Movies
‘Mockbuster’ Teaser Trailer – Documentary Chronicles The Aslyum Filmmaker’s B-Movie Experience
Mockbuster plunges viewers into the fast-and-loose filmmaking world of The Asylum, the infamous B-movie studio behind Sharknado.
Helmed by Anthony Frith, watch the teaser trailer for the Australian documentary below.
With a once-promising film career flattened to corporate video gigs, Frith decides to pitch himself to The Asylum to direct a lost-world dinosaur epic. Against all reason, the studio famous for its guilty-pleasure exploitation films says yes.
What follows is a madcap production of The Land That Time Forgot in suburban Adelaide, shot in just six days on a budget that could generously be described as “aspirational.”
Frith isn’t just directing the The Land That Time Forgot — he’s also helming the behind-the-scenes documentary that is Mockbuster, capturing the beautiful mess of full-blown B-movie filmmaking. Between demanding LA executives, a game but bewildered cast, and his own self-doubt, the pressure builds.
What emerges is not just a chronicle of chaotic production, but an unexpectedly tender portrait of chasing the dream through the absurd hustle of genre filmmaking — and finding a different kind of success behind the scenes.
Throughout the shoot, Frith navigates the gloriously chaotic orbit of Asylum producer Brendan Petrizzo and studio founders David Rimawi, David Latt, and Paul Bales as he attempts to keep a prehistoric adventure afloat amid rubber dinosaurs, last-minute rewrites, and caffeinated panic.
From Mostly True Media and Walking Fish Productions, David Elliot-Jones, Sandy Cameron, and Naomi Ball produce. David Farrier (Tickled) executive produces alongside Nick Savva, Madeleine Schumacher, Alex West, Ty Morse, Phil Laboon, Ari Harrison, and Cam Rogers.
The doc is supported by Screen Australia, with the South Australian Film Corporation and Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund, in association with VicScreen.
Mockbuster will have its US premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California on February 5 with cast and crew in attendance.
Movies
‘Backrooms’ Director Kane Parsons Is No Fan of Generative AI: “Defeats the Purpose Entirely for Me”
There has been a lot of talk recently about filmmakers embracing generative AI as part of the filmmaking process, from Darren Aronofsky to Martin Scorsese. But what about filmmakers that are against the use of Gen AI for creative pursuits? You can count 20-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons among that group, which should give you some hope for the future.
In a new chat with The Australian, the self-taught young filmmaker makes it crystal clear that he won’t be using generative AI in any of his upcoming filmmaking projects.
“I think I’m in the same boat as most well-adjusted people,” Parsons tells the outlet. “If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would. Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me.”
“What interests me more is interrogating it artistically,” Parsons notes. “We already live in a world where you walk outside and there are billboards and signs that are obvious AI slop. That’s become part of our visual reality. To me, generative AI feels less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot.”
He explains, “I’m interested in using that iconography in art – not using AI to make the art itself, but examining what it represents. I definitely want to explore it further in future projects.”
Kane Parsons also notes during the interview with The Australian, “… there’s so much at stake and so many genuinely harmful consequences already happening.”
Backrooms marks young prodigy Kane Parsons’ feature directorial debut, and it’s based on his own series of YouTube videos that were brought to life using Blender, the open-source 3D computer graphics software suite. So it’s no surprise that Parsons, who has hand-made his filmmaking career up to this point, isn’t buying into the hoopla around Generative AI.
His debut feature is the #1 movie in the world, so perhaps he’s onto something.
What’s next from Kane Parsons, you ask? Stay tuned…
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