What would rich movie directors do if they were reduced to poverty?

On the set of Night of the Living Dead

It's like when I worked at the car wash. One of the boys was promoted to assistant manager. It didn't work out so they fired him. I guess it would be too demeaning to be demoted back to your old job, so they get rid of you completely.

I've wondered about movie directors. Look at some of them who started out making very inexpensive independent movies. John Waters would be an extreme case if you go back to his work on double 8mm. But there's also Spike Lee. She's Gotta Have It reportedly cost $175,000 in 1986, ($396,000 in today's money). Would Jim Jarmusch or Robert Rodriguez go back to making really cheap movies if they had to?

As I recall, Rodriguez' El Mariachi cost something like $7,500. It was shot on 16mm. All but $400 of the budget went to film and processing. Today, he could use digital effects for muzzle flashes, blood spatter and bullet strikes. So, in theory, if he shot it now on digital video, it might cost $200.

I know that people think they've debunked this, that the studio had to spend a lot to prepare El Mariachi for theatrical distribution, but that wouldn't be an issue today because it would go straight to video.

There's Alfred Hitchcock. He talked about his days in silent film. They spent very little on movies back then---so little that he and his cast and crew were in their way to Germany to film a movie and he was informed that they would have to smuggle the filmstock into the country to avoid paying duty on it.

Truffaut, in his book on Hitchcock, noted that if some disaster struck and Hollywood had to go back to silent film, Hitchcock was the only major director who be able to continue working. But would he?

There were directors in Iraq who started filming with camcorders after the U.S. imperialism destroyed their country.

I don't know what my point is. I guess, don't feel sorry for these rich guys who can't get tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars to make their lousy movies. All the great directors go into decline if they live long enough. Let 'em decline.

Look at the number of movies (he calls them "films") Woody Allen churns out year after year, getting cheaper and cheaper as he goes on. When he made Match Point, he found he had no money left for music. He made a deal with a company that put out a CD of public domain recordings of Caruso and used that.

Of course, Allen's movies aren't that cheap. I won't be happy until they're filmed in and around his apartment with a camcorder. And not a prosumer camcorder. A regular camcorder.