Zero budget film released on iTunes and turns a significant profit.

[David W. Jones]

I have no interest in seeing this film. But I tend to get perturbed any time I hear "no budget film" when in fact a film can not physically be made without spending money in some way shape or form. OK I may sound a little anal here, but stay with me. Did making your film require vehicles for transportation, insurance, fuel costs, food for cast and crew, lodging, any expendables, did you use any gear to shoot your film like camera, audio, microphones, mixer, SD cards, lights, batteries, laptop and hard drives to transfer footage, computer & monitor to edit your film, software, electricity to power any of these devices? This stuff doesn't just materialize out of thin air. Somebody had to spend money to purchase all of this stuff. Yet it is never included in a value line. Same with time expenditures. Nobody ever includes a breakdown on the time involved in script, pre production, production, post production, and the value of such. These "no budget" filmmakers seem to be trying to gain publicity by flashing the "look what I can do with no budget" adittude, when in fact it useually took thousands of dollars worth of gear and expenditures, as well as a good amount of time to actually make their film. Rant mode off.

 

[Gary Huff]

Films have been made for worse reasons.

Yeah, if they had made something compelling, I could have cared less what the reason was. But they just turned out pretension.

 

[LbSand]

And in the end, can't be easily duplicated, so what does this success teach us? Almost nothing.

I'm assuming you are stating it can't be easily duplicated due to cost / access to the actress in question. Why be so literal with the message? The message is that involving people who have different and broader social circles grants more exposure.

So let's say we're making a campy cyberpunk thriller and we can't afford a popular television actress, with 100,000 twitter followers, for our villain. Why limit ourselves to that channel? Couldn't you contact several prominant tech bloggers who have 100,000 twitter followers, who may be tickled to be in a film, who would probably do it for a lot less, and also be willing to promote it? Maybe you wouldn't get as great of a performance, but maybe you would? Might be better for a bit part.

A very blah example, but I guess I would look at this film as a major positive and start thinking of other channels to generate project participants.

You know there is a reason that clubs regularly have celebrity appearances. It is because no matter who the celebrity is, people will show up to see them. Don't limit yourself.