As the Variety report suggests, recent technological advances greatly facilitate the production of truly low-budget motion pictures. Although there have always been economical means with which to shoot movies, including Super 8 and 16 mm film, as well as video cameras recording onto analog videotape, these media could not rival the image quality of 35 mm film. The development of digital cameras and post-production methods now allow even low-budget filmmakers to produce films with excellent, and not necessarily "grittier", image quality and editing effects. As Marone observes, "the equipment budget (camera, support) required for shooting digital is approximately 1/10 that for film, significantly lowering the production budget for independent features. At the same time, [since the early 2000s], the quality of digital filmmaking has improved dramatically." Independent filmmakers, whether working in a genre or arthouse mode, continue to find it difficult to gain access to distribution channels, though digital end-to-end methods of distribution offer new opportunities. In a similar way, Internet sites such as YouTube have opened up entirely new avenues for the presentation of low-budget motion pictures.Rabiger (2008), pp. 7, 10; Davies and Wistreich (2007), p. 5.
As the Variety report suggests, recent technological advances greatly facilitate the production of truly low-budget motion pictures Although there have always been economical means with which, to shoot movies, including Super 8 and 16 mm film, as well as video cameras recording onto analog videotape, these media could not rival the image quality ,of 35 mm film. The development of digital cameras and post-production methods now allow even low-budget filmmakers to produce films with excellent, and not necessarily "grittier", image quality and editing effects. As Marone observes, "the equipment budget (camera, support) required for shooting digital is approximately 1/10 that for film, significantly lowering the production budget for independent features. At the same time, [since the e.arly 2000s], the quality of digital filmmaking has improved dramatically." Independent filmmakers, whether working in a genre or arthouse mode continue to find it difficult to gain access to distribution channels though digital end-to-end methods of distribution offer new opportunities. In a similar way, Internet sites such as YouTube have opened up entirely new avenues for the presentation of low-budget motion pictures.Rabiger (2008), pp. 7, 10; Davies and Wistreich (2007), p. 5.