The Advantages Of Low Budget Filmmaking: Red Rocket
Making it to the top and directing the biggest films in the world may be the ultimate goal for some, but there are definitely pros to working in the more realistic, lower budget film world of indie films.
Director Sean Baker is a prime example of a filmmaker who has directed many features, has been to all the festivals, got all the acclaim and yet chose to reside and make films in the low budget range. So let’s look at his latest movie, Red Rocket, through this lens and examine what some of the advantages are to producing low budget indie films.
“That’s the big thing that I’m always conflicted about. I’m like, should I make my life easier and make a film for a studio or go to a series. It’s definitely tempting because of monetary purposes but it’s more than that. I want to tell personal stories. Films take a long time, you put all of your energy, all of your heart into them, so why not make the movie you want to make.” - Sean Baker
It’s important to remember that what allows films to be made in the first place is due to financing. Like with any investment, when individuals, or in this case a production company, is putting money down in the form of an investment they need to balance how much money is allocated with the risk of making that money back.
If a studio is throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into a movie, they need to keep their risk tolerance low by ticking off a list of items that have been proven to increase ticket sales and make money back.
For example, choosing a story about a superhero with an existing fanbase, casting celebrity actors and doing test screenings of different edits to make sure that the movie is understood by and entertains the largest possible group of people, are known money printers and ways of decreasing the film’s risk of financially failing.
If instead you want to make a movie about a niche subculture, without any A-list celebrity actors and be given complete creative freedom, you need to accept that it’s a higher risk project for investors and will therefore be allocated a low budget, of say one point two million dollars, which is a much lower financial target to make back.
Red Rocket falls into the latter category, which looks at a niche character archetype of an adult film star that uses and recruits women into that world.
He cast the leads through a combination of street casting, casting a theatre actor, first time actors, casting the lead off of his Vine page and even casting one role to his producer slash continuity supervisor slash costume designer.
Operating at a low budget level gave Baker the freedom to make the kind of film that he wanted to - which was true to his vision.
Some may see it as a disadvantage, but I think another advantage that low budgets have is that they allow you to work with a small crew.
“A four person camera crew pulled off those images. You had Drew Daniels, you had a 1st AC, a 2nd AC and a gaffer/grip. Then you had a one man sound team and then you had my sister who is the production designer on the film. The other four were just producers wearing many many hats” - Sean Baker
This crew of just ten people were able to move quickly, efficiently and pulled off the feature on a tiny 23 day shooting schedule. While having more money, more crew and more gear grants filmmakers more control, it also takes far longer to set up shots and move to new locations.
Drew Daniels shot the movie on 16mm film on Sean Baker’s own Arri SR3, which were paired with two interesting 1.44X Auto Panatar lenses from Panavision, a 16mm and a 50mm.
These anamorphic lenses allowed them to shoot in a widescreen aspect ratio on 16mm and created a unique look that combined a Hollywood anamorphic grandeur with the more grainy, organic, low-fi look of 16mm Kodak film.
Daniel’s camera crew were super bare bones, with a first AC to pull focus, a second AC to load the film and do the boards and one gaffer slash grip to set up lights, rigs and any camera moves they needed. Having a smaller crew also created more of a family atmosphere that put the performers, especially first time actors, more at ease.
“My incredible actors go in front of a camera and they’ll try something and if it doesn’t work, who cares, it doesn’t work. Let’s go for an alt take and try something else. Getting everybody in that place where everybody is comfortable and feels safe. Red Rocket was perfect for that because it was a small ten person crew, tiny, we were a pod, we were very isolated. It just allowed for that. I think we just embraced that spontaneity. We were saying there’s improv in front of the camera so why can’t there be improv behind the camera.” - Sean Baker
Working with a small, flexible camera crew frees filmmakers up and allows them to go with the flow far more than on high budget productions where everything tends to be shot listed, storyboarded, pre-visualised, pre-lit and then executed as per the plan on the day of shooting.
As a general rule, the larger the setups are, the more budget is required which in turn locks filmmakers into pre-planning. Some like working this way, but other filmmakers enjoy working with less restraints, where it’s possible to add scenes, improvise dialogue or change shots based on unexpected happy accidents.
Many of the exterior scenes in the film were also shot without location permits in the small town. Having a low budget and a small production footprint allowed them to get away with it.
On Red Rocket, Baker encouraged his actors to improvise and explore at times. To find dialogue, blocking or actions that felt more natural and aligned with what their characters would do.
The best low budget films are usually those that lean into their limitations and create a tone and look that plays to their strengths. There’s a certain charm to films shot in a more intimate on the ground, run and gun style. That adds a touch of realism and puts the audience in the character's shoes.
Filmmakers also have to be more careful in thinking about what they can and what they can’t include in the story. If there’s a big car crash in the story and you don’t have the financial resources to shoot it, it forces you into communicating that information in creative ways.
More time, more money and more gear gives you more control, but sometimes accepting a lack of control can actually improve a film.
“I realised I couldn’t overcome it. So, there was an acceptance during pre-production that I was going to have to accept all of these freakin limitations. We realised we do not have the money and we do not have the time to throw at problems, so instead of tackling those problems we’ll pivot and go in another direction. So every day even though there was a problem every three hours there was also a miracle every three hours.” - Sean Baker
An example of this happened during the proposal scene. They knew that the local train passed through once a day and therefore only had one chance to get it in the background of the shot and only 20 minutes to set it up.
As they rolled the camera, the conductor started blowing his horn at a moment that perfectly complemented the dialogue, resulting in a magically chaotic scene that couldn’t have been scripted.
Red Rocket shows that low budget filmmaking has many advantages. It allows the director more freedom to make the kind of film they want to make while working with a small, efficient crew that offers possibilities for improvisation, run and gun flexibility and finding magic moments.
Ultimately, it’s also a case study in how important it is to set up a lifestyle for yourself as a filmmaker which is both financially viable and creatively rewarding.
Baker balances the financial side of making low budget films by also working on commercials on the side. Directing just one commercial a year is lucrative and finances his lifestyle and expenses while working on the lower budget films that he has complete creative control over.
Balancing the kind of creative and financial life that you want is something that everyone in the creative industry has to contend with. It’s down to each individual as to where they fall on the scale and how they plan their career to try and land in the space that they want to.