Hollywood, CA (WiredPRNews.com) In recent years people are finding cheap and new alternative ways to watch movies at home, and with streaming services on the internet and DVD rentals for a dollar, people get to see what they want. But the cheap alternatives are hurting the film industry which sometimes spends hundreds of millions of dollars on a single film. Many studios no longer can afford big productions the way they used to, but one film could potentially change all that.
A film that you probably haven’t heard of: “The Instant Messenger”. According to the film website TheInstantMessenger.com the film was released October 7, 2011 but not in theaters. It was created to go straight to amazon.com on DVD and Instant Video or Digital Download.
The production goal was to determine how much effort and how big they could make a film using only a micro-budget. The film had to be put together without leaving New York City to Mexico or without chasing ghost in an abandoned house, they wanted to be creative and at the same time staying on the micro-budget.
To stay under a micro-budget the director was also the writer, the camera man, DP, editor, casting, color correction, the special effects, ADR, one man behind the production.
The executive producer Juan De Jesus and son Yirensky De Jesus provided the original music themes for the production. Also since time is money, the whole film production had to be filmed within a total of 7 days, to cut time and money.
They filmed an average of 10 to 15 scenes a day, and only filmed on locations. With just the director and executive producer, this film had no crew members what so ever, and filmed in 7 days. To the surprise the entire film was put together with a micro-budget of less than $40,000.
The film tells the story of a young girl in New York City who is forced by her friends to meet a stranger from the internet, only to discover the stranger was a diabolical brutal killer who vows death to the new cyber generation.
Over 40 actors and actress came to be part of the production, and just how the internet unites the world, actors from 14 different countries came to participate on this production, from all ages including the youngest one of all Rebecca Lopez, an 8 month old baby who had her own solo scene against the killer.
We live in a digital age, streaming services and cheap DVD rentals are here to stay and they are the future. As filmmakers, we just have to adapt to the changes, The Instant Messenger film is a blueprint for independent future productions, “it proves what can be accomplished with a micro-budget” said Director Felix Pena.
The producers do not encourage to create film without crew members in anyways, in fact the production suggest the more crew members the faster the post-production can be complete, a lot of mistakes do happened during the production part and they have to be fixed in post. Fixing in post-production kept Felix Pena fixing The Instant Messenger in the studios for 2 and a half years just to make up for any errors made during the production.
The Instant Messenger was a big project to be the directors first feature film.
But just how good is The Instant Messenger? A film with no big name like studios demand, in fact it was the first time many of the actors ever acted on a feature film, it was filmed in 7 days, and also the film crew was just one man Felix Pena and his executive producer Juan De Jesus. To answer that watch the film trailer and judge for yourself. The Instant Messenger is now Available on DVD and Digital Download only on www.TheInstantMessenger.com
