The Peanut Butter Case Study pt. 2

I only get one chance to make this movie, and I do not want to mess up. So I am continuing research on The Peanut Butter Falcon that will help me to establish how it should be produced and distributed.

Production

The production cost for this movie was 6.2 million dollars. While this sounds like a lot of money, this is actually considered a low budget film. For example another drama comedy movie, Good Morning Vietnam cost 13 million dollars to make.

This 6.2 million dollars included a $20,000 proof-of-concept video (I will explain more about what a proof-of-concept video in a later post ) and because of this video many famous actors, like Shia LaBouf, Dakota Johnson, and John Hawkes gained interest in being in the film. Soon enough production began in Georgia in July 2017.

Production cost was kept low through the unique creative work of the actors and directors. Many viewers and critics praise the writers/directors use of rafting through the North Carolina marshes as a vehicle for the story, saying it was a great “modern retelling of the Huckleberry Fin adventure.” But when writer/director Tyler Nelson is asked what gave him the inspiration for this “vehicle” he simply states,

In addition to props, the cost of hiring actors was also reduced by allowing members of the town in which they were shooting to play a part in the movie. While a majority of the roles they played were extras some got to play major roles. For example, Rob, a local fisherman, acted as the man who fired the main character Tyler (Shia LaBeouf) from his fishing job.

“Shia got a job on a fishing boat during pre-production to be authentically a crab fisherman, and that guy Rob ran the boat and taught him how to fish,”

“So when it was time to run that scene, we were like, yeah, he’d be good in there, and even better than an actor.”

“We just pulled him over and were like, ‘Hey, come over here and do this scene!’ And he was like, ‘OK!’ I don’t even think he has a TV.”

Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nelson

The inclusion of these local “actors” not only made the production of the movie cheaper, but made the movie seem more authentic. It felt real to the actors, and this energy was transferred to the viewers, making a stronger connection between the audience and the film.

In my next post I will be continuing this case study with an evaluation of how The Peanut Butter Falcon was distributed.

Resources:

“Bluegrass, Low Budgets, and Professional Wrestling: How the Indie Sensation ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ Was Made.” /Film, 7 Aug. 2019, http://www.slashfilm.com/making-of-the-peanut-butter-falcon/.Ramos, Dino-Ray.

“’The Peanut Butter Falcon’s Shia LaBeouf, Zack Gottsagen And Filmmakers Talk Non-Cutesy Authenticity Of SXSW Film.” Deadline, 27 Aug. 2019, deadline.com/2019/03/peanut-butter-falcon-shia-labeouf-zack-gottsagen-tyler-nilson-michaek-schwartz-sxsw-1202576191/.