8 Insane Ways Movies Tried To Save Money
3. Parts Of The Terminator Were Shot Without A Permit
While chatting to EW about the production of his original Terminator movie, director James Cameron mentioned that, from day one, he wanted the film to be shot "cheaply, guerrilla-style," out on the streets of Los Angeles. When filming finally began, he certainly adhered to that mantra, at quite a ridiculous level.
Back then, Cameron wasn't the massive name he is today, and didn't have hits like Titanic and Avatar under his belt. As such, The Terminator's costs had to be kept in check, and he was only given around $6 million to play with (for comparison, Terminator 2 cost over $100 million). That small amount of money had to be stretched thin, and in some cases, not used at all.
So what did that entail? Well, in that same EW interview, Cameron (and producer Gale Hurd) described an instance where the movie was almost shut down by the police, on account of him not buying a permit to shoot in the area.
"All of a sudden this dot appears on the horizon. We see this car coming down this desert road. It’s a cop, and he pulls up and busts us. The police officer said, “I need to see your permit for filming here.” And we didn’t have one. We said, “Oh, officer, we’re making a UCLA student film. We didn’t know you needed permits.” And he said, “Okay, you’re fine, just take the camera off the road.” I don’t know if that cop ever figured it out."
For low-budget films in particular, permits can be pricey, but it is against the law to shoot without one, so Cameron definitely got lucky here.