THE PROBLEM WITH LOW-BUDGET IRISH FILMMAKING!

Some people may think that the future for Irish cinema is in low-budget filmmaking. There have been lots of recent titles made on a low-budget. Others may object to this but for the 'wrong' reasons. Their reasons might include: lower wages and smaller production costs. After viewing dozens of low-budget Irish titles Shoot the Cabbage reckons that low-budget filmmaking does more harm than good! Why is this? Various reasons but the main one is that the filmmakers completely miss the point! What they try to do is use the low budget to make their production look as expensive as possible. It's as if there's a Hollywood producer out there saying: 'Wow, these Irish guys can make a splendid looking feature for a few hundred grand. Imagine what they could do if they were given $50 million for their next movie?' Trying to make a low-budget movie look as expensive as possible usually results in a cheap version of a Hollywood movie. Or even worse a TV movie. It's a waste of time. Countless Irish feature films made with video cameras end up looking like bad telefilms This illustrates the silly obsession in this country with technical ability. Blame it on the film schools! A good film is not good because of the impressive camerawork or orchestra music on the soundtrack. It's not good because it's trying to compete with a similar British production made with ten times the budget. Irish cinema will always be second rate when filmmakers (and producers) try to make expensive-looking and mainstream movies while cutting costs.