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8/3/2025, 6:38:34 AM
>microbudget
I don't know if it counts as micro, but a low-budget movie that stuck with me is Malatesta's Carnival of Blood.
The background of the production is, a guy who owned a bunch of real estate, including a carnival that was shut down, got his friend (who had never made a movie before) to use that location to make a horror movie that he could try to turn a profit with.
The guy basically gave his friend all the camera/sound/lighting equipment he needed, a virtually unlimited supply of red bubble wrap and fiberglass insulation that he had laying around in a warehouse, and $100,000 to make the movie with, using the carnival however he pleased, and left him to complete it with minimal oversight.
The problem is, he gave the director all the equipment he needed except the reels of film needed to record it. The camera used 35mm instead of the much cheaper 16mm film normally used for low-budget indie movies, so the director went and spent $98,000 of his $100k budget on film to shoot the movie with.
Now he only had $2,000 actual, usable budget to make the film.
He hired some college students who essentially volunteered to work on the movie inbetween classes, he built the sets out of mostly bubble wrap and random litter that was all over the carnival, he got his brother to make an atmospheric soundtrack, and he took no salary, instead agreeing to just get paid a cut of whatever the profits were when it released.
Of course it ended up making no money and he never made another movie again, even though in hindsight the movie is a unique kind of kino. The barebones nature of the production, combined with the relatively sophisticated 35mm visuals, makes for a very moody and creepy movie with an interesting aesthetic.
I don't know if it counts as micro, but a low-budget movie that stuck with me is Malatesta's Carnival of Blood.
The background of the production is, a guy who owned a bunch of real estate, including a carnival that was shut down, got his friend (who had never made a movie before) to use that location to make a horror movie that he could try to turn a profit with.
The guy basically gave his friend all the camera/sound/lighting equipment he needed, a virtually unlimited supply of red bubble wrap and fiberglass insulation that he had laying around in a warehouse, and $100,000 to make the movie with, using the carnival however he pleased, and left him to complete it with minimal oversight.
The problem is, he gave the director all the equipment he needed except the reels of film needed to record it. The camera used 35mm instead of the much cheaper 16mm film normally used for low-budget indie movies, so the director went and spent $98,000 of his $100k budget on film to shoot the movie with.
Now he only had $2,000 actual, usable budget to make the film.
He hired some college students who essentially volunteered to work on the movie inbetween classes, he built the sets out of mostly bubble wrap and random litter that was all over the carnival, he got his brother to make an atmospheric soundtrack, and he took no salary, instead agreeing to just get paid a cut of whatever the profits were when it released.
Of course it ended up making no money and he never made another movie again, even though in hindsight the movie is a unique kind of kino. The barebones nature of the production, combined with the relatively sophisticated 35mm visuals, makes for a very moody and creepy movie with an interesting aesthetic.
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