Welcome to MindFood, a weekly column programmed to deconstruct all things sci-fi. It – it being me – is also programmed to be a hardcore nerd with an opinion about anything worth having an opinion about. This being the Internet, a place sci-fi fans have been historically ostracized from, I expect there will be no one around to disagree with said opinions.
The Low-Budget Halo Effect
Just the other day I was exploring the special features on the Moon Blu-ray. On it is a Q&A with director Duncan Jones that was held, naturally, at the Houston, TX Science Center. Someone asked Jones what the actual budget of Moon was and his answer surprised me. I’d known all along that Moon was an independent film, that it was financed outside of the American studio system, and that it was operating on a relatively low budget, but it wasn’t until Jones cheerfully explained that Moon cost $5 million (he cited Danny Boyle’s $50 million budget for Sunshine as a higher-priced example of indie sci-fi) to make that I fell prey to what I’ll call the ‘Low-Budget Halo Effect’.
We’re all a victim to it in one way or another. Those that are into filmmaking, into technique and equipment and all the behind the scenes stuff will always be amazed at what a filmmaker was able to accomplish on a smaller budget, but even casual film goers who know nothing about how/where money gets spent on films are still happy to learn that something was made on the (relative) cheap. And though this halo effect cross pollinates into other genres from time to time, it’s most prevalent in science fiction.
With budget knowledge (even if it isn’t an exact figure) we start to appreciate the subtleties of the film, we become fonder of the things we were told about but never shown. We begin to hold the special effects not only in higher regard but also to a lower standard (as if we should be expecting/settling for less). We’re willing to forgive shortcomings on even non-genre fronts like acting and set design, as we now know they were born of production constraints, be it time or ability (both of which are tied to budget), and not lack of vision.
Now that’s not to say that without this Low-Budget Halo Moon would be any less a brilliant film. My point is this: no one ever goes out of their way to applaud a comedy or a drama for being low budget. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Man, I can’t believe how many laughs/tears they got for only $5 million!”; and the reason I’ve never heard anyone say that is because we’re used to low budget comedies and genres. That’s not the case with sci-fi (and, to a lesser degree, horror), however, and that kind of sucks.
The only reason the Low-Budget Halo Effect exists in the first place is because we, as viewers, have a developed a weird Pavlovian response to the genre. We hear the words “sci-fi movie” and become stricken with ideas of dollar signs and big scale explosions and A-list actors. Cinema has never given us a steady enough counter diet to the likes of Hollywood’s big-budget, soft sci-fi films to associate the genre with smaller, more independent films. Sure, every now and then a Moon or a Man From Earth or a Primer pops up, but no matter how good the films are (I’d consider the three films just listed some of the best sci-fi of the past decade), they’re just not common enough to dull the Low-Budget Halo Effect.
I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining about this. I’m glad that not every science fiction film costs $150 million or beyond. I’m glad that low budgets force artists to find innovative ways to get what they want but can’t afford. Yet I still wish they weren’t nearly as uncommon as they are. If they were more popular, the general public might realize that, hey, expensive explosions and alien spaceships and laser guns aren’t what define science fiction; ideas are what make the genre. Were the general public to realize that, more independent film producers would and, eventually, Hollywood just might as well.
For a little while there it seemed as though just such a trend was forming. If we were to draw a line from Children of Men’s $75mil Sunshine’s $50mil to Pandorum’s $45mil to District 9’s $35mil to Moon’s $5mil it would seem like things were looking up quite well for modestly budgeted science fiction. But then Avatar came along and threw the geometry all out of whack. Though, in defense of Cameron’s milestone, post-Avatar Hollywood seems far more concerned with making 3D films than making big-budgeted sci-fi flicks. So who knows, maybe Avatar will prove to be such an outlier that it won’t interfere with the eventual erosion of the Low-Budget Halo Effect.
I love the kind of smile knowing Moon cost only $5mil can put on a fans face, but it’ll be nice to see the effect fade away. It’ll be a good day when sci-fi films aren’t even associated with budgets but instead are tied to ideas. Given the current state of things, that day not be arriving any time soon, but hey, it’ll be a good day for the genre when it gets here.
