Long live micro-budget filmmakers!

[Casey Krugman]

Hey all, I saw this trailer, and then watched the BTS video on their site.

Monsters Official Movie Site - Starring Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy - Premieres On Magnolia On Demand September 24th and In Theatres October 29th - Trailers, Pictures & More

The entire thing apparently shot with an EX3 and a Letus Ultimate kit, for a budget of around 15 grand, and it looks amazing! It allows me to hope that one day, major studios will remember that giving 100 indies a million dollar budget each is better than making 1 100 million dollar POS that is all too common these day.

[Dylan Couper]

Except you forget that there are 10,000 POS indie films for every good one like this one. :)

[Casey Krugman]

Oh no doubt, and they usually end up directly into someones netflix queue, or late night slot for the really "high-budget" ones. But the thing is, I think that even though there's a TON of crap out there, I feel like we are being presented almost one or the other... it's usually either expensive crap or cheap crap. Only every once in a great while do good films come out. Maybe the past is rose colored for me, but lets be honest, when the indie scene really started to get up and running, there were all these great films that would never have been made these days, or even given the level of distribution that they had (Do you think "Kids" would have been in ANY theater?)

IDK, I just get hopeful with films like this or The Signal. It gives me hope.

[Dylan Couper]

For sure there are dozens or hundreds of filmmakers out here that would blow hollywood away if they had the chance. Even though the money isn't here, technology has (and this film is a good example) leveled the playing field to the point where we can compete by paying with our time instead of our cash.

[Nicholas de Kock]

The graphics in that film looks way too good for a low budget. Even if 15K was the only physical cash used to create the movie there is a lot of other costs not calculated, like the time people put into the production & other borrowed gear/props/sets. Everyone involved in the project probably has a stake in the movie and will get paid once the profits start rolling in. It's a bit misleading to say it's a micro budget film in my opinion.

[Zach Love]

I agree with Nicholas. I think there are always hidden costs in a low budget movie. Just ask any wall street accountant, numbers aren't objective.

Looks very cool, & I agree with the OP, I think there is probably a better chance of getting some great films out there if 100 $1m movies were made, than 1 $100m movie.

But the whole "Indie movie" & "Good movie" thing comes down to the fact that any kid in high school can spell every word in "Catcher in the Rye," but doesn't mean that any of them could write a great American novel. Doing something creative & great is a very rare & hard thing to pull off, but looks very easy once completed.

[Thom Seaman]

For those in the UK, a preview of Monsters is being screened as part of the Frightfest horror festival this Saturday (Aug 28th) at 9pm in Leicester Square... I'll report back on the big screen quality if I make it, although I will have just sat through the I Spit On Your Grave remake immediately beforehand so no promises :)

[Dom Stevenson]

Amen to that!

[Dom Stevenson]

They remade that?