The Scarily Low Budget Origins of "Saw"

Plus: A 1980s Western Shot With A 2016 Camera

Author

Steve
September 26, 2023

Hello Hollywood tech nerds!

In this week’s post:

😱 The Scarily Low Budget Origins of Saw

🤠 A 1980s Western Shot With A 2016 Camera

✍️ The End of the WGA Strike?

🍿 Kernels: 3 links worth making popcorn for

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The Scarily Low Budget Origins of “Saw”

This Friday the confusingly-titled Saw X screams into theaters - confusing because while being tenth in release order, it’s technically a direct sequel to the original Saw, making Saw II not actually part 2. However even the first Saw isn’t the first story chronologically - that’s half of Jigsaw, but Saw V also partially takes place before the original. Still confused? Me too! Head over to Screen Rant for a full breakdown.

Nolanesque chronology aside, that the ten-film Saw series is one of the top-grossing horror franchises of all time somewhat obscures the original’s humble beginnings as a low budget movie made for $700,000 during 19 days in one location.

The franchise’s trademark gritty aesthetic was not the original vision for the film and ended up being driven by necessity. According to director James Wan, “I wanted to make it in a very Hitchcockian style… but that takes time to set up... The film I ended up with was more gritty and rough around the edges, due to the lack of time and money.”

Saw’s production timeline was so compressed that Wan was also unable to complete all of the shots he needed! As he further explained:

I had a lot of gaps in the final product when we were trying to cut it… We ended up basically cooking up a lot of things in post to put the film together. We would cobble shots together… that we would make up, and we would grunge the shot up to make it look like surveillance cameras. And then we would use stills that the still photographer had shot to fill in gaps. We did a lot of things to fill in gaps throughout the film. Whenever we cut to newspaper clippings, or we cut to surveillance cameras, or we cut to still photography within the film, which now people say, “Wow, that’s such a cool experimental style of filmmaking” we really did that out of necessity.

When filmmaking, necessity is always the mother of invention! Check out the full AV Club interview with Wan and writer/actor Leigh Whannell for more behind the scenes info about the making of Saw, a true art-from-adversity risk that continues to pay off almost 20 years later.

A 1980s Western Shot With A 2016 Camera

I’ll confess: a big part of my tech nerdery includes cameras and cinematography. That’s why I was thrilled when I came across this lens and camera review from EH Films, which is the production company of cinematographer Aaron Arizpe.

For his short Western Thunderbird, Arizpe takes the 1980s era Angenieux 25-250mm T3.9 and pairs it with a 2016 Panasonic Varicam LT, resulting in an incredible vintage look.

The full video includes thorough information about both the lens and camera, the complete short film and a full breakdown on its production. It’s long but worth watching, and I will absolutely be subscribing to Aaron’s YouTube for more of this type of content. Wow!

The End of the WGA Strike?

Just a quick note about the tentative deal between the WGA and the AMPTP. The note is: very exciting! According to the AP, details of the deal have yet to provided to WGA membership, and I have a newsletter to get out for this week, but I for one am very interested in learning about the final terms, particularly (tech nerd that I am) regarding streaming residuals and reporting, as well as the use of AI.

I’ll have more thoughts next week once the terms are publicized! Some commentators have suggested this will also result in a favorable resolution to the SAG-AFTRA strike, although according to the Hollywood Reporter the membership has also just authorized a strike against the video game industry. Here’s hoping for a swift conclusion!

Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)

Here’s a round-up of cool links about Hollywood and technology:

Netflix’s One Piece adaptation is a huge hit, but what did it cost? (link)

How Hollywood celebs are creatively fundraising on eBay for out-of-work crew. (link)

The most exciting movies at the Toronto International Film Festival! (link)