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Today we’re going to countdown the top 10 movies made on a shoestring budget.
At number 10 is Napoleon Dynamite.
Napoleon Dynamite was written and directed by husband wife team Jared and Jerusha Hess.
The film starred their friend Jon Heder who they initially paid just $1000 dollars for
his portrayal of the lead character but after the phenomenal success of the movie his pay
was revised accordingly.
The story about a super nerd, his friends and his life in midwest america debuted at
Sundance and audiences responded to the comedy.
It was picked up big name distributors and quickly built up a cult following.
Made on a budget of just $400,000 dollars the film brought in over $46,000,000 dollars
at the box office.
At number 9 is Tarnation.
Tarnation has the smallest budget on our list, being made on just $218 dollars.
However it should be mentioned that after the film was picked up by a distributor, the
quality of the footage was improved in post-production and the music rights cleared making the real
cost closer to $460,000 dollars.
The film is an autobiographical account of the film maker Jonathan Caouette’s [pronunciation
Ko-ette] life and his relationship with his mentally ill mother.
Caouette constructed the film on imovie out of family videos, photographs and old
answering machine messages.
The film caught the attention of some well known supporters among them director Gus Van
Sant, the man behind Good Will Hunting and Milk.
Tarnation was shown at both Sundance and then Cannes where it gained a world-wide distribution
deal.
The film then went onto earn over $1,000,000 dollars at the box office.
At number 8 is Once.
Once is a 2007 Irish musical film made on a budget of $160,000 dollars.
A love story between two struggling musicians the film’s original soundtrack was actually
composed by the two stars of the film, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová [pronunciation
Mark-eeta Irg-lova] who briefly became a couple in real life.
The film originally languished in development with the Irish Film Board for years, finally
given financing by a lower level executive.
Director John Carney gave his salary to the lead actors and promised everyone a share
of the back-end profits if the film was successful.
Made with a skeleton crew over just 17 days, the film once completed was accepted at both
Sundance and Dublin Film festival, winning audience awards at both.
The film then went onto box office success and critical acclaim making close to $21,000,000
dollars.
One of the film’s songs, Falling Slowly even won the Academy Award for Best original
song.
Since then the film has also spawned a successful Tony winning stage adaptation.
At number 7 is Super Size Me.
Super Size me is an Oscar nominated documentary by Morgan Spurlock who filmed himself eating
nothing but McDonald’s for a period of 30 days.
The film made an impact as soon as it premiered at Sundance, garnering positive responses
from critics and audiences alike.
Spurlock won the Grand Jury Prize for directing and when the film opened it made nearly $30,000,000
dollars worldwide.
The film was predominantly financed by Spurlock costing just $65,000 dollars to make.
At number 6 is Paranormal Activity.
Paranormal Activity follows in the footsteps of Blair Witch project as the low budget horror
movie made good.
The film is the brainchild of former computer programmer Oren Peli who made the film on
a $15,000 dollar budget.
Filmed over seven days and nights in Peli's home the film follows a couple as they attempt
to discover the cause of haunting disturbances at their home by setting up a video camera
to capture the activity.
Peli spent a year editing the film which was accepted at the Screamfest festival where
the film impressed, catching the attention of Hollywood execs and eventually Steven Spielberg’s
Dreamworks made a deal with Peli.
In 2005 Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the film and embarked on a viral marketing
campaign which worked, the film was a runaway success making over $212,000,000 dollars at
the box office and spawning a multi million dollar franchise.
At number 5 is Primer.
Primer took five weeks to film with a crew of only five and director Shane Carruth was
actor, writer, producer, editor, composer and cinematographer.
Former engineer Carruth made his science fiction film about time travel on a shoestring budget
of only $7000 dollars and had an incredibly low shooting ratio of 2 to 1, that is for
every 2 minutes of footage filmed 1 minute of it made it into the final edit.
In 2004 the movie took Sundance by storm.
The story revolves around two friends who discover they have made a box that allows
them to go back in time.
They initially use their machine to make money off the stock market but soon they begin to
go back and change events against their better judgement.
The film asks questions about destiny and the ethical implications of time travel and
is famed for its technical dialogue that Carruth refused to simplify for the audience; trusting
them to revisit the film again and again to fully decipher what they were seeing.
Primer made over $400,000 dollars at the box office and has gained cult status amongst
film lovers.
At number 4 is Clerks.
The story revolves around a Quick Stop store clerk Dante and his friend Randal as they
pass the day at the store.
The film was shot in the Quick Stop store where director Kevin Smith actually worked.
He was only allowed to film at night and the steel shutters of the storefront had to remain
closed or the audience would become aware that the movie was being shot at night.
To get round this problem Smith introduced a running gag that someone had stuck chewing
gum in the padlocks on the shutters so he was unable to open them in the morning when
the store opened, forcing him to put up a sign stating “I assure you, we are open.”
The film took 21 days to film and Smith continued to work in the store as shooting went on.
At times he was only getting an hour’s worth of sleep a day causing him to sometimes fall
asleep during filming.
The film cost $27,500 dollars [please say twenty seven and a half thousand dollars rather
than twenty seven thousand five hundred dollars] and to fund it Smith sold a large chunk of
his beloved comic book collection as well as maxing out 10 credit cards.
The investment paid off when Clerks was picked up by Miramax films and went on to gross over
$3,000,000 dollars.
At number 3 is Eraserhead.
David Lynch captured imaginations with his debut feature film Eraserhead.
It is the surreal tale of Henry Spencer who has fathered a deformed child with his mentally
fragile girlfriend.
The film is an abstract work and a labour of love, taking several years to come to fruition.
Considered a masterpiece, the film has been cited by Mel Brooks, George Lucas, Stanley
Kubrick and Terrence Mallick as one of their favourite films ever made.
Eraserhead was made with a $100,000 dollar budget which Lynch funded mainly from an American
Film Institute grant and some additional financing provided to him by friends.
Initially opening to small audiences the film gained popularity as a midnight movie and
went onto become a commercial success, taking over $7,000,000 dollars at the box office.
In 2004 Eraserhead was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United
States Library of Congress.
At number 2 is The Brothers McMullen.
The Brothers McMullen tells the story of three brothers and their romantic dilemmas over
a three month period.
Edward Burns wrote the screenplay and then shot the film mostly at his parent’s house
on the weekends over an eight month period.
The film cost roughly $24,000 dollars to make and he managed to convince his father to put
in a loan of $10,000 dollars in return for an Executive Producer credit.
At the time Burns was employed as a Production Assistant on Entertainment Tonight and after
completing a junket interview with Robert Redford Burn’s found himself bumping into
the Hollywood actor again in an elevator.
The ambitious young director grabbed the opportunity and begged Redford to take a look at the film.
Redford did and was a fan, the film played at Sundance where it went on to win the 1995
Grand Jury Award.
It was picked up by 20th Century Fox and went on to make more than $10,000,000 dollars at
the box office making it one of the most profitable independent films ever made.
At number 1 is The Blair Witch Project.
The story of the making and marketing of The Blair Witch Project is almost as famous as
the movie itself.
The film was the brainchild of Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.
The story revolves around three student filmmakers who are exploring the legend of the Blair
Witch.
The story is retold through the use of the students’ “recovered footage” and the
final result makes for a terrifying watch.
The film is now regarded as one of the all time classic horror movies, sitting alongside
the likes of The Exorcist and The Shining.
The film took eight days to shoot and the dialogue was mainly improvised.
The directors used some questionable tactics during filming to elicit the emotional responses
they wanted from the cast; the methods included restricting their food and exhausting the
actors by walking them long distances during the day.
The film cost around $22,000 dollars to make but the real money came into play during the
marketing campaign.
Aritsan bought the rights to the film and spent $25,000,000 dollars promoting it and
by the time they finished the film had become a cultural phenomenon.
The Blair Witch Project was screened at the 1999 Sundance festival and immediately created
a buzz not least because of the rumour doing the rounds that the footage was real.
The film went on to gross $248,000,000 million worldwide becoming the third most successful
independent film of all time.
These are the iconic films of independent cinema which despite being made on a shoestring
budget went onto make big impact at the box office.