It wouldn’t surprise me that some day, when the Best Director envelope is opened and the name is announced, a filmmaker who got his start with videos posted on YouTube will win. When Spielberg was a novice at being a filmmaker as a kid, he didn’t have the luxury to share his films with the world. Now because of sites like YouTube a person can get a lucrative Hollywood deal. And that’s just what happened to Fede Alvarez, a producer from Uruguay.
He ponied up three-hundred dollars to create a video about a robot invasion in the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo. Titled Ataque de Panico! (Panic Attack), the four-minute short features giant, slow-moving robots with plenty of firepower.
So for the cost of a PlayStation 3, Perez has made a short with amazing production values. In my mind, 2009 was a good year for debut filmmakers. Duncan Jones (Moon) and Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer) made the transition from music videos, and Neill Blomkamp, who some have compared Perez to, made the South African-based alien flick District 9.
Perez to the BBC said that he uploaded Ataque on a Thursday and on Monday his “inbox was totally full of emails from Hollywood studios.” After a small bidding war, he took a $30 million deal with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures. That $300 investment is looking pretty good right about now. Now Perez has his sights set on a science-fiction thriller set in Argentina and Uruguay. No robots this time, however.
Take a look at the four-minute short that made his Hollywood dreams come true.
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He did that for $300?! Major kudos to him man. He deserves it! Hopefully he’ll just as much successful with a big budget and a hollywood crew backing him.