A short history of low budget filmmaking

Making cinema on a small budget can often be an acute challenge, but filmmakers everywhere should take inspiration from a number of different movements that were able to be innovative without being overly expensive. Take the German expressionist movement of the 1920s silent film era. Widely recognised as the birthplace of horror in film, the influence of German expressionism can still be found all over the place today. If you’re pulling together something on limited resource, then you can do a lot worse than watching Nosferatu or Metropolis for inspiration on showing rather than telling.

Similarly emerging from an economically challenging moment in time, the Italian neorealists of the 1940s were born of necessity. With the country’s largest film studio, Cinecittà, being bombed and then used as a displaced persons’ camp, directors and producers had to adapt to their lesser resources. As well as shooting on location with natural light and minimal equipment, Italian neorealism also relied on non-professional actors. The way in which Obsessione and Bicycle Thieves retain their quality despite this should serve as a great inspiration to those who may be working with actors of limited experience.

Roll on the 1960s and independent film as we know it today emerges out of France, with masterpieces shot in the most unconventional of ways. Whether scrapping scripts and schedules or shooting guerrilla shots on handheld cameras, filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard and Fran?ois Truffaut broke every rule in the book. You don’t need to have access to a Quentin Tarantino budget to share in his appreciation for the French new wave – just apply a similar less is more attitude to your own project.

Some filmmakers like to formalise their approach in the form of a rulebook. The Danish group behind the Dogme95 movement published a set of rules in 1995 that were designed to reject and disrupt the mainstream Hollywood formula of cinema. Principles included recording on location only and the banning of props and sets; music to be used only as part of the story; camera’s to be hand-held only; and for the director to not be credited in any way! Of course, no one’s telling you that you have to follow all of these rules – but a number of them could be helpful in keeping costs down. Embracing limitations is often an effective means of unleashing creativity.

Finally, the most significant modern-day challenge to the status quo comes from mumblecore. Taking advantage of the low budget 24p cameras that became available at the turn of the century, filmmakers shifted the emphasis away from production values to focus on ideas. The likes of Joe Swanberg were able to make big waves on just a few thousand dollars – the latest in a rich history of not-so-rich filmmakers.

Simon Watson, Operations Manager, GLProUK

GLProUK is a digital marketing agency based in London and Surrey fulfilling the digital content requirements of market-leading brands throughout the southeast of the UK, the US and beyond. Whether your vision consist of podcasts, graphic design or professional video and photography, GLProUK have the expertise and enthusiasm to help get your message out there. 

Visit our website here.

Follow GLProUK on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube & Vimeo @GLProUK