Films you didn't know were under 5 million...

When you watch a film, its hard this day and age to know really how much was spent on it unless you have a sharp eye.  So I thought I would give an idea of what a film looks like when the production company had little to no budget compared to the big boys.

First up- Winter's Bone

This film was shot for 2 million, on location in the Ozarks, had no recognizable talent, and crushed it at the theaters last year. It also was directed by a woman, which is unfortunatly rare in the film industry.  And finally it was nominated for oscars. Not bad for the price of a Arbys franchise store.

Next up- Hard Candy

This is one messed up film,(Shot for under 2 million) and it was the big introduction to our favorite Juno actor, Ellen Page, whom had done little stuff on tv movies before this messed up little film.  It didn't do so well in the theaters here in the States, but they loved it over in Europe... those sickos.

Finally- My Big Fat Greek Wedding

(Shot for under 5 million)Granted, when you have people like Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson helping you out, you can make shit happen for a film at whatever budget. But this little comedy was shot for peanuts... and made an insane amount of money because of smart steady marketing.  Much like my previous post, the actors got screwed once it made money and sued.

So in the end, these three examples are across the board as far as genre; one romantic comedy, one twisted thriller, and one drama.  Noticed I stayed away from horror because, frankly, there are too many examples of awesome horror films shot for nothing that found its audience.  But with these examples, they all have some things in common.

1. Little to no huge crowds of extras. This costs a lot of money and I am sure the producers were calling friends and favors for the wedding crowds in My big fat.  
2. Repeat locations- Dressing up and moving to new locations is expensive.  When you have a crew of 30-80 people and a cast of 5-10 moving even 2 miles is a costly endeavor. Tiny budget films work around that by having less locations, and hide production value by taking a single actor and shooting a new location with a skeleton crew.  
3. Great writing- If you pull in the crowd early with great writing and flow of the movie, the illusion is set and it wouldn't matter if they were acting next to a cardboard background. We would buy it!