10 Insane Things You Won’t Believe Movies Spent Money On
8. Shooting With Digital And Film Cameras - The Room (Cost Unknown)
The making of the 2003 cult disasterpiece The Room is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Star Tommy Wiseau acted as not just a performer on the picture, but also as director, producer, writer and executive producer, and the result is something so outrageous it has to be seen to be believed.
During production, in-keeping with the film's sheer randomness, Wiseau made the bizarre decision to shoot the picture using both 35mm film and HD digital cameras. According to Wiseau, he did this to give himself more options during post-production.
In the end, none of the digital footage made it into the film, and according to insiders the two-camera approach was abandoned halfway through filming.
How much this set production back is not known, but considering the nonsensical film somehow managed to cost $6,000,000 to make, it's fair to say it wasn't a cheap mistake.
In 2010, Wiseau attempted a 3D conversion in order to save the digital footage, but ditched it when he realised he didn't have enough shots. Thank the movie gods for that.