Fast, Cheap, and Under Control: Lessons from the Greatest Low-Budget Movies of All Time

by John Gaspard

Book Overview

Dying to make a feature? Learn from the pros!"We never put out an actual textbook for the Corman School of Filmmaking, but if we did, it would be Fast, Cheap and Under Control." Roger Corman,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932907157
• ISBN13: 9781932907155
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Michael Wiese Productions
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Cheap Chic

How low-budget can you go? Pretty low, or so you'll discover in FAST CHEAP & UNDER CONTROL. You'll also learn how some very good films were made on a shoestring. For everyone who wants to make art without breaking the bank, John Gasper's book is worth every penny.

Terrific Book for Indie Film Lovers and Indie Filmmakers

A terrific collection of the kind of stories that usually constitute the highlights of similar books and magazines covering independent film. Take all those highlights, cut out the filler and the "yeah-it's-a-neat-story-but-I've-heard-it-a-hundred-times" apocrphya... and you've got FAST, CHEAP, AND UNDER CONTROL. As is clear from his other books, Gaspard has a true understanding of the nuts and bolts of indie filmmaking. Here, though, it's matched by a film lover's appreciation of the end product and the sweat that's required to achieve it. The enthusiasm that no doubt drove the author to become an independent filmmaker in the first place is evident in every chapter and that joy is what makes FAST, CHEAP not just informative but a really fun read. Overall, this is an easy recommendation. The interviews and stories are great, the film selection is wide-ranging and Gaspard's enjoyably conversational writing style make this one of the best books of it's kind. If you think you might like this book, you'll love this book.

AN IMPORTANT BOOK

"A richly-detailed, highly readable and inspiring book jam-packed with information that will keep low-budget filmmakers from making costly mistakes. Filled with a ton-full (not a spoonful) of fascinating, insightful interviews, with a you-can-do-it approach." I have posted this on behalf of Dr. Linda Seger, consultant on over 2,000 screenplays, best-selling author of Making a Good Script Great and 7 other books.

With this book, you learn what to do and what not to do

Filmmakers like to blaze their own trail and say "I'm going to do it my way and everyone is going to see how brilliant and talented I am!" But if you were to read this book before you make your masterpiece, you would see the potholes, problems and challenges ahead of you that have already been encountered by the filmmakers chronicled in this book and you would be better prepared to deal with them. You would learn how others have already overcome the problems and you might be able to avoid them altogether. This isn't a "do this, don't do that" book...it's a meticulously written "here's what happened while making some of the most successful low budget movies of all time" book. It invites you to take from it what you will rather than giving you cookie cutter advice. I think that really appeals to independent filmmakers. I love getting behind the scenes of movies I've admired and learning the story about how they got made. Fascinating stuff. The best part of the book though is finding out how they got made, the tenacity it took to make them and what I could do as a filmmaker to learn from the trailblazers before me. That information is invaluable. Gaspard has shined a klieg light on the process in a very readable and entertaining book and in doing so provides a guide to avoid wasting time, energy and money when you're making your own low budget masterpiece. What also impressed me about this book was the meticulous research that went into it. Every quote is footnoted and attributed and many of them come from "author's interview". That means Gaspard talked with Soderbergh or O'Bannon or Corman and got this information about low budget filmmaking directly from the source. Other quotes come from DVD commentary tracks, books, interviews from websites, interviews in magazines, PBS shows and more. The man did his research and it all adds up to a an impressive mother lode of information.

Review by Dave Hurd

In this book, John Gaspard has compiled a trove of information regarding low-budget filmmaking. He interviews famous directors, and gets them talking about the valuable lessons that they learned while making their first projects. This book is filled with information and tips that directors can use to save time and money, as well as delivering a better product. David Hurd, P3 Update Magazine