What a Small Budget Decides

Every film has a budget, and most filmmakers describe wanting more than they had. The useful question is what the limit actually changed. A small budget removes some options, but it also forces specific decisions: which set to build, which effect to simplify, which people and objects to use more than once.

These eight commentaries describe those decisions. Some were compromises the filmmakers regretted. Others produced a result they preferred to the original plan.

§1 When a set cannot be built

The Demolition Man filmmakers designed an elaborate set for the wasteland where the film’s outcasts live. By the time they needed it, the money was gone.

The commentary continues that the replacement suited the story. The wasteland’s inhabitants reuse whatever they can find, and a hangar filled with airport containers showed that directly. The speakers also note that a more elaborate set for a poor part of the city could have worked against the idea.

Matthew Vaughn ran out of money for a set on Kick-Ass.

Both solutions started from the same question: what does the audience need to understand about this place? In Kick-Ass, the displayed weapons identified the room. The rest of the original set did not need to be rebuilt.

§2 When the limit matches the intended style

The Night of the Hunter commentary describes a budget that suited Charles Laughton’s plan for the film. The transcript spells his name “Lawton.”

Laughton wanted the story to feel like a nightmare seen from a child’s point of view. A stylized, not quite real look suited both the budget and that purpose.

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind commentary describes a similar result. Moving the production to New York rather than Canada meant limiting the budget and the special effects for one sequence.

The commentary adds that the next scene, in which Jim Carrey appears in two positions, was done in a single shot in front of the camera. The effect was staged during filming rather than added afterward.

These cases do not show that less money always produces a better film. They show that a limit can push a production toward choices that suit the material, if the filmmakers know what effect they want.

§3 Find what you can use

A small budget also changes how a production looks for resources. The Phantasm filmmakers built their mausoleum set in a warehouse with new cement floors.

Laying dolly track takes time and money. A flat floor removed that cost, so the film could include camera movement that a production of its size would usually avoid. The location choice affected the film’s visual style.

My Best Friend Is a Vampire needed a car to wreck, and the car in the scene is an expensive BMW.

The production obtained an object it would otherwise have had to buy, because the manufacturer had no other use for it. Asking suppliers what they plan to discard can produce material the budget would not otherwise cover.

§4 Count the people as well as the sets

James Mangold points out a stuntman in 3.10 to Yuma who is shot several times over the course of the film, playing different men.

The number of stunt performers a production can transport and pay limits how many characters can die on screen as distinct people. Mangold’s solution was to reuse a small group, and he notes that audiences rarely notice. Planning those repeats in advance lets the production decide where a familiar face is least likely to be recognized.

§5 What a larger budget changes

The Silence of the Lambs commentary explains a stylistic choice through the budgets of earlier films. Jonathan Demme and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto had wanted to explore close-ups and direct address to the camera for years, and had used them only occasionally in earlier films.

Close-ups in dialogue scenes require more setups, more lighting, and more time for each exchange. On a short schedule, a scene is often covered in fewer, wider shots. The larger production allowed the approach Demme and Fujimoto had wanted, and the commentary describes the result as more deliberate than their earlier work.

A budget therefore affects style in both directions. It sets how many setups a scene can have, and it determines whether a director can try something that takes longer.

§6 Decide where the money goes

These accounts suggest five steps for a production with less money than it wants:

1. Identify what each set must show. The Kick-Ass and Demolition Man replacements kept the one element the audience needed and dropped the rest.
2. Check whether a cheaper solution suits the story. In The Night of the Hunter and Demolition Man, the less expensive option matched the film’s subject.
3. Consider effects that can be staged during filming. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind limited its effects and staged a doubling shot in front of the camera.
4. Look for resources others will give or discard. A flat warehouse floor and a damaged car gave Phantasm and My Best Friend Is a Vampire what they could not have paid for.
5. Budget for people as well as objects. The size of the stunt team limited how many deaths 3.10 to Yuma could stage with different performers.

A small budget does not decide a film’s quality. It decides which problems the filmmakers have to solve, and it rewards knowing exactly what each scene needs.