The Rise of No-Budget Movies

With Hollywood living in a time of franchise excess—Marvel, DC, Avatar, anyone?—the “movies are dead” chorus is growing louder and louder. Film's unlikely hope? A quirky, brilliant wave of directors who are churning out microbudget features that are pushing what’s possible with minuscule funding. The do-it-yourself approach to building a filmmaking career is far from new. But as the proverbial party has shrunk, advances in filmmaking technology have made it easier for upstarts to create a party just as good as the industry’s. [View in Browser]( [Esquire]( [SHOP]( EXCLUSIVE [SUBSCRIBE]( [Welcome to the No-Budget Era]( [Welcome to the No-Budget Era]( With Hollywood living in a time of franchise excess—Marvel, DC, Avatar, anyone?—the “movies are dead” chorus is growing louder and louder. Film's unlikely hope? A quirky, brilliant wave of directors who are churning out microbudget features that are pushing what’s possible with minuscule funding. The do-it-yourself approach to building a filmmaking career is far from new. But as the proverbial party has shrunk, advances in filmmaking technology have made it easier for upstarts to create a party just as good as the industry’s. [Read More](   [The 9 Best Wine Decanters, According to the Experts]( [The 9 Best Wine Decanters, According to the Experts]( Fancy or fuss-free, there's something for everyone on this list. [Read More]( [How to Tell Stories About Fascism Now]( [How to Tell Stories About Fascism Now]( According to author and journalist Jeff Sharlet, "the old ways aren't going to work." [Read More](     [What I've Learned: José Andrés]( [What I've Learned: José Andrés]( José Andrés got his big start as a chef at Ferran Adrià 's elBulli in Spain, the original temple of molecular gastronomy. He immigrated to the U. S. from Spain in 1991. Today the José Andrés Group operates more than thirty restaurants including Jaleo, minibar, and several Bazaars, a kind of Spanish cuisine wonderland—Washington D.C. and New York get theirs this year. World Central Kitchen, the relief organization Andrés founded to help feed people in crisis, is the biggest food-aid organization in Ukraine. "My dream is to become local everywhere, but the world is too big to do that, right?" [Read More](   [A$AP Rocky Nailed His Lunch Date Outfit With Rihanna in a Green Bottega Veneta Vest]( [A$AP Rocky Nailed His Lunch Date Outfit With Rihanna in a Green Bottega Veneta Vest]( It's hard to make a puffer vest look cool, but the rapper does it with ease. [Read More]( [The 6 Best Cooling Mattresses For All-Night Comfort]( [The 6 Best Cooling Mattresses For All-Night Comfort]( The one way to guarantee breezy, beautiful sleep. [Read More](     [The Folks at Fox News Have Started to Turn on Each Other]( [The Folks at Fox News Have Started to Turn on Each Other]( In keeping with our new role as employment counselor to ambitious, career-minded young conservatives—you will recall that on Monday we advised up-and-coming lawyers not to take on the former president* as a client—we come now to warn young, ambitious conservative media types to avoid taking that job with Fox News. The place is an obvious snake-pit, through which you are as likely to end up in court as you are by being the former president*'s legal mouthpiece. [Read More](   [Win a Four-Night Stay in Tulum ($2,000 Value)!]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( esquire.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019