Australian films could be cheaper: Stuart Simpson
According to director Stuart Simpson, whose award-winning debut El Monstro del Mar! was made with $50,000, Australian films are low budget compared to other countries, but they could be made for even less.
“Australian films have lower budgets than comparable films anywhere else in the world, but you can definitely make something for a lot cheaper than $2 million,” Simpson told Encore.
El Monstro del Mar! will have its NSW premiere on September 11 as part of the Sydney Underground Film Festival. It recently won Best Film, Best Female Actor (Nelli Scarlet) and Best Cinematography (Stuart Simpson) at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival.
These are great achievements for a film that is just starting its journey and is currently without a national or international distribution deal. Simpson admits that when he started working on El Monstro del Mar! , he didn’t know much about the business side of filmmaking and he didn’t want “any outside influence”, so he didn’t even contemplate looking for funding or a distributor. He didn’t even know that his planned 40-minute short would end up being “a much bigger monster”.
“On paper it was harder to know how long it was going to be because a lot of it was action,” he said.
For independent filmmakers, however, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stay away from the business component: “If you’re independent, you have to have a business model; otherwise you might as well be put in a catalogue with a bunch of other films nobody is ever going to see, and your film won’t see the light of day.
“It can be bad because a lot of filmmakers aren’t necessarily business minded. It’s a tough thing, but independents will have to embrace that side of things,” said Simpson.
El Monstro del Mar! was shot in Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay (“an unknown area of the bay that doesn’t attract picnickers but it’s perfect for a horror film”) on a Canon HD camera during weekends from April to June 2008; fourteen 12-hour shoot days with five days of pick ups.
In El Monstro del Mar! three gorgeous but deadly hired killers arrive in a small beachside community to keep a low profile. But the town has a dark secret, and the vixens awaken a furious sea creature that demands blood.
Of the Spanish-influenced name (the correct spelling is monstruo) Simpson says he wanted “something exotic-sounding”, and admitted to being a fan of the old Latin American artwork for American films.
“It’s definitely inspired by Mexican monster movies, and Japanese monster movies from the 40s and 50s. At the same time I wanted the fun nature of that, the larger than life characters, and a modern perspective inspired by the Korean film The Host,” said Simpson.
The film will screen in Adelaide on November 27, as well as a number of US festivals in Austin, Washington, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. It will also play in Sweden, the Netherlands and Canada. For more information, visit http://www.monstromovie.com/screenings.php
Yes, I’m sure everyone can get their budgets down – just ask all the cast and crew to work on a deferred fee basis.
Unfortunately this looks like its budget really was $50,000…
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How do people expect to create a sustainable film industry if everyone expects crews to work on deferred fees? As an occasional option it’s possible, but for serious and experienced professionals – It’s unrealistic and insulting for this to be a long term strategy.
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mmm…yeah budgets could come down everybody worked for nothing, but by the look of it this could have done with $50,000 thrown at the script..at the very least, but hey at least he knows his genre, well done for effort and for just getting the thing shot and out into the world
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Take some of your own medicine Stuart. This looks like it was made for $10,000.
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It ain’t The Host, but at least he made it.
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Looks like a top of the range student film!
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