My buddy David Nottingham just sent me a link to this amazing video clip he found on YouTube. It seems some enterprising outsiders have begun making their own movie based on the video game franchise: HALF LIFE. Their aesthetic is very much what I'm trying to achieve with my new pilot for NBC. Using VFX in a way that doesn't draw attention to the effects themselves -- but uses them in context to sell the idea that extraordinary events are happening in an ordinary world that the audience can recognize and connect with. The fact that the folks who made this Half Life short didn't spend much money on the thing is very cool. Obviously, if one were paying for their labor and their tools -- the budget would be higher than the $500. this video cost 'em. But the lesson is still paradigm shattering for Hollywood. With the right approach, tools, and creative talent -- amazing things can be done at a price point that accounts for the current economic crisis enveloping in the world. No excuses Hollywood. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Who will face the challenge?
paradigm shattering ??
hardly.
as you pointed out Jesse - the budget is not $500. $500 may be the cash they actually spent out of pocket on food or whatever - but the cost of the blank firing replicas alone are a few hundred bucks - not to mention the camera gear, the post hardware, the post software and as you said - their own time.
I do agree that the handheld gritty energy can work very well - and doesn't need to cost a boatload of cash - but I do dislike the disingenuous nature of some super low budget shoots that quote ridiculous figures - rather than inspire (as those figures are meant to do) I have seen them make some indie filmmakers set impossible standards they are then disappointed to fail reaching.
On the other hand, it's the very ferocious energy and sheer ambition of the piece that I think Jesse is pointing out here, in tandem with its relative low cost. As it stands the system is not built to allow for these kind of by-the-balls shots. This is why that bank robbery in a HEROES episode last year looked placid and boxed in compared with the explosive citywide mayhem going on here. I'm hoping that whatever leverage Jesse is given on Day One allows him to experiment with this kind of immediacy and presence. Fight for it, Alexander!
JA,
And here's an interview with David Purchase, co-creator of the vid: http://tinyurl.com/aj662y
-Dh
Everything is getting cheaper: VFX, HDCams, editing systems, and streaming that just keeps improving. Take that plus a creative and technologically capable crew and they will put Hollywood right out of business.
The entertainment and news media business is changing so fast that I'm not sure those big production house ships will be able to navigate the turns. I'm fairly certain that it won't be long before the unions dissolve. You can see it right now with SAG. It's not just the economy... it's the changing nature of the business itself that they have to endure.
Also, some of these people picking up cameras and doing their own thing are going to be the people laid off from the big companies joining together and becoming the competition. They're pros, not high schoolers making stupid youtube vids. They can pose a viable threat to the industry.
Cool video. It's interesting to note the high production value of such a low budget short. I agree 'amazing things can be done at a price point that accounts for the current economic crisis.'