Low Budget, Low Rating...Let's Go!

In class, we talked about bad reality television and why it is becoming more prevalent due to it being cheap to produce. This got me thinking about how it is not just television that is employing acts like this. More and more, movies are utilizing so called "found footage." What this means is that a movie can be made with not the greatest cameras, so then production costs are cut way down. Also, the "found footage" format is supposed to make us believe that what is happening on screen  really did happen, so unknown actors are usually chosen for the roles. Because of these actors having no star power, their salaries are also at a low cost for studios. All of this boils down to a cheap script, cheap actors, cheap production, and big bucks for the studios. These types of movies seemed to begin when "The Blairwitch Project" broke out and made a ton of money on a shoestring budget in 1997. That movie was actually somewhat good. As time has passed, studios seem more and more to not care about how good the movie was and just to care about how to market the movie properly so people will go and see it.

The last movie to use this type of format was "The Devil Inside." It was released in January 2010 and made $34 million dollars at the box office in its first weekend. The best part of this debut for the studio was that the film was only produced for $1 million dollars!!!! In one weekend it made 34 times its' production cost! Yet, audiences seemed to despise the movie. As of February 8, 2012, the movie has a 5% rating on RottenTomatoes.com. On the site, they say, "The Devil Inside is a cheap, choppy unscary mess, featuring one of the worst endings in recent memory." From this review, we can see that studios are putting less money and time in scripts and hiring cheap actors just so they can make a quick buck. Since the movie opened, it has only grossed about $20 million more dollars, proving that audiences do somewhat care how good the movie was. But I doubt the studio cares, they made 50 times the production costs!

Even though there are rare exceptions where some of these "found footage" films are quite good, I wonder why we keep going to these movies knowing that it will be badly acted, not having the best cinematography, and not having a great script. I think it goes back to why we watch reality television. We want to see how the "other guy" lives or what is happening, no matter how outrageous or surreal. In fact, we like it better if there are tons of fights, drinking, sex, and/or paranormal activities. These "found footage" films want us to think that what is on camera really happened and it could happen to you. Just like reality television wants us to think everything on there is real and was not fake or scripted.

Jeffrey Klover