Overview of Mockbuster
Mockbuster is a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows director Anthony Frith as he attempts to make his debut feature for The Asylum, the studio known for Sharknado. The film serves as an affable salute to film-making savoir-faire, with the motto: 'A bad movie is better than no movie.'
Frith's Career Shock Therapy
Stuck making corporate videos to support his young family in Adelaide, Frith fears his artistic ambitions are fading. He opts for career shock therapy by cold-calling The Asylum in Burbank, California, and proposing to oversee one of their straight-to-digital features. The studio agrees, giving him six days to complete filming on a new version of The Land That Time Forgot, their first movie shot in Australia. The budget is subatomic, there is no finished script when he signs the contract, and he is told days before the shoot to secure his own production team.
The Asylum's Survivalist Approach
The Asylum executives rely on extreme frugality for profit margins, dote on their directors with quasi-sadistic fondness, and warn Frith not to get 'artistic.' The studio's credo is that most viewers have no patience for arthouse complexity, so why should film-makers? As the LA movie ecosystem dries up, these survivalist cockroaches may well be the last outfit standing, representing movie-biz expediency in its most atavistic form, where 'the genre is the star.'
Frith's Struggle and Camaraderie
Facing the schedule from hell, Frith canvasses survival advice from The Asylum veterans like actor Eric Roberts and low-budget grafters including horror wonderkid Danny Philippou, who scoffs that Frith looks broken before he's begun. Chivvied through by in-house producer Brendan Petrizzo, Frith reflects that he may have found his natural level. He sometimes struggles to break down his experience into dramatically parsable portions, leaning on voiceover to tell the story. But ironically, he succeeds in making quite a good film—a companionable reflection on artistic aspirations, compromise, and on-set camaraderie, all in a solid 90 minutes.
Release and Availability
Mockbuster is on digital platforms in the US now and in the UK from 27 July.
