And occasionally, a big distributor picks up a low-budget movie and it becomes a hit. Robert Rodriguez's thriller El Mariachi, financed in part by becoming a paid guinea pig in drug tests and originally made for only $7,000, is one example. Another is Kevin Smith's Clerks, made for just $21,000. A comedy set in two New Jersey convenience stores, Clerks resembles the otherwise very dissimilar Hustler White in two very important ways. It depicts a particular place, and a particular way of life, that no Hollywood studio has ever managed to represent authentically. And it doesn't bother worrying about that segment of the audience that will find it uninteresting or offensive. Just as the spread of cheap printing presses once gave voice to marginal writers, the new film technologies allow for a greater range of cinematic expression and consumption.
One can overrate the effect of technology on art, of course. "Anyone can make a direct- to-video cheapo or a direct-to-parents'-and-friends'-bookshelf for under $20,000," comments Irwin Lewis, the writer and co-producer of the forthcoming Nobody Rides for Free. "You can buy a VHS tape for about six bucks; without doing any editing or counting the use of your mom's video camera, that's a 120-minute feature for $6.00." The "real story," he continues, is "how you can put $20,000 into a film and make it look better than a movie somebody soaked hundreds of thousands, even $1 million or more into.
"This can be done because of advances in technology, yes, but even more important is the amount of information available to today's low-budget filmmaker, the inspiration of those who have gone before, and the creativity of modern low-budget filmmakers," he concludes.
The Drivetime's Alli similarly stresses that the new equipment is secondary to the creative impulse. "I don't know if it's easier to make movies these days as much as it is necessary," he says. "Some people can only consume so much before, out of sheer necessity, they are forced to regurgitate and reinterpret the media they eat. Out of this group, maybe 10 percent will actually do something concrete, like make a movie or a video, or produce a CD, or publish a newsletter, or start a pirate radio station."
Some of those creative regurgitators may well move into the mainstream one day. Which leads us to two last points about these new technologies' effect on the art of film: They allow young directors to carry out their apprenticeships on their own. Kids have been fooling around with cameras for a long time, of course. An adolescent Kenneth Anger shot his first movie in his family's living room while his folks were out of town--in 1942. But now much more sophisticated technology is much cheaper, allowing young talents to bypass (or better prepare for) a highly competitive, highly limited, and highly expensive slot in a traditional film school.
Witness Justin Lowe, a 15-year-old Scorsese fan who lives in Waldport, Oregon. With a Hi-8 Camera, some editing software, and a PowerPC, Lowe makes movies. Granted, they aren't very good movies, as he is the first to admit. But that's beside the point: They're a valuable exercise in self-education. In June, he mailed me a copy of his last picture, 20 Seconds to Live, along with a list of everything wrong with it: "Microphone picks up lens movement"; "Microphone picks up camera noise"; "Stall door hits camera"; "Lame music"; "Overly dramatic scene"; and "With a budget there would have been a real explosion." And my favorite: "Scene in here for no purpose but to show that I had been there in real life." His conclusion: "Overall, I think 20 Seconds to Live is an extremely pointless movie that is in need of a plot. I'm sorry that you had to spend money on postage and tape to see this."
In need of a plot? Maybe. But not pointless. Every experiment and every mistake is a valuable lesson, and brings this energetic talent closer to his first "real" feature. Rodriguez made movies like this when he was a teenager, using far more primitive equipment. I doubt he wants any of the pictures he shot back then to be publicly screened today, but I'm also sure he's glad he made them. (Besides, 20 Seconds to Live does deserve a special Oscar for Funniest Unexpected Use of Bagpipes on a Motion Picture Soundtrack. And it's better than anything Pauly Shore ever starred in.)
Ten years from now, stories like this won't even sound unusual. Moviemaking equipment won't be as inexpensive as pencil and paper, but it should be cheap and plentiful enough to satisfy Jean Cocteau. Whatever fads may then be ripping through Hollywood--or the National Endowment for the Arts--one can rest assured that there will be maverick artists ready to buck them and go it alone.
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
nfl jerseys|11.16.10 @ 8:33PM|#
vghfhb