If your mantra is “if I could only get the money, I’d be a success,” check out the story of Delgo, an animated film with all the right pieces, but the wrong execution.

The film’s creator/producer/director wanted to create a big-budget animated film without the help of Hollywood powerhouse studios. He lined up big-time name voice talent (well, Freddy Prinze Jr.), and pitched the finished product around for distribution. No takers.

No takers after $40 million was spent? That’s the first problem. If you don’t have a plausible and meaningful experience to show after $40 million, you’re in trouble. He financed the distribution himself, launching in over 2,160 theatres. But the first weekend take was $511,920 — the all-time lowest for a wide box office opening.

But perhaps the biggest problem was that he failed to consider the marketing costs needed to “stand out in the already crowded holiday movie season.”

Know this: a $40 million-dollar movie is actually an $80 million movie. It takes time, effort, resources, and a strategic team to deploy a movie (that’s why studios will never go away). Independent, DIY creators must remember that it takes a team to create buzz — the necessary buzz to generate action (the kind of action that means $$$).

The internet can serve as a quick community-building tool for building buzz, but it isn’t cheap. It’s not free. It’s not “viral.” Real buzz that translates into revenues is a calculated strategy executed well.

For $40 million, I would have created a company that generated a lot of small, consumable content, and built an audience — a legion — of loyal children and pre-teens to get behind the storylines and the world. And then license the heck out of it. Figurines, t-shirts, stickers, and social network add-ons. For that kind of money, you could run for 2-3 years.

With a track record and a loyal core audience, then you might get a studio to back a movie. Or just return a call…

It was billed to feature live commentary from director Jon Favreau (over the movie, a la DVD commentary), but before he started, he told us about his fight to get Robert Downey Jr. into the lead role… and low and behold, Downey himself had snuck in the back. So they did the commentary together.

And it was amazing.

Some thoughts from the experience:

• There won’t be a director’s commentary on the DVD. Favreau hinted at taping the event and posting it online. I hope he does.
• Robert Downey Jr. looks different in person than he does on film. He’s softer-looking, and smaller than you’d expect. I attribute this to great acting talent.
• It seems like 90% of the dialog in the movie was either improvised or written the night before (or hours before) shooting. Downey in particular seemed to relish messing with people (his sit-down press conference moment was improvised). Even the comedic moments with Stark’s robots came from improvisations on set, that were able to be heightened and called back as they shot scenes in order.
• Downey showed up on set even on days he wasn’t shooting. He was genuinely passionate about the project and the work.
• Gwyneth Paltrow took the role and said that, now that she has a family, she works best before 9 PM. Her first shot, at Disney Hall, wasn’t until 3 AM. Oops, says Favreau.
• Most scenes were shot with two cameras, allowing the actors to overlap each other’s lines, and to give Favreau many options for editing. (that’s how we’ve shot all our projects, too, btw)
• The heavily-CGI-ed suit-up scene was only added when Marvel saw how well Transformers did, and they ponied up an additional $2 million.
• The Iron Man sequel is not 100% official, but is being penned by Tropic Thunder scribe Justin Theroux. (Though, Downey said that he’d throw that script aside as much as he did on this one.)

All in all, Iron Man is a great movie that really does teeter between comic book action and indie-film reality. The tone and creativity of it works great, and being a part of the screening only beholdens me to Favreau and Downey’s work even more.