Straight-to-DVD: digital filmmaking kinda ruined it

Jim H · January 03, 2007, 12:49:30 AM

Whenever I'm perusing the local video store and I see the more recent straight-to-DVD/video fodder, there's a strong trend I've noticed. They suck. Hard. Even more than they used to, on average.

It used to be almost all straight-to-video stuff (and films that were very limited theatrically, or strictly drive-in, whatever) had a small degree of competence in production. They were nearly always shot on film, usually 16MM and 35MM (and some on Super8, of course). Just the budget level and technical ability to rent the camera, buy and develop the film, get a crane or tripod or whatever, and properly operate it required a fairly high degree of competence. Today, any yahoo with a PC, a digital camcorder, a fistful of cash and some friends can put together a film. And despite the large increase in the number of films being made, somehow the films aren't better.

Sure, there have been some films that have been made in these very low budget ways that are pretty decent (Slashers, for instance), but for the most part they're completely awful. Many are just inept, and it is astonishing to me they even make it to DVD. Who is paying for it? Stuff like Zombiez, The Fangleys, Mr. Jingles, and other garbage. You would THINK someone out there would be making good movies on the cheap, but I guess not?

I'm not saying straight-to-video was awesome in the good ol' days. It wasn't. There were many trite, truely awful films. And you'd even get an occasional shot-on-video movie, which were the old days equivalent of shot-on-digital (though even among those, there are exceptions like Plaga Zombies).

But, generally, there'd be a certain degree of competence to the production. You wouldn't have horrendously awful digital looking movies with dialogue you can barely hear and almost non-existent editing, with headache-inducing video effects. Acting amateurish, but not over-the-top - merely lethargic and boring with people barely able to remember the lines.

I used to rent straight-to-video movies on a whim, but that's almost impossible now. So many of them are just awful to the point of being unwatchable, I have to actually research them before renting.

To top it all off, most of the straight-to-video creature movies are all-CG now, and they're so unconvincing it makes my head hurt. I miss the days of man-in-suit (Cemetary Gates, BTW, is a rare recent exception and is well worth watching).

Just feeling frustrated about the whole situation today.

akiratubo · January 03, 2007, 08:51:42 AM

Don't worry, my friend! My friends and I have decided to put up or shut up in regards to crap movies. We've managed to save up a whole $7000 to invest in our monster movie, "The Peanut Butter Gristle Beast". The monster(s) will be men in costumes.

SaintMort · January 03, 2007, 09:28:32 AM

Like Akiratubo My friends and I are also making a movie... although we didn't save up $7000... hell we didnt' even save up $100. But all things considered our film concept is to be really really campy and dumb. Example... The title is "Fluffy the Zombie Slayer in: Kill Kill Kill and Kill Some More"... I posted a link to the trailer on the press release page if you could look at it and tell me what y'all think.

Jim H · January 03, 2007, 02:39:15 PM

Quote from: akiratubo on January 03, 2007, 08:51:42 AM
Don't worry, my friend! My friends and I have decided to put up or shut up in regards to crap movies. We've managed to save up a whole $7000 to invest in our monster movie, "The Peanut Butter Gristle Beast". The monster(s) will be men in costumes.

Sounds like you guys are going for deliberately bad. That's actually pretty hard to do well. Just remember to have at least some degree of sincerity in the production.

Oh yeah, and I watched that trailer. I can't really say much about it, since it doesn't really show very much, but I did chuckle at the blood spit into the face towards the end.

peter johnson · January 03, 2007, 06:07:12 PM

I'm really of 2 minds on this one . . .
It seems to me that I was hearing a lot about how Cable TV would kill/had killed the direct to VHS market about 15 years ago -- No DVD back then, remember?
In the meantime I managed to see any number of very good direct to video films that made money for the people involved.
Nowadays, I'm sure there's some real crap out there, but I can't comment on the titles named, as I haven't seen these --
What I DID see was a locally shot (Aspen), produced, & directed film called "Subject Two", that was made, edited, and projected -- I saw it on the big screen in Boulder -- from a computer chip. It was/is a HIGHLY competent retake on the Frankenstein story, superbly shot & very good looking, and the local yokels in charge did it all for $30,000 total. You couldn't do a film like this for $1million on 35mm, even 20 years ago -- believe me, I know!
So, I would say, the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the technology but in the execution. I would say boo hiss to these ripoff production companies and never rent their products again -- and then I would eagerly hunt down anything at all by anyone who had anything to do with "Subject Two"!
peter johnson/denny crane

akiratubo · January 03, 2007, 08:54:03 PM

Quote from: Jim H on January 03, 2007, 02:39:15 PMSounds like you guys are going for deliberately bad. That's actually pretty hard to do well. Just remember to have at least some degree of sincerity in the production.

Oh, I'm sure it will be bad but not intentionally. We know we can't do anything spectacular, so we indeed are going for sincere. All we can hope is that it will be fun enough for someone to enjoy.

Torgo · January 03, 2007, 10:52:47 PM

I've actually written a script that has the full title of Kung Fu Zombies: Smack Armageddon 3000 The Musical.

I've got full songs ready to go and everything.

I'm convinced that I could make the thing for 500,000 easy. Haven't gotten any bites yet.

But yes, direct to video stuff used to be really fun in most cases back during the VHS era, now in the DVD era the stuff is mostly just unwatchable and not fun in any way.

zombiedudeman · January 04, 2007, 02:13:29 AM

Yep, I hate this crappy amature stuff these days. There are more and more people becoming film students these days, yet movies just keep getting worse every year. Yeah the problem is really resources being so easily available, any idiot could make a movie now. Before, it was only people serious about a movie and willing to make sacrifices that did a movie. They wouldn't just use any bad idea, they had to think of the best concepts and scripts they could cause of how much this movie would cost them. Through limitation, creativity was born. Now with technology being so cheap and people not having to invest so much, any worthless idea can get the greenlight. I also can't stand the generic uncreative CGI photoshop covers these movies have now. It reflect the shoddy mentality these movie hacks have.

just look at the differences with low budget movies from before and today hahah