favorite Favorite Indie Sci-Fi's

MichaelPaul

MichaelPaul

Science Fiction so often is done really poorly in Indie Films, simply because someone is trying to make a movie they can't afford to do properly and poor effects and acting just kill it. That said, there occasionally are some that are just really pretty damn cool, primarily because they were written within the budget that they had to make it, or they were just smart enough not to try to make a Hollywood style Sci-Fi.

Some of my Favorites:
American Astronaut
Pi
Eraserhead
Primer

I realize that Moon, was an Indie pic but they just had a much larger budget than I can comfortably fantasize about at the moment, so I left it off my list. Very cool movie though.
 
Lord of the rings.. all three of them.



I actually found "I, Creator" on amazon today! Will make a purchase and watch that tomorow ;)
 
I'm not really up on my Indie Sci-Fi, but I did think that "Primer" was excellent. The scariest part was that it actually made sense to me!
 
ENIGMA is only 40 minutes, but is very well done. You can watch it here:

http://www.enigmathemovie.com/enigma.html


I actually like no budget sci-fi like THE PLANET (made for about 15K) and RED COCKROACHES (3k budget, but brilliantly done), even though the latter doesn't have much "sci-fi" as much as being set in an acid rain future. Another 15K movie, THE MEN WHO FELL has some good stuff for that tiny budget! Shot in Tucson on a DVX100, the trailer is very cool....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucr0MgNz08I



MichaelPaul said:
Science Fiction so often is done really poorly in Indie Films, simply because someone is trying to make a movie they can't afford to do properly
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Shucks, that sounds like my last 3 movies! :lol:

http://www.cinema-crazed.com/scifi-blitz/exile-2008.htm
http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2009/10/awakening-dvd-review-by-porfle.html
http://io9.com/5662500/terrarium-the-worst+rated-scifi-movie-on-imdb-is-actually-pretty-good
 
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Ah, Pi...my favorite film that I never want to watch again (I found the constant shakey cam to be way to distracting, but a brilliant film that I otherwised loved).

Hard to mention Eraserhead without mentioning Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Watching one always makes me want to watch the other. Tetsuo is more sci-fi, at least in the traditional sense. If anything can be said to be traditional about that film.

I love sci-fi, but I do tend to lean more in the fantasy side of things. To that end Ink was brilliant, and one of the best indie pictures I've ever seen. I also can't say enough good things about The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, but it's only *really* funny if you've ever played D&D...and fantastic if you've played a LOT of D&D!
 
Enigma gets my vote. But, the budget looks like something bigger than most of us can afford.

We can put Space Hunter 1983 in the same budget range as Enigma.

I, Creator 2 will be an all round major improvement over the original.
 
I always have the trouble of not knowing which movies are independent and which movies aren't with these kinds of lists. I need a list to pull from. :P Cosequences of being from the TV generation?

Most recently...

I really liked Monsters.
Was Splice an indie?
 
Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
Enigma gets my vote. But, the budget looks like something bigger than most of us can afford.

We can put Space Hunter 1983 in the same budget range as Enigma.
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According to Matt Shumway, ENIGMA was made for 50K. Definitely Indie....guerrilla even. :D

Budget for Molly Ringwald's spunky SPACEHUNTER (which I saw in the theater and loved) is 14.4 million and was produced by Ivan Reitman who was really surging around then.

Part of the reason that ENIGMA looks expensive is that the crew had access to a Hollywood spaceship set (I don't know what show or movie). Also, CGI artists (from where Matt worked) donated time. Matt is a world class FX artist, as he was partially responsible for NARNIA'S lion and effects for THE HULK and others. The crew is made up of industry pros, but they all volunteered their time.


I, Creator 2 will be an all round major improvement over the original.
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Seems so, from what few clips I've seen. Good luck!


richy said:
I always have the trouble of not knowing which movies are independent and which movies aren't with these kinds of lists.
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Looking at the OP's question - he left out MOON, because it was a 5 million dollar budget. (Definitely worth seeing, BTW!) He is concentrating on stuff like PI (made for about 120K) and PRIMER (about 7K!!!!), so it looks like he is referring to stuff that could feasibly be made by one of us. Technically, most of us are guerrilla filmmakers, as indies can cost several million dollars (like MOON).

An indie is a movie that is produced without studio financing and does not have a distribution deal in place, during anytime of the production.

MONSTERS (around 500K) is a good example.

SPLICE not really indie, but has the feel. The budget was 30 million and stars a very bankable Adrien Brody. However, the director - Vincenzo Natali, made the indie sci-fi movie, CUBE, for about 365,000 (Canadian dollars). He also made a movie with Lucy Liu, called CYPHER (7.5 million), which few people know about, but is worth seeing.




PaulGriffith said:
EXILE !
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Thankyou, Paul. :cheers:
 
Scoopicman said:
According to Matt Shumway, ENIGMA was made for 50K. Definitely Indie....guerrilla even. :D

Budget for Molly Ringwald's spunky SPACEHUNTER (which I saw in the theater and loved) is 14.4 million and was produced by Ivan Reitman who was really surging around then.

Part of the reason that ENIGMA looks expensive is that the crew had access to a Hollywood spaceship set (I don't know what show or movie). Also, CGI artists (from where Matt worked) donated time. Matt is a world class FX artist, as he was partially responsible for NARNIA'S lion and effects for THE HULK and others. The crew is made up of industry pros, but they all volunteered their time.




Seems so, from what few clips I've seen. Good luck!

Thanks Mike! Right now, I'm on the lookout for visual effects people and 3D animators for the post with a sci-fi style to their work that matches what Dale, my conceptual artist started.




Looking at the OP's question - he left out MOON, because it was a 5 million dollar budget. (Definitely worth seeing, BTW!) He is concentrating on stuff like PI (made for about 120K) and PRIMER (about 7K!!!!), so it looks like he is referring to stuff that could feasibly be made by one of us. Technically, most of us are guerrilla filmmakers, as indies can cost several million dollars (like MOON).

An indie is a movie that is produced without studio financing and does not have a distribution deal in place, during anytime of the production.

MONSTERS (around 500K) is a good example.

SPLICE not really indie, but has the feel. The budget was 30 million and stars a very bankable Adrien Brody. However, the director - Vincenzo Natali, made the indie sci-fi movie, CUBE, for about 365,000 (Canadian dollars). He also made a movie with Lucy Liu, called CYPHER (7.5 million), which few people know about, but is worth seeing.






Thankyou, Paul. :cheers:
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This is good stuff guys!

Thanks Mike.

I'm on the lookout for 3D animators and visual effects guys to help with photo realistic backgrounds with a sci-fi style to match what my conceptual artist, Dale started, only more realistic.
 
The Brother from Another Planet

EDIT: Conversely, a certain other infamously titled Danish film about people with dark skin from beyond our sun.
 
Monsters is definitely on my list. So is Pi. I know there are others but I'd have to look back through my Netflix recently watched list to find them...
 
Love Pi...but its not a SF...

SF movies that are indie....Post apocalypse movies that I can remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6qckMHp7wU
 
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Wat ellements, make this a SF movie? I understand that SF stands for Scheince Fiction. And the movie had some Math and Fiction.....but it feels more like....eu....It does not feel like a SF movie....
 
The greatist Indi scifi EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You bet yer astroid kid!:lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlFOiFLLd0g



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0wutsciS8
 
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That rules! Thanks for posting that! I absolutely loved Hardware Wars as a kid. He did a couple others too, an Apocalypse Now spoof I think was called Porklips Now. Think I only saw that once. There was also a Close Emcounters one but I don't know if that was the same director, it's been so long. Those I think may have been my first exposure to a low budget indie film. Still trying to capture the magic those brought me as a kid.
 
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