Friday, August 31, 2012

Low Budget Film Making



As pre-production is in full effect for UNANSWERED I've been thinking about some of my personal favorite low budget films, the films that have inspired me the most over the years as an aspiring filmmaker. So I wanted to take a minute to list them, along with the trailers, to give you all an idea where I'm coming from.

Let's jump right in!

First off is Shane Carruth's Primer, from 2004. Primer won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. With an estimated budget of $7,000 that's quite an accomplishment.




Next is Rian Johnson's 2005 neo-noir  film Brick. Rian wrote the original screenplay in 1997. It took him six years in order to fund the project. Brick's budget was in the ballpark of $475,000. It was Johnson's directorial debut and won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film festival.



1997 brought us David Lynch's Eraserhead, a surrealist horror film that was produced by Lynch during his time at The American Film Institute. He received a grant from AFI, but after about 3 years of production, ran out of money.  The film took him five years to complete, with a budget around $20,000. This was one of the first films that made me feel uncomfortable, and left me sitting there wondering what I had just seen.



Stranger Than Paradise is a 1984 absudist comedy from director Jim Jarmusch. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival , where it won the Camera d'Or award for debut films. It's budget fell just under $100, 000.



In 1991 director Richard Linklater gave us a series of linear vignettes involving a group of 20 something year old misfits in his film Slacker. This film was the motivation for Kevin Smith to become a filmmaker and direct Clerks. The film's budget was only $23,000.



Lastly is Kevin Smith's 1994 directorial debut Clerks. The film was shot for just shy of $28,000 at the Quick Stop convenience store where Smith was working at the time. Clerks won the "Award of the Youth" and the "Mercedes-Benz Award" at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. This was also the first film that made me want to pick up a camera, go out and shoot movies with my friends. I remember thinking, 'This guy made a movie with his buddies, having conversations about shit I talk about all the time, why the fuck can't I do it?' Clerks was picked up by Miramax Films and went on to gross $3 million in the US.



There you have it. These are truly the films that made a goofy guy from a small town in southern Indiana, want to chase a dream and never give up hope. I've been lucky enough to have some amazing people in my life who have been so supportive, and others who have shown me that despite what others say you can make things happen as long as you don't give up. Truly I've been blessed by surrounding myself with a plethora of talented individuals whose own accomplishments have urged me on. I am forever in your debt my friends.

Thanks all,
Brandon Bennett

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