See, this is the lesson I wish more low-budget movies would learn- don't go outside your budget. If you can't make something look good with the resources available to you, don't fucking do it.
Here's an example: I was flipping through the channels and came across one of the Sci-Fi channel's shitbombs. A building exploded, only I guess they couldn't afford to blow up an actual building, so they simply superimposed an explosion over a real building. Then they superimposed fire over the windows to make it appear that it was "burning." It looked horrible.
Here's the simple fact that the director should have followed- if you can't afford to blow up a real building, re-write your fucking script. The same goes for bad monster suits, lousy CG effects, you name it.
The best example of a director cheating on a big effect and getting away with it is John Carpenter in Escape From NY. Airforce One is about to crash into a building. Carpenter knew, with his budget, that there was no way he could make a plane hitting a building look believable. But he found a way around it- right as the plane is about to hit, it switches to a computer monitor where a wireframe animation shows the collision. The way it was filmed, it totally worked.
I think low-budget moviemaking really does work when they stick to what works. But some of these assholes think they're Stephen Spielberg and think they're making bigger movies than they really are. Be creative with what you actually have. Jerkoffs.
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