Spring: The International Micro-Budget
There is a tired, accepted rule in independent filmmaking: if you have no money, you shoot in a single room. You trap two actors in a cabin and hope the dialogue holds. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead looked at their micro-budget and rejected the rule entirely. They decided to shoot an international romance and body horror film on location in Italy. The Scrappy Aesthetic Spring is a masterclass in bypassing traditional studio overhead. When you do not have the budget to build a sweeping, atmospheric set, you must steal it from reality. By utilizing the expansive, ancient architecture of the Italian coast, they generated an aesthetic that completely belied the film’s scrappy, low-cost origins. The production value of the Mediterranean Sea is free, provided you are willing to deal with the logistical nightmare of dragging a skeleton crew overseas. ...