I meant to write this during “Awards Season,” but I got so busy preparing my acceptance speech for Best D.P. Necomer at the AVN Awards, that I didn't have the time.
There was a lot of talk about all the “low budget” films that were up for awards… but I just had to laugh. Many of them didn’t sound like low budget films to me. Capote, Good Night and Good Luck and Crash were all around $7 million. Even our friends at the Independent Spirit Awards have decreed that low budget is anything less than $20 million dollars.
$20 million dollars!! Most of the filmmakers I know wouldn’t know what to do if they had $20 million. They’d probably use it to make 50 films.
And now Randy Quaid is suing the producers of Brokeback Mountain because he reduced his fee when he was told the film would be “a low budget art film.” I have no problem with Mr. Quaid’s lawsuit… and as someone who once fired from Universal, I’m all for sticking it to ‘em. But I do have a problem with people blaming the problem on low budget film. With a production budget of $14 million, Brokeback is not low budget.
Most of the filmmakers we work with have less than a million dollars. Hell, most of them have less than a tenth of that. They make movies with the craft service budget on studio films.
And these aren’t bad movies. Many of them are better than the films that win all the awards. They just don’t have the same resources.
These true low budget filmmakers raise the money themselves, max-out their credit cards, and mortgage their homes, just so they can tell their stories.
To me, these are the real heroes of the indie world.
These are the filmmakers that should take home awards.
I’d give you my AVN Award… but unfortunately I didn’t win.
Damn that Barbara Bush…
$20M? Wow. They really should use the same budget amount that indicates low budget status for SAG. :\
Great entry, Paul.
Posted by: Bon | April 12, 2006 at 03:02 PM