PETER JACKSON: DIY TO BLOCKBUSTER, WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE HOBBIT’S DIRECTOR.

One of the things we’ve learnt from making films and videos is there is very little out there that hasn’t been done, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because that means someone else has already made the mistakes for you, and someone has already paved the way for you.

Some screenwriters may look to Chinatown to learn how to structure a script, whilst DOP’s and cinematographers may look at Soy Cuba for that tracking shot. And then there is the legendary Peter Jackson‘s first feature film Bad Taste (1987). Before he had the million dollar VFX department, Mr. Jackson was like many out there now, a DIY filmmaker making low budget films, and in the 1988 documentary, Good Taste Made Bad Taste, he shows us how he shot the movie using stabilizers, dollies, and cranes that he made himself – an unintentional DIY tutorial for all low-budget filmmakers.

Firstly, if you haven’t seen or heard of Bad Taste, it’s a “science fiction splatter comedy horror” about a small town that gets invaded by human flesh-loving aliens that slowly begin to pick away at the townsfolk. Check out the trailer here https://youtu.be/lgCnCri2cTU

Jackson’s crew was made up of a small group of his friends, and shot the film on weekends over a course of four years (sound familiar?). The New Zealand Film Commission stepped in towards the end of production and provided the filmmakers with a $235,000 budget, Jackson was looking to shoot the movie with a mere $25,000.

There are so many lessons to learn from Jackson’s approach to the film. For one, he made due with what he had: he baked all of the masks in his mother’s oven and filmed 90% of the footage with his second-hand Bolex that didn’t record sound, meaning he had to dub all of the dialog in post. And that which he didn’t have, he built himself.

As you’ll see in the documentary below, he constructed several rigs and props for the film: a. $20 spring-loaded steady-cam, wooden dolly tracks, and an arsenal of automatic weapons made of aluminum tubing.

Making of documentary: https://youtu.be/QcxMUZjaT4s

The story behind Jackson’s Bad Taste is one that we can all learn from as well as be inspired by. No, not all of us are going to have the budget he did, as small as it may have been (until the end), but his DIY approach to much of the production is something we can all relate to and be encouraged by, because hey – we all have to start somewhere, and getting creative with the tools we use will keep costs down and our production values higher.