Continued from Part 1Two most cited examples of careers launched by guerrilla filmmaking - Critics argue on Spike Lee's, "She's Gotta Have It", was it Spike Lee's book, Spike Lee's Gotta Have It: Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking or some other attribute that many consider it a guerrilla film. Though its budget of $175,000, is more of an independent film, the film made BO kill of $7,137,502.
Robert Rodriguez shot El Mariachi for $7,000, he partially raised money by volunteering in medical research studies, but what many forget is Robert did all the main jobs on his own - writing, camera, editing, direction & of course production; so COP was actually quite high. The film won the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival in 1992 and paved way for Robert to international fame & studio coffers!
Lars Von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg set forth, Dogme '95 manifesto, many jumped on it as an easy no-budget filmmaking tool to launch their career; but the movement died a fast death as critics ripped the films and the filmmakers feared that their films might be dubbed sleaze fests because of too much nudity.
It's not just about making the film, its about getting the critics to watch & understand your film, positioning your film & meeting the right people in the industry. Getting your first feature film on is really easy these days! Filming & editing are digital - cheap & easy as well, you can edit anywhere; I edited my last film at a coffee shop in 10 days flat! You can make a feature-film for as low as USD5000; point is, how will you market & position it? It's most important, because you definitely want to make your next film, don't you?
