10 Unbelievable Behind-The-Scenes Stories About The Room
2. It Was Filmed In Both 35mm And HD
This one is just bizarre.
As it turns out, not only did Tommy Wiseau not know how to write a film, he also didn’t know how to make one.
Firstly, he purchased all of the film equipment, including a brand new $30,000 camera just to film the behind-the-scenes feature for the DVD, instead of following the conventional method of renting it.
Secondly, Tommy didn’t know the difference between 35mm (when a movie is recorded onto physical film) and HD (where a film is recorded digitally). Luckily, this didn’t matter, because the entire movie was recorded in both.
At great expense, Wiseau had special film equipment built to house two separate cameras; one 35mm and one HD. Wiseau wanted to be the first director to make an entire movie in two different formats. Why? Look, if you haven’t figured out that this guy just does stuff for the sake of it, then you clearly haven’t been paying attention.
Sadly for Tommy, his dream never came to pass, as, despite the effort the crew had gone to with filming in separate cameras, the final cut of the film only used the 35mm footage.
So, Tommy didn’t break any records, but he certainly broke his budgets, as he used all £6,000,000 of the film’s budget on its production and marketing. Good thing he sold so many Korean jackets.