Christopher Nolan had a mystery, low budget film called Following in 1998.
Since this is a mini-case study, not much in depth research will go into it, but a few surface level information tactics will be in use.
The executive producer of the film was Peter Broderick. He’s dabbled in many other films, not just mystery films and produced those as well. The film’s budget was around $6,000. Compared to today, that number might be higher, but it’s very low budget even for the late 90’s. This movie was shot on film rather than digital. Nolan himself said they did it to challenge his crew to film the movie and to save money. Film itself can save money since there isn’t as much technology to use as much as digital film might use. Production for this film took about a year to finish. Some issues were the money since no film could be wasted. This led to the actors always having to rehearse their lines and actions very well so they could do it in minimal takes. The lighting was a challenge since it could’ve halted production since the time of day may be not the best and he had to use his local friends and family’s homes to shoot some scenes. Finding how it was distributed was difficult, but it was through the use of platforming. It was released in a few places at first, then to many other cities and countries following it. It grossed $240,495 upon release, so the money was definitely earned back. This film was independent, since it was released under Next Wave Films. Momentum pictures distributed the film to many major theaters afterwards. He marketed the film so that hints and clues were given to the audience for the story but didn’t show any real concrete or confirmed information through trailers and teasers. The film didn’t have much media synergy with any other sector of business, so there was no cross promotion or any of the sort. It was exhibited through theatrical release in theaters in 1998-1999. A person can find the film on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime, or YouTube.
Sources
https://www.nextwavefilms.com/ourfilms.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Following (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Into The Truth 