10 Movies Made Under INSANE Conditions
8. In Chronological Order With Only Natural Light - The Revenant
The overwhelming majority of films are shot with bespoke lighting setups which allow the director and cinematographer to dial-in the look of their movie to an extremely precise degree.
This is certainly more challenging when working outside, where filmmakers are often at the mercy of the elements, and may be forced to settle for manipulating natural light as best they can.
But Oscar-winning action-drama The Revenant is an especially extreme example of this, given that the entire film was shot using natural light.
Considering that the majority of the movie takes place outside, this presented a huge challenge for cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, to ensure that the weather and lighting continuously matched between camera setups, often requiring them to wait hours for the sun to shift or conditions to change.
And because that's not insane enough, director Alejandro G. Iñárritu also insisted that the film be shot in chronological order, meaning that the crew couldn't maximise their efficiency by shooting out-of-sequence scenes which matched the weather and lighting they were blessed with that day.
This and other factors caused The Revenant's shoot to last a mind-boggling 10 months, after which the budget had ballooned from an initial $60 million to an eye-watering $135 million.
In the very least, Fox was likely happy with the outcome, given that the movie grossed over $530 million globally and won three Oscars, including Best Director and Best Actor.