Future War

It was 3:59 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, I was watching MSTK's treatment of Future War, and I had an idea.



I read somewhere that the director of Future War commented during filming that the flick would wind up in Mystery Science Theater one day. I most likely read this on wikipedia, the bastion off all correct arguments and anecdotes anywhere that can be used to prove any point at any goddamn time you need it too. Regardless of the validity of this remark it got me to thinking. I thought about movies, about making them, about the people that make them. I made a movie once. I should say I helped, I didn't single handedly do anything. That's the thing about making a movie, you need a lot of people.

Yes you do.

Yes, you do.

I don't care how good you are at Garage Band, iMovie, Final Cut, Vegas, Audacity, Gigawat, Flash, Director, Animator, Seditune, or Windows Movie Maker you are going to need help to make the movie and make it well. I am so confident of this that I just made up two of those programs and you didn't even notice. You still don't believe me? Go watch Tommy Wiseau's The Room and see what happens when you think you can do everything. In fact, here, watch this:



This leads me almost effortlessly into my next point, the main point of this whole rambling mess:

Tommy Wiseau was given SIX MILLION DOLLARS to make The Room.

I know you think I blew my wad bolding that first mention of the budged, but I didn't because I'm going to say it again:

TOMMY WISEAU WAS GIVEN SIX MILLION GODDAMNED DOLLARS OF REAL AMERICAN MONEY TO MAKE THE ROOM


Six Million Dollars is a lot of money. Smarter people than I have demonstrated that the human brain cannot comprehend numbers after a certain amount. I'm pretty sure Six Million Dollars falls into that category and it's exactly why I didn't bring up Transformers 2. You can get mad enough at Tommy Wiseau and still remain rational enough to read the rest of this blog post; whereas the mere mention of Michael Bay and the Three Hundred Million Dollar budget Transformers 2 had would send any person that's ever worked a minimum wage job into a fit of rage so strong as to render their comprehension of the written word null and void.



Where am I going with this? I'm glad I asked. Here is where I'm going with this:

Is it possible to make a really good movie for not a lot of money?

Like a really small amount of money.

Like no money.

I know that, of course, you don't need a lot of money to make a good movie. I'm not insulting anyone that has accomplished this. It is easy, when you just film two people in a room, to keep the budget very small. What about a flick like Transformers though? You needed that budget to make the robots look real. Would Future War have been better if the effects budget had been larger? If they had not used stop motion Dinosaurs? What does this mean for the Golden Age of cinema, am I writing that off entirely?

The answers are; yes, of course, and not at all.

Can I write a science fiction movie that calls for expansive sets, giant monsters, robots, rockets, lasers, et all, can I write that movie and then make it for next to nothing? I know it can be done with a horror movie, because as I said I've helped make that movie and it was great. Can I make the movie Future War didn't dare aspire to be, that The Room tried to be, and that Transformers never wanted to be?

I think I can.

Well, me and a bunch of other people.