I too am looking forward to it. Gareth's a Minch.

Saw it at the LA Film Festival a couple months ago. Nothing's made me as excited for the future of what indie movies can be than that film.

Talked to Gareth for a bit after a screening - one of the most interesting things he mentioned was  the insane schizophrenic relationship you develop with yourself when you're directing and doing all the effects on something, where you can't really externalize the forces cutting favorite shots and sequences, or demanding 20 hour days for months straight.

Benefits of working at that scale though, is that you're more or less guaranteed success and with minimal involvement. Some people were commenting that they couldn't wait to see him make a movie with a serious budget, but I think that's totally missing the point. Such a beautiful, intimate movie with those kinds of closing scenes would never exist with a 7+ figure budget.

Last edited by paulou (2010-08-31 19:18:10)

It's easy to say that, but it's a naive statement. It's show business. Film is a profligate art form. What are the reported budgets/grosses for your top 10 favorite films?

When you start introducing more money, the stakes change dramatically and there's a huge influx of things that can cloud and dilute the intended artistic vision. There are a lot more people, jobs, and investments that count on a movie to make bank.

For example, imagine your film is acquired, and what you considered to be some of the most intense and visceral moments in your whole movie need to be yanked and cut around since the studio needs to get a rating down to PG-13 to offset the tremendous advertising campaign they're throwing behind your work.

Something like Monsters manages to short this out by keeping the operating costs so low, that no matter what, the profit is guaranteed with a wide enough release. It's uncompromising, operating out of its financial weight class, and fucking awesome.

Yeah, absolutely. It's a tremendous, face-melting, Herculean accomplishment. Since it's not properly released yet, guess I'm more inclined to talk about what it means rather than what it is. Cuz spoilers?

They're doing that with the Freakonomics movie, too.

From what I've heard, if you've read the book, skip it. Interesting nonetheless.