Monsters is an independent sci-fi film directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able. Edwards used guerilla filmmaking techniques, shooting with inexpensive cameras as he and his small crew traveled through South America. The film had a very low budget of $500,000 and was distributed online through partnerships with Vertigo Films and Momentum Pictures. It received attention after premiering at film festivals and being released on the X-Box Live service during its opening weekend, going on to earn over $4 million worldwide despite not receiving a traditional theatrical release.
2. PRODUCTION
Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able & the rest of the cast
were picked up to do random roles whilst they were travelling
and shooting.
Scoot McNairy was known for films such as ‘In Search For A
Midnight Kiss’ and ‘Wreckage’, but it was McNairy that
introduced Whitney Able to Gareth Edwards and this is how
she got the role. So both the leads were relatively unknown
actors. The rest were all local people in small towns who were
asked to be part of the film as extras.
3. PRODUCTION
They filmed in ‘guerilla’ styled film making which means that Edwards and his
crew/cast all got on the road and just filmed as they went along. He filmed the action
in a way that would enable him to insert some CGI later.
Gareth Edwards used cheaper but professional cameras called ‘SONY EX3’
Cameras. There was an adapter attached to the camera to allow to alter the depth of
field to make it look more filmic.
Editing took him 8 months as he had 104 hours of footage to edit. It was done on 2
laptops and he uploaded the footage every night after he had filmed that day to his
mac book pro and the special used, he bought online. He used adobe software.
Edwards and his crew/cast all flew out to South America. No sets were constructed
and no props were required. All the film was improvised (including script and filming)
It’s production budget cost $500,000.
4. DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING
Vertigo’ films funded the film and ‘Momentum Pictures’
helped distribute it.
‘
The film was not released in cinemas. Posters and
trailers were the most successful as they premiered at
big film festivals. The internet played a big part as it
was used to put up online trailers of the film which
gained awareness. It was also released on X-Box Live
on it’s opening weekend. The sales of DVDs and BluRay DVD’s were really successful as well.
5. DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING
Speical features on the DVD/Blu-Ray include:
• Audio Commentary with Gareth Edwards, Scoot McNairy
and Whitney Able
• Behind the Scenes of Monsters
• Monsters: The Edit
• Visual Effects
The film is available to illegally download.
6. EXHIBITION
The film received a theatrical release through putting it on ‘X-Box
Live’. This allowed it to be open to a wide amount of people and
show it on a popular game console. This also meant that it being
on the X-Box would allow a lot of people to talk about and allow
people to easily watch it.
OPENING WEEKEND
Box Office (UK): £348,577 (5 th December 2010)
Total Box Office (Worldwide): $4,005,677
