a traditional action movie for the audience component, and it somehow turned into an action comedy featuring a nonviolent hero who uses alchemy to transform weapons and obstacles into beautiful or humorous things (Wonder Woman meets Inspector Gadget). Jonathan Jordan - completely agree with you. It would be wonderful to accomplish all three.

I suspect that all movies matter to at least someone. Whether they matter to me is pretty irrelevant. Most movies I'll never see but the joy, relief and sense of accomplishment everyone who creates something that gets produced matters quite a bit. The number of people may be small, but what matters isn't how many people enjoy something, it's if anyone does.

All of these reasons are valid and solid depending on you the writer the dreamer and purveyor putting it on paper with a big broad vision that will by default define itself in it's brevity and purpose. Follow your soul your muse and trust it will bring the results you envision and desire. Just write... it will define it's meaning as it evolves on paper.

Laura, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Pat, I understand what you are saying, but I am more of a producer than a writer. My main objective is to get it on the screen and Infront of an audience.

Often there is meaning given to us by filmmakers, but audiences bring meaning to movies too in how they experience them. What they choose to watch and when - perhaps because of how they know something will make them feel (whether that be to laugh or cry or be transported). Traditions are born around watching and rewatching movies, talking about them with friends, recommending them. The life of a film is so much more than what is created on screen, and that's where the second magic is, when audiences don't just go on the journey set by the filmmaker but also take the movie and make it part of themselves somehow. That's where film legacy really grows.

I'd like to be known for making fun stories about characters stepping up to challenges they didn't ask for, and how awesome camaraderie is when it's with the right people.

As a historian, I'm not just looking to entertain, but that is first and foremost important. I also want people to remember it for some real reason, related to learning more about their humanity -- about history, about what makes us real. Sometimes that can be done with horror but not the gratuitous kind. Some of it just goes too far. I have one that shows what really happened at the Little Bighorn, one that tries to help married couples learn to communicate, one that wants to heal feminine family issues, and my personal favorite, one that takes down an egotistical president using Mexican superheroes. For me, there's no point in writing anything if I can't find the core of humanity in it.

I want to make movies and write scripts that follow in the tradition of the great 1970s New Hollywood movement. I finished a 9/11 movie that was inspired by some me of my fave movies (Apocalypse Now, All the President's Men, Three Days of the Condor). I want to make movies that match the energy and weight of those movies that made me fall in love with movies.

I’m looking at creating my first documentary on WOMEN AND leadership this year. It’s a new field of expression for me although I have been a performing artist and director as well as a songwriter. My interest is something cross cultural that will create impact for women globally..

I'm most interested in making people smile, laugh, and see the humor in the human condition. I'm so tired of 'us versus them' stories. There are enough 'us versus them' in real life. I'm certainly not spending $10 to see them. I guess that's why I write romcoms, and now that I have time, will produce them. I love writing 'inciting incidents' and 'all looks lost' in relationships...and I love happy endings.

for me it is a combination of history, crime and love. Louie's Speakeasy is i the 1921 and MIA is during WW1 France where a sheltered your woman saves a American solders life . both rags to riches

sorry for typos tired. been writing all night. lol

I love this perspective. For me, filmmaking is about building bridges between generations and cultures. I'm currently working on a project that merges ancient legends with modern noir to explore our roots and identity. I believe that understanding where we come from is the first step toward the 'positive change' you mentioned. Making the audience feel connected to something timeless — that’s the kind of movie that matters to me.

I'm fully all about movies that matter. I love films that make me think. Years ago, when I wrote my first novel, it occurred to me that it is possible to teach through fiction, through story. I think that may be one of the reasons people love to see "based on a true story" in a trailer. They are pretty much guaranteed that the story is going to be more than entertainment. It will likely be meaningful. I write stories about overcoming personal obstacles, dealing with things like internal conflict, trauma, racism, homophobia, and I write with the intent to show that there is a better way. Currently, I'm working on adapting a friend's incredible true story into a screenplay. It, too, is a story about overcoming and finding true self.

I just love the fish out of water, characters collaborating with people not like themselves in a fun way, real life comedy. I would like more producers to believe in their oddball movie if it’s a great story that there will be an audience versus trying to make something like you said for an audience that is already there. The last two years of awards going to Sinners and Anora - how’s that for two different worlds!

Hi Eugene: I would totally agree that it is important to try and make a positive difference in peoples lives, and they just have to believe that they can change no matter their past. That is the motivating factor for me to even write a script . My musical for which I wrote the book, music, and lyrics strongly suggests that we can re-invent ourselves. We can rediscover who we are and even achieve our true potential and change our lives. .

I love your approach, and we need so much more of that. You feel the difference of a movie made to just generate money or to really create something that lasts.

I have and will always work on movies and write screenplays that I am interested in, that I want to see on the big screen, that hit me deep, make me think, don't let me go, accompany through my life, that I want to quote to other people and make me rethink about different areas of life.

I usually write stories about marginalized characters that haven't had it easy and find a way back into life, no matter the genre, just to show people that the world goes way beyond one's own horizon.

I write screenplays that I hope people will stew about afterwards. Complex characters, plots that raise questions, stories that leave scars.

I want to write stories that make people happy. To take the audience on an incredible adventure, to root for the underdogs, to inspire the next generation that the sky is the limit.

johndoble.com

I'm wanting my film to be inspiring. To show everyone that you can be more than what your title is, that you can do anything you set your mind too. I want my work to be inspiring so as a play on words I named my character "Benjamin Moore" (Be more)

Those are the kind I am trying to write. complex characters, make people think, have something people can connect with.

I am lucky that I have a regular paying job so can write what I want, not what sells. This unfortunately also means I may never sell a script, if it doesn't fit the image of what is guaranteed to sell.

Regardless, I hope to write more human stories, even if it's an action-script or something traditionally two-dimensional.

I also don't write for the American audience. I write for a global audience, and enjoy having characters from all over the world.

I started taking movies seriously in the late ’70s and early ’80s, so I was there in the theater when Superman made us believe a man could fly, and when X-wing fighters, squatty little aliens who liked Reese’s Pieces, and UFOs proved that even the wildest ideas could tell amazing stories.

For a while, special effects were enough to wow me. But as the ’80s went on, I found myself becoming more interested in the stories John Hughes was telling than in the latest ILM showreel.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love a big-screen spectacle. But I’m just as likely to be more moved by, and remember, a smaller film with a modest cast set in a small town, one that may have only played in theaters for a week.

That probably explains the kinds of stories I’m drawn to write now: a half-hour single-camera comedy set in a shopping mall in the 1980s, and an action thriller about a multi-generational family of spies that is as much about their relationships as it is about the MacGuffin.

Because once a story moves from page to the stage, there are always going to be a lot of voices in the mix, from the director to the cinematographer to the designers and beyond. And while collaboration is part of the process, I always hope that original voice, the one that made the story worth telling in the first place, survives the journey.

That may be one of the reasons I’m so drawn to smaller independent films. There’s less noise, less interference, and more room for the writer’s voice to come through.

For me, it’s about creating work that entertains on the surface but says something real underneath.

I want to be known for stories that center POC characters as complex, flawed, funny, and powerful, placed in bold, high-concept worlds that blend sci-fi, drama, and comedy.

My work often explores power, identity, and survival, especially people navigating systems not built for them and finding ways to rise. If it sparks thought, makes someone feel seen, and still entertains, that’s the goal. Ultimately, I want my work to be both culturally meaningful and commercially viable.

I'm with MB Stevens - I always want to write exciting stories with interesting elements that people will talk about as a trojan horse to those deeper discussions on the stories messages and philosophies underneath!

Drinking tea-infused water, study more about two ideas that came into mind are Baseball and Foxes. But also creating the aspect of animation involving animals (bipedal) while discovering their hidden talents that no one would see them do.

The movie process is, well... It's a long-stretch because it's hard to write movie scripts and find others who will write animation movies for me. I'm just sticking with the TV/Streaming format for now.

Potentially, I would love to write superhero movies or comedy movies involving a struggling baseball team while reckless recruiting based on their non-baseball experiences. But as always, it'll take forever to take writing, producing, and finish the movie concept before it'll release within several years.

I can write short films, but I don't have a single idea on one character or one genre to choose from. Writing partners are everything that I need, why? Because, I can't rely on AI anymore to do full scripts or emotional scenes or even final dialogues.

I need to redo my style and hopefully write a better story from their take and i'll write it and if my brain hits a light bulb idea, meaning I can write even more sufficient. Just trying to figure out the character's expression and feelings, and capitalizing sounds through animation scripts. But I need a helping hand though. I have one so far, but need more writers and additionally, editors to detect my grammar errors.

Let's see how that works though. I can't be sure though.

if you write about romance and it doesn't make you cry, man or woman then it is not good enough to make a audience cry . Put your heart into it.

I would love to do a movie on love but from a different angle - more from the men’s perspective.

Hey Eugene,

Remember me? it’s been a long time. I remember you from a networking group, the name of which I have long since forgotten. It’s interesting how many paths from that era have taken unexpected turns.

I’ve been focused on a long‑term creative project of my own. I’m developing a family-friendly animated feature called Phantom of the Opry. It’s rooted in American musical heritage with a spiritually uplifting twist, and I’ve been approaching it with a very deliberate, professional process. It’s been a meaningful project to build out.

Would be good to catch up and hear what you’ve been working on these days. Always interesting to see where people from that circle have landed.

Hope things are going well on your end.

— Paul

Talking about anything possible, I'm in the process of editing my latest screenplay, FIRST CATHERINE, 1684-1727, about an illiterate peasant girl from Livonia (Germany) who challenges the ex-wife of Peter the Great, only to become the first female monarch in Russian history. Now there's an 'anything is possible' story. Uh, I mean, Catherine, not my writing the screenplay!

I've written one highly personal screenplay that won various awards (finalist and semifinalist finishes in more or less prestigious contests), but, for the moment, have gone back to writing fiction. I have an M.A. in writing fiction from NYU and left UChicago's English Dept. more or less ABD. In other words, I have a very literary background. Aside from influencing my screenwriting, it influenced -- for better or for worse -- my attitude toward the whole pitching process. I paid to play at Roadmap for a year or so, but one of the pieces of advice I couldn't get past was the idea that agents and such were mostly looking for people that they liked and thought they could (enjoyably) work with. Don't get me wrong: I'm not radioactive or anything, but that idea just seems so odd to me. When I was a grad student at NYU, I was an editorial assistant on a national literary journal called Pequod. People sent in their submissions and we judged them on their quality. We didn't demand that they phone and, in a 10 or fiftenn minute pitch, prove to us that they were friend material. (I'm exaggerating.) It just seems so odd to me. One of the heads of Roadmap told me that my dialogue was as good as or better than any he had read in a long, long time, Okay, so? Apparently, that sort of thing only counts for so much. Very frustrating.

Great question! I definitely want to be known for "movies that matter," that take on social justice issues with a blend of heart and dark humor.

Hi Eugene, That's a great, seldom-asked question. In my profile, I described my "brand" as a self-professed Irish storyteller. I specialize in grounded, character-rich screenplays featuring diverse, underrepresented voices — many inspired by the graduate students and young professors I’ve mentored. My protagonists are often strong women and minorities with layered, humble backstories. I write stories that advance humanity with science-based reasoning and critical thinking, some on important social issues of the day (depression, class distinction, gun control, climate change, and prejudice). I'm also a huge fan of the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes, which leads me to female-led murder-mystery comedies. I'd like to be remembered as a passionate writer of compelling films and TV series.

I really connect to what you’re saying here.

For me, it always starts with loving what I write, otherwise it has no weight. But at the same time, I’m very aware that film is also a commercial space. I don’t separate the two.

The story stays true to itself, but the way it’s told, the pacing, the visuals, the structure — has to invite an audience in. That’s where it becomes cinematic and accessible.

I’m currently working on a sci-fi feature, THE SINGER, which lives exactly in that space. A high-concept world on the surface, but something emotional underneath.

LOGLINE:

In a silent future where music is outlawed, a girl whose voice pierces the atmosphere awakens a city—and uncovers the truth about who she really is.

I think the goal is to make something that people feel — and still want to watch.

Curious how you navigate that balance in your work.

I often recite Chuck Palaniuk's saying that the goal isn't to live forever, but to create something that will. That's at the crux of all storytelling from the beginning of man, to inform and engage others -- to give them a takeaway which can then be passed on.

All films (and stories) are about SOMETHING regardless of genre, and there is a way to leverage that 'something' into a synergistic ecosystem or entertainment, profit and impact.

I recently turned this into a full business model, where films leverage an impact investor (this is a very common form of investing in every sector except entertainment). I wrote a book about how all filmmakers can do the same.

Feel free to connect if you want to know more or you can visit the website: investinginfilms.com

I want to make films with moral values, films that demonstrate that good overcomes evil, and films that show that there is a God. There are too many films with senseless killing, chaos, and films that mislead by their names. For instance, the Netflix movie, HIGH TIDES, should be named a HOUSE OF MURDERS, because every member of the family, even the young child, was a murderer or attempted to murder someone.

I’m drawn to stories where transformation happens internally before it becomes visible externally. Films that explore identity, power, and resilience can shift perspective in a quiet but lasting way.

Stories don’t always need to shout to make impact — sometimes the most meaningful change begins with recognition, dignity, and the possibility of redefining one’s place in the world.

What happened to my comment. Oh t hi is website is beyond fucksx upm here's the link this one episode, along with the other 77, are more than enough to demonstrate ymto you television that really matters: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1J5HoKA7LGBNMtH78uY66v?si=WxMrCQDQQO-Xo...

Hello.

I just saw this now.

The fact is that have biography that is quite something special. Robert Eggers received a copy of the raw script in Belfast during the production of "The Northman" where I am "The Berserker Priest".

Now, the upcoming months I will continue writing and add the life around everything.

Let me take some extremely short information for you.

I am the only Norwegian Navy Ranger e i Navy Seal that in Norway has fulfilled education and service with 3rd degree frostbite (beginning gangrene) in my feet and fingers and 2nd degree frostbite in my knees. Skin transplant.

I indicated the Government and The Department of Defense to get compensation as my plan was do become a deep sea diver in the North Sea.

The Government answered by forcing me to take 4 surgical operations (symptectomi), I took 2 of them which made me more invalid.

Later years documentation has come forward that the Government actually tried to kill me. Only to prohibit to through Court receive the jurisdictional responsibility as an employer.

There are a lot more.

But. What do you think of the idea of making a feature movie of my actual life?

And I am now going to reopen the cases where I already has changed 2 Laws I Norway.

I cannot think of any other reason to write. Thank you Eugene Mandelcorn for introducing the subject.

I want to be recognized for telling stories that go beyond surface-level entertainment — stories that explore power, identity, loyalty, and the emotional consequences behind every decision.

For me, impact comes from tension between what characters want and what they are willing to sacrifice to achieve it. When a story reflects both strategic thinking and emotional depth, it creates something that stays with the audience.

I’m particularly drawn to narratives where nothing is entirely what it seems, and where every relationship carries hidden layers. Those are the stories that not only engage, but also challenge perception and leave a lasting impression.

Hi Paul, you probably are thinking of Film Artists Network (F.A.N.). I ran that organization for 20 years.

Hi Ela, I have accepted your networking request.

Hi Stephen, thank you for the compliment. And coming from an astoundingly talented writer, makes the comment even more welcome.

Thanks for asking Paul. I have two films in distribution, right now.

I WOULD LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED FOR MY SCRIPTS WHICH INCLUDE THE TOPICS LIKE IMMIGRANTS, LONELINESS, LIFE, LOVE AND DEATH, DREAMS...

For the TV show I am envisioning, "The Culling," I'm hoping the traumatic events represented will lead viewers to see more clearly what is truly important to them individually, and to humans collectively. I'd like to think that viewers will decide to live their lives more mindfully, more intentionally … as if they could be gone by next week.