What is the cheapest movie ever made?
- Thread starter David W. Richardson
- Start date
Chamber005
Carbonite Member
Blair Witch was an awesome lie. Audiences thought they were going to see something real.
Blair Witch couldn't exist in the world today as a film. Within an hour the entire planet would know it was BS and no one would have seen it.
If Blair Witch is anything it's proof that before the internet it was easier to tell lies and have people believe them, just like the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds couldn't have existed in the TV-dominated years that followed it.
Not to compare the two, but War of the Worlds is a pretty mediocre radio drama if you know it's a fake. Blair Witch fails as a film where things like Colverfield and Zombie Diaries succeed.
Blair Witch couldn't exist in the world today as a film. Within an hour the entire planet would know it was BS and no one would have seen it.
If Blair Witch is anything it's proof that before the internet it was easier to tell lies and have people believe them, just like the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds couldn't have existed in the TV-dominated years that followed it.
Not to compare the two, but War of the Worlds is a pretty mediocre radio drama if you know it's a fake. Blair Witch fails as a film where things like Colverfield and Zombie Diaries succeed.
vcassel
Veteran
That's an overly generalistic view, and I'd debate the credibility of the statement that "Audiences thought they were going to see something real." I certainly didn't go into it thinking it was real. No one I knew did. The film was a critical success (percentage wise), and I don't remember reading any review in which the critic was under the assumption that it was really found footage.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
Agreed. And as I said, I heard about it on the net. It was widely available. And even though they pitched it as if the kids had died it was common knowledge that it was 'just a movie' when it was released. I do recall them fooling some people at the film festival though.
Aside from that, we all knew.
Chamber005
Carbonite Member
That's so weird. No one I knew at the time thought it was a fake. I even remember when the Blair Witch actors came out at the MTV awards and it was a big deal because that's the moment when everyone found out that the film wasn't real. Maybe there's an age difference thing? I think young people believed it to be real.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
Are you talking after it was released? They did that at the film festival as well, before release. Word got around.
I'm sure some people didn't know. They were probably in the minority though.
pulpfiction007
Veteran
Count me among those who didn't know....I didn't follow pop culture at all back then and didn't even own a television. I figured it out at the end though. I think the movie does have it's moments, especially if you've done a lot of camping. If I EVER heard a baby screaming out in the middle of nowhere while camping, I would freak out!
The thing about El Mariachi that people should take note of -what Rodriguez would do to cut costs: a lot of us should be so frugal. He tried specifically to not BUY ANYTHING if there was any other way.
David G. Smith
Steak Knife Member
There are a lot of sub $5k feature films out there for viewing. I believe that "The Last Broadcast" at a reported $900.00 production budget, is about the cheapest there is, for a film with any real distribution or notoriety. Another DIY flick, "Red Cockroaches", made for a reported $2000.00, has gotten a bit of good press. I really preferred "The Last Broadcast" to "The Blair Witch Project". BW milked the early internet hype machine to the "Nth" degree, and that, really should be their biggest claim to fame. I recently saw a DIY flick, in the $200 to $500 range on Netflix that I think really exploited that hand held camcorder reality aesthetic very well. The movie is called "The Devil of Blue Mountain". I have to admit, I really like the movie. It is crude, way low budget, but, somehow, it really works. In the age of YouTube, the raw video look seems to cut right through the, "Suspension of disbelief" and draw you into a movie that may not get a second look other wise.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Ummm.....the Internet was alive and well in the age of The Blair Witch. In fact, it was skillful use of the Internet that made the BW 'story' go viral. The same thing certainly could happen today.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Oh man! So now there are TWO people on the planet who have seen that movie -- you and me. I didn't enjoy it as much as you did, but the basic storyline was good. It just seems like he took a couple of crew members (1 camera, 1 sound) into the woods with 3 actors and spent a weekend hiking around and ad-libbing stuff. It would have been SOOOO much better with a well written script and a decent production schedule. But yeah, I'm sure that movie cost a pittance.
David G. Smith
Steak Knife Member
Wow, tough crowd!!!
it sure was...in fact, i was in school taking a class on web design the year it came out.
David G. Smith
Steak Knife Member
So, do we have a consensus? I go with "The Last Broadcast" as the cheapest, at $900.00, that received any kind of notoriety. I think that we may have forgotten a progenitor of DIY, guerilla films, that actually made some cash for the filmmaker. I came up shooting guerilla Super 8 and 16mm, and in the late '80s, during the first wave of the video boom, a very low budget film hit and ended up making a sizable sum for for the filmmaker. The movie, "A Polish Vampire in Burbank" was shot on Super 8mm film and edited on video. From what I remember, the film cost around $3000.00 and ended up netting around $500,000.00 (and counting) for the filmmaker, Mark Pirro. It ended up playing on the USA Networks and got a lot of press as one of the first DIY, uber low budget films ever made. American Cinematographer even did a piece on the flick (No doubt at the behest of their frequent advertiser, Super 8 Sound (Now Pro8MM). It was the success of "A Polish Vampire in Burbank", and it's press, along with Rick Schmidt's "Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices" that got me into this crazy business.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Hard to disagree. But the basic -- and I mean BASIC -- storyline had promise. A remake could be done cheaply and be much, MUCH better. I even discussed (briefly) doing that with Joshua P. Warren.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Okay then....sounds like $900 is the target. Now the challenge.....to make one for even LESS money. And make it good. Or well. Or good and well.
Interesting. I toyed with the idea of shooting a Super8 movie once, but figured out it would just be too pricey. It's still an interesting idea, though.
I call bullshit on this one. History just repeated it self with Paranormal Activity.
simonpwood
Well-known member
It would appear that young un's only consider the internet to have officially started with Facebook & Twitter; it wasn't 'real' internet before that...
Yes, two movies in the 100+ years of filmmaking. That's quite an accomplishment.