Great Movies With Insanely Short Production Times (2024)

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Everyone understands that making a movie takes quite awhile. Pre-production, filming, editing, and promotionscan take up to a year for most films, with just half of that time spent actually shooting. However, in this post, we’ll look at five amazing films that were made in incredibly short production times. Let’s go and have a closer look:

1. The Blair Witch Project by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez

It just took eight days to shoot The Blair Witch Project, which started the documentary-style horror movie craze. The actors were released into the wild with orders to locate several crates holding acting directives. The filmmakers progressively cut the level of the food they provided at each box to increase the stress. Because of this method of filming, there was always an opportunity to capture strong and authentic dramatics on screen, resulting in a shorter production time.

2. Casablancaby Michael Curtiz

Casablanca is widely considered to be amongst the most iconic films of all time. Thus, it may come as a surprise to find that it was shot in just two months. Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart didn’t waste any time in delivering their electrifying rapport to the big screen. With the exception of a scene filmed at Van Nuys airport and some existing footage of Paris, the whole film was practically shot on the Warner Bros. property. Well, it was two months well spent.

3. Rocky by John G. Avildsen

Rocky was shot in four weeks with just an expense of around $1 million. Rocky Balboa, an ignorant but kind-hearted debt collector, goes from rags to riches in this narrative. This was the film that gave Sylvester Stallone his big break. He wrote the film’s script and also starred in it. “Rocky” was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning three of them. The picture, which was shot in just 28 days on a shoestring budget, grossed over $200 million.

4. Birdman by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Birdman, directed by Alejandro González Iárritu, was filmed within only 23 days, as per Variety. This number is said to be after excluding therehearsals and editing time. The post productionprocedure only took two weeks because the film was meticulously rehearsed and captured in order. Several other reports suggest that the filmwas shot in just two months, which is still rather astounding for such a well-made film.

5. Halloween by John Carpenter

This legendary horror movie of today was shot on a time crunch of 20 days split over a four-week span. Much of the crew’s success was due to the use of a Steadicam, which enabled to film smooth, continuous long shots. The collaborative character of the production, in which even the main characters participated in moving stuff and putting up shots, greatly contributed to the convenience of filming. Not to add that Halloween was held on a modest budget of just $300,000. Well done, John Carpenter!