Great Low Budget Indy Films: The Orville B DeMille Film Institute
Ranked #30,177 in Entertainment, #372,235 overall
Here are 9 films made on shoe string budgets that should serve as inspiration to budding film makers.
The DVD extras for these films constitute a crash course on guerilla film making.
Primer was released in 2004, shot on Super 16mm with a jaw droppingly small budget of $7000. Primer won the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival in 2004
Stranger Than Paradise which won the Caméra d'Or award at Cannes for debut films in 1984 was made on a budget of around $100,000.
1987's Hollywood Shuffle was shot on the streets of LA without permits on film stock that writer/director Robert Townsend begged and borrowed from friendly cinematographers.
Who's That Knocking at My Door? started in 1965 as a student film short by Martin Scorsese and won the Chicago Film Fest in 1968 as a feature.
Robert Rodriguez checked in as a guinea pig as a subject in a drug trial to get the time to write El Mariachi and largely financed the film with the money he was paid for the drug trial.
Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It was shot in twelve days during the summer of 1985 on a budget of $175,000 and grossed $7,137,502 at the U.S. box office.
The Anniversary Party with 19 days to shoot film makers Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming decided to shoot in DV making it one of the first digital features.
The Blair Witch Project may be the the greatest low budget success story of all time.
PI directed by Darren Aronofsky was released in 1998 with a budget of $60,000. It is Aronofsky's directorial debut, and earned him the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Gotham Open Palm Award.
The DVD extras for these films constitute a crash course on guerilla film making.
Orville B DeMille Film Institute Lenses
Primer
2004
WIKIPEDIA: Primer:
Primer was filmed in five weeks, on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. It was produced on a budget of only $7,000, and a skeleton crew of five. Shane Carruth acted as writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and music composer. He also stars in the film as Aaron, and many of the other characters are played by his friends and family. The small budget required conservative use of the Super 16mm filmstock. The extremely low shooting ratio of 2:1 meant they had to carefully limit the number of takes. Every shot in the film was meticulously storyboarded on 35mm stills. Carruth created a distinctive flat, overexposed look for the film by using fluorescent lighting, non-neutral color temperatures, high-speed film stock, and filters.
After principal photography, Carruth took two years to fully post-produce Primer. He has since said that this experience was so arduous that he almost abandoned the film on several occasions.
Primer was filmed in five weeks, on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. It was produced on a budget of only $7,000, and a skeleton crew of five. Shane Carruth acted as writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and music composer. He also stars in the film as Aaron, and many of the other characters are played by his friends and family. The small budget required conservative use of the Super 16mm filmstock. The extremely low shooting ratio of 2:1 meant they had to carefully limit the number of takes. Every shot in the film was meticulously storyboarded on 35mm stills. Carruth created a distinctive flat, overexposed look for the film by using fluorescent lighting, non-neutral color temperatures, high-speed film stock, and filters.
After principal photography, Carruth took two years to fully post-produce Primer. He has since said that this experience was so arduous that he almost abandoned the film on several occasions.
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Stranger Than Paradise
1984
Wikipedia: Stranger Than Paradise
Writer and director Jim Jarmusch had initially shot his first feature, Permanent Vacation (1980) as his final thesis while at New York University's film school, and spent the following four years making Stranger than Paradise. At NYU, he had studied under iconic 20th century director Nicholas Ray, who had brought him along as his personal assistant for the production of Lightning over Water, a portrait of Ray that was being filmed by Wim Wenders. It was Wenders who granted Jarmusch the leftover film stock from his subsequent film Der Stand der Dinge (1982) that would enable the young director to shoot the 30-minute short subject film that would become Stranger Than Paradise. This short was released as a standalone film in 1982, and shown as "Stranger Than Paradise" at the 1983 International Film Festival Rotterdam. When it was later expanded into a three-act feature, that name was appropriated for the feature itself, and the initial segment was renamed "The New World".
Writer and director Jim Jarmusch had initially shot his first feature, Permanent Vacation (1980) as his final thesis while at New York University's film school, and spent the following four years making Stranger than Paradise. At NYU, he had studied under iconic 20th century director Nicholas Ray, who had brought him along as his personal assistant for the production of Lightning over Water, a portrait of Ray that was being filmed by Wim Wenders. It was Wenders who granted Jarmusch the leftover film stock from his subsequent film Der Stand der Dinge (1982) that would enable the young director to shoot the 30-minute short subject film that would become Stranger Than Paradise. This short was released as a standalone film in 1982, and shown as "Stranger Than Paradise" at the 1983 International Film Festival Rotterdam. When it was later expanded into a three-act feature, that name was appropriated for the feature itself, and the initial segment was renamed "The New World".
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Hollywood Shuffle
1987
WIKIPEDIA: Hollywood Shuffle
Hollywood Shuffle was produced on a very tight budget. Townsend personally financed the movie with his own credit cards, and, in order to avoid obtaining permits, he asked his crew to wear college sweatshirts to pose as students.
The film's trailer (included on the MGM DVD release), which is hosted by Townsend, jokes about the lack of funds. As the trailer ends, Townsend begs the audience to see the film as the set's furniture is repossessed. The trailer ends as Townsend is forced to use a disposable lighter when the electricity is turned off.
Hollywood Shuffle was produced on a very tight budget. Townsend personally financed the movie with his own credit cards, and, in order to avoid obtaining permits, he asked his crew to wear college sweatshirts to pose as students.
The film's trailer (included on the MGM DVD release), which is hosted by Townsend, jokes about the lack of funds. As the trailer ends, Townsend begs the audience to see the film as the set's furniture is repossessed. The trailer ends as Townsend is forced to use a disposable lighter when the electricity is turned off.
Own Hollywood Shuffle
Who's That Knocking At My Door
WIKIPEDIA: Who's That Knocking At My Door
Who's That Knocking at My Door was filmed over the course of many years, undergoing many changes, new directions and different names along the way. The film began in 1965 as a student short film about J.R. and his do-nothing friends called Bring on the Dancing Girls. In 1967, the romance plot with Zina Bethune was introduced and spliced together with the earlier film, and the title was changed to I Call First. This version of the film received its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival in November 1967. Finally, in 1968, exploitation distributor Joseph Brenner offered to buy the picture and distribute it on the condition that a sex scene be added to give the film sex exploitation angles for marketing purposes. Scorsese shot and edited a technically beautiful but largely gratuitous montage of J.R. fantasizing about bedding a series of prostitutes (shot in Amsterdam, Holland with a visibly older Keitel) and the film finally became Who's That Knocking at My Door (named for the song which closes the film). The film was then re-issued under the title "J.R." in 1970, however all subsequent releases have been published under the 1968 title.
The film was shot with a combination of 35 mm and 16 mm cameras. Scorsese shot most of the 35 mm footage with a Mitchell BNC camera, a very cumbersome camera that impeded mobility. He opted to shoot several scenes with the 16 mm Eclair NPR camera in order to introduce greater mobility, then blow up the footage to 35 mm.
Who's That Knocking at My Door was filmed over the course of many years, undergoing many changes, new directions and different names along the way. The film began in 1965 as a student short film about J.R. and his do-nothing friends called Bring on the Dancing Girls. In 1967, the romance plot with Zina Bethune was introduced and spliced together with the earlier film, and the title was changed to I Call First. This version of the film received its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival in November 1967. Finally, in 1968, exploitation distributor Joseph Brenner offered to buy the picture and distribute it on the condition that a sex scene be added to give the film sex exploitation angles for marketing purposes. Scorsese shot and edited a technically beautiful but largely gratuitous montage of J.R. fantasizing about bedding a series of prostitutes (shot in Amsterdam, Holland with a visibly older Keitel) and the film finally became Who's That Knocking at My Door (named for the song which closes the film). The film was then re-issued under the title "J.R." in 1970, however all subsequent releases have been published under the 1968 title.
The film was shot with a combination of 35 mm and 16 mm cameras. Scorsese shot most of the 35 mm footage with a Mitchell BNC camera, a very cumbersome camera that impeded mobility. He opted to shoot several scenes with the 16 mm Eclair NPR camera in order to introduce greater mobility, then blow up the footage to 35 mm.
Who's That Knocking At My Door
1967
Own Who's That Knocking At My Door
El Mariachi
1992
WIKIPEDIA: El Mariachi
Rodriguez heavily stresses the need for cost cutting, "because if you start to spend, you cannot stop anymore." This is why he cut costs at every possible opportunity, such as not using a slate (instead, the actors signaled the number of scene and number of take with their fingers), not using a dolly (he held the camera while being pushed around in a wheelchair), not using professional lighting (essentially using two 200-watt clip-on desk lamps) and not hiring a film crew (the actors not used in the scenes helped out). Also, Rodriguez believed in filming scenes sequentially in one long take with just one camera: every few seconds, he froze the action, so he could change the camera angle and make the audience believe he had a couple of cameras at the same time. Also, bloopers were kept in to save film: noted by Rodriguez were scenes when the Mariachi jumps on a bus, where Rodriguez is visible; the Mariachi bumping his weapon into a street pole; him failing to throw his guitar case on a balcony and Dominó twitching her face when she is already dead. In the end, he used only 24 rolls of film and only spent $7,225 of the $9,000 he had planned.
Rodriguez heavily stresses the need for cost cutting, "because if you start to spend, you cannot stop anymore." This is why he cut costs at every possible opportunity, such as not using a slate (instead, the actors signaled the number of scene and number of take with their fingers), not using a dolly (he held the camera while being pushed around in a wheelchair), not using professional lighting (essentially using two 200-watt clip-on desk lamps) and not hiring a film crew (the actors not used in the scenes helped out). Also, Rodriguez believed in filming scenes sequentially in one long take with just one camera: every few seconds, he froze the action, so he could change the camera angle and make the audience believe he had a couple of cameras at the same time. Also, bloopers were kept in to save film: noted by Rodriguez were scenes when the Mariachi jumps on a bus, where Rodriguez is visible; the Mariachi bumping his weapon into a street pole; him failing to throw his guitar case on a balcony and Dominó twitching her face when she is already dead. In the end, he used only 24 rolls of film and only spent $7,225 of the $9,000 he had planned.
Own El Mariachi
She's Gotta Have It
WIKIPEDIA: She's Got to Have It
She's Gotta Have It was Lee's first feature length motion picture as a writer/director and a landmark independent film of American cinema.
The New York Times wrote that the film "ushered in (along with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also a groundbreaking film for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites."
The film was shot in twelve days during the summer of 1985 on a budget of $175,000 and grossed $7,137,502 at the U.S. box office. Spike Lee details his trials and consolations on the making and distribution of the film in the book Spike Lee's Gotta Have It: Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking. The highly stylized, black-and-white film features a jazz score by Lee's father, Bill. Culture critic Nelson George, a personal friend of Lee's, was one of the film's main investors
She's Gotta Have It was Lee's first feature length motion picture as a writer/director and a landmark independent film of American cinema.
The New York Times wrote that the film "ushered in (along with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also a groundbreaking film for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites."
The film was shot in twelve days during the summer of 1985 on a budget of $175,000 and grossed $7,137,502 at the U.S. box office. Spike Lee details his trials and consolations on the making and distribution of the film in the book Spike Lee's Gotta Have It: Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking. The highly stylized, black-and-white film features a jazz score by Lee's father, Bill. Culture critic Nelson George, a personal friend of Lee's, was one of the film's main investors
She's Gotta Have It
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The Anniversary Party
WIKIPEDIA: The Anniversary Party
Because of conflicting schedules, there was a period of only 19 days in which the entire cast-consisting of friends and actors with whom Leigh and Cumming previously had worked-would be available for filming. This prompted the decision to film using digital video, which Leigh felt also added a sense of immediacy and intimacy that would draw the audience into the action as party guests observing everything from the sidelines.
Because of conflicting schedules, there was a period of only 19 days in which the entire cast-consisting of friends and actors with whom Leigh and Cumming previously had worked-would be available for filming. This prompted the decision to film using digital video, which Leigh felt also added a sense of immediacy and intimacy that would draw the audience into the action as party guests observing everything from the sidelines.
The Anniversary Party
2001
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The Blair Witch Project
WIKIPEDIA: Blair Witch Project
Filming began in October 1997 and went for eight days. Most of the movie was filmed in tiny Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County, Maryland, although a few scenes were filmed in the real town of Burkittsville. Some of the townspeople interviewed in the film were not actors, and some were planted actors, unknown to the main cast.. . . .
During filming, the actors were given clues as to their next location through messages given in milk crates found with Global Positioning Satellite systems. They were given individual instructions that they would use to help improvise the action of the day. . . . Influenced by producer Gregg Hale's memories of his military training, in which "enemy soldiers" would hunt a trainee through wild terrain for three days, the directors moved the characters far during the day, harassing them by night and depriving them of food.
Almost 19 hours of usable footage was recorded which had to be edited down to 90 minutes. The editing in post production took more than eight months. Originally it was hoped that the movie would make it on to cable television, and the filmmakers did not anticipate wide release. The initial investment by the three University of Central Florida filmmakers was about US$35,000. Artisan acquired the film for US$1.1 million but spent US$25 million to market it. The actors signed a "small" agreement to receive some of the profits from the film's release.
Filming began in October 1997 and went for eight days. Most of the movie was filmed in tiny Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County, Maryland, although a few scenes were filmed in the real town of Burkittsville. Some of the townspeople interviewed in the film were not actors, and some were planted actors, unknown to the main cast.. . . .
During filming, the actors were given clues as to their next location through messages given in milk crates found with Global Positioning Satellite systems. They were given individual instructions that they would use to help improvise the action of the day. . . . Influenced by producer Gregg Hale's memories of his military training, in which "enemy soldiers" would hunt a trainee through wild terrain for three days, the directors moved the characters far during the day, harassing them by night and depriving them of food.
Almost 19 hours of usable footage was recorded which had to be edited down to 90 minutes. The editing in post production took more than eight months. Originally it was hoped that the movie would make it on to cable television, and the filmmakers did not anticipate wide release. The initial investment by the three University of Central Florida filmmakers was about US$35,000. Artisan acquired the film for US$1.1 million but spent US$25 million to market it. The actors signed a "small" agreement to receive some of the profits from the film's release.
The Blair Witch Project
1999
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PI
WIKIPEDIA: PI
[Darren] Aronofsky's directorial debut, and earned him the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Gotham Open Palm Award.
PI was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, and filmed on high-contrast black-and-white reversal film.
PI was produced on a sufficiently low budget of $60,000, but proved a financial success at the box office ($3,221,152 gross in the U.S.) despite only a limited release to theaters. It has sold steadily on DVD.
[Darren] Aronofsky's directorial debut, and earned him the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Gotham Open Palm Award.
PI was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, and filmed on high-contrast black-and-white reversal film.
PI was produced on a sufficiently low budget of $60,000, but proved a financial success at the box office ($3,221,152 gross in the U.S.) despite only a limited release to theaters. It has sold steadily on DVD.
PI
1998
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Comments
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louisbayberry
Dec 8, 2011 @ 7:37 pm | delete
- I love "Who's That Knocking On My Door?" I miss the old Scorcese.
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