To paraphrase the old saying, getting shit done takes 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. And when you’re making a blockbuster movie with little-to-no budget, this simple phrase suddenly becomes your whole life.

Yes, plenty of low-budget movies are made every year – from The Asylum’s awful ‘mockbuster’ Transmorphers (made for $300,000), to smash-hit Paranormal Activity (made for just $15,000). But when your budget is precisely zero, you have to work a lot harder. And of course, be more creative.

So we got in touch with the creators of three such movies to see what they’ve been up to. Let’s start with a zero-budget sci-fi epic… 

PROJECT LONDON – What you can do with no money, a global following and a free blender

Sounding like a cross between Star Wars and Terminator: Salvation, the chaps behind Project London describe it as “a special-effects-rich live action scifi about a grief-stricken young man who joins a ragtag resistance force and engages in epic battles against Joint Command to avenge his father and save the planet”.

Let’s just look at that again from a cost point of view. “Special-effects-rich” – kerching – “live action” – kerching – “epic battles” – kerching kerching kerching. So how do you do all that with virtually zero budget? We put that to Executive Producer Phil McCoy, and his answer was simple:

“We decided to make a movie, and we’re making it - thanks to the fact that the technology is readily available. We would be nowhere without personal computers, the Internet, and open-source software like Blender.”

It’s the use of powerful free software like Blender that’s led to Project London being described as perhaps the “most ambitious no-budget effects movie ever” (see Jawbone.tv’s excellent interview with Director Ian Hubert for more on Blender and the community).

With 650+ visual effects, the movie already rivals many mainstream movies, such as Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Of course, this is down to more than three guys sitting at their computers 24/7 – the team boasts over 250 volunteer artists and craft-people from all over the world, coming together online to make it happen. It’s a truly global project, garnering more and more attention among special effects experts, sci-fi fans and social networks across the planet. And pretty much everyone involved is giving up their time for free.

It’s a technique that’s worked wonderfully – if not quickly. According to McCoy, “The film was shot in August of 2007. We’ve been in post-production ever since. Just now, we’ve wrapped creating over 650+ visual effects and are now transitioning to sound design.” Exciting stuff, and with a release pencilled in for late summer this year, the pressure’s definitely on.

How can you help? 

With the project virtually completed (test screenings are taking place at the minute) the guys are simply asking for you to spread the word. And you can do this by becoming a fan on Facebook, following @ProjectLondon on Twitter and telling your gossip-prone granny all about it.

For loads more info, including a regularly updated blog, visit the site at www.projectlondonmovie.com and sign up to their ‘sometimes monthly’ newsletter.

Of course, if you’ve got a spare $100billion, you could always buy out one of the big distributors and sort a worldwide release. We’re just saying.

Now, what do you do if the movie you want to make doesn’t rely on CGI and readily available free software?

INVASION OF THE NOT QUITE DEAD – AD Lane pioneers a novel film-funding technique

While keeping very tight-lipped about the actual plot, Antony Lane’s Invasion of the Not Quite Dead is intended to shake up the traditional zombie movie genre. And while it might start traditionally – rogue meteor leads to deadly plague leads to zombie horde – this teaser trailer reveals it to be anything but:

  

Problem was, Lane was still a student when he had his idea. And with no money, no contacts and very little experience, getting it made was going to be a struggle. His first four attempts were largely ineffectual, but through dogged perseverance, Lane managed to get some big names to sign up to his project – including Oscar-winning director Ken Russell (Women In Love, Tommy, The Devils) and all round movie guru Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Dusk til Dawn, Grindhouse). With that came credibility and sudden media interest. And through that, a solid fan base was formed.

But Lane still had no cash to make the movie. And that’s where a smart idea changed everything – the Pre-Order Producer. Fans could pre-order Invasion on DVD and Blu-Ray, get their names in the credits and even be in the movie as zombie-extras, all for a relatively small fee.

With different levels of Pre-Order Producer available, each offering more and more involvement in the film, Lane soon saw his funds start to grow. And from there, the project has snowballed.

Pre-production has already begun, with filming set to start in Summer 2010. More celebrities are now on board, including Kevin Pollack (Casino, The Usual Suspects) and talk-show legend Jonathan Ross, and Lane recently told us that Wheatus have offered to provide the soundtrack to Invasion – including some original material.

Lane is a prolific twitterer with over 32,000 followers and twitter is the movie’s main fundraising platform, which no doubt piqued Wossy’s interest. So that 99% perspiration is certainly keeping him busy. Follow him @indywoodFILMS 

How can you help? 

There’s still a long way to go, with nearly £80,000 left to raise, so we wish Lane the best of luck. Get involved at www.theindywoodproject.com (Johnny’s already a Pre-Order Producer), and join the Facebook Fan Page to keep up to date with this exciting project.

Ok, so you've got your no-budget movie made. People seem to like it, so what next? Why, you make another one of course…

 

IRON SKY – Timo Vuorensola’s not-quite-so-low-budget sci-fi comedy

Iron Sky’s tagline tells you everything you need to know about this movie: “In 1945 the Nazis went to the moon. In 2018, they’re coming back.” Awesome.

When we spoke to Finnish director Timo Vuorensola about where the idea came from – that 1% of inspiration –  we were a little surprised (we really shouldn’t have been):

 “The idea was born in a sauna, as most great ideas from Finland are. We were there, talking about our movie that was currently in production [Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning], and came to the question of what to do after that. Jarmo Puskala, one of the scriptwriters, suggested an idea that had been brewing in his head for quite some time already – it was a wicked story about Nazis from the Moon. The idea sounded crazy enough for us to be interested on it, but also quite massive. So we didn't think about that too much until later after [Star Wreck] was finished, and the question of "what's next" popped up again. ”

Mental note: spend more time in saunas. And Finland.

So, having already completed Star Wreck (a very well received, no-budget, effects-heavy parody of Star Trek) the guys turned their attention to Iron Sky. And taking everything they’d learned from their previous production set out to get a bigger budget and an even better movie. And boy, have they done well.

As Publicist Janos Honkonen pointed out to us: “Whereas the previous movie was made with a shoelace budget, Iron Sky actually does have some money behind it – to be exact, the budget is a bit over 5.5million Euros, which comes from foundations, investors and also from the fans: crowdfunding is something we are very interested in.”

Crowdfunding. What a lovely word, and an interesting concept. Off the back of Star Wreck, the team set up an independent film community called Wreckamovie – a “web platform designed to harness the power of passionate Internet communities for creating short films, documentaries, music videos, Internet flicks, full length features, mobile films and more”.

It works by allowing low-budget filmmakers to get help from the community with various tasks on their production – from visual effects to costume design to script revisions to casting and even distribution. According to the site, “it helps get films made faster and at a considerably lower cost, through crowd-sourced work on production tasks, and online resourcing of expertise and corporate funding. The communities developed in production will also create a viral social marketing force that will get films seen through the hundreds of existing online and standard channels.” Clever stuff.

Anyway, on to Iron Sky. As you can see from the beautiful teaser trailer above, there’s a definite style to the whole thing – reminiscent of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, with a little Wolfenstein and Mars Attacks! thrown in.

Currently the movie is making good progress. The pre-production cycle is almost finished and shooting is due to begin at the end of the year. The team have already had a full day of test shooting, creating some stunning imagery:

Honkonen assures us, “funding and casting is almost done, so this will be a big year for us. We haven't set an exact date for the film yet, but it will be out in 2011.”

How can you help?

Find out much, much more about Iron Sky at www.ironsky.net - the crew are blogging every step of the way, with regular production updates, concept art and fundraising efforts. For shorter updates, become a fan on Facebook, or follow @energia on twitter.

You can get involved directly on their Wreckamovie page - simply pick a task and tell them how you can help - or buy yourself some War Bonds.

So there we go. Three (slightly) different movies. Three very different ways of getting things done. And three very big bucketloads of perspiration. Eww. Anyway, here's wishing them all the best of luck and can’t wait to see them completed.

Right, we’re off to a Finnish sauna to relentlessly tweet about open-source CGI software.

Til next post,

J&A

 

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