Leonardo DiCaprio’s Killers of the Flower Moon has received a great number of praises ever since it was released. Martin Scorsese’s work being brought to life in the most beautiful manner has smitten the audience in an instant. Movies as large-scale as this often have a big budget to support them as well. However, that does not always guarantee that a movie would be good.
The Flash had a significantly massive budget and it flopped tragically at the box office. There are often moments when directors cannot do what they want because of budgetary constraints. In the case of DiCaprio’s flick, the lack of funds for a $200 Million movie may have helped in envisioning one of the most integral scenes of the film.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Film Faced Budgetary Constraints
The entirety of Killers of the Flower Moon has been a spectacle for the audience. Leonardo DiCaprio’s film has captured themes that critics and audiences cannot stop praising. Despite it all, the film only had a $200 Million budget, out of which its current box office gross holds up to only $137 Million (via Box Office Mojo). One of the most integral scenes of the film was the death of Mollie Burkhart’s sister.
“You do see the explosion, and the house explodes. I brought up the money factor. You always have to weigh, are you spending the money that you’re going to spend to do that, are you getting the production value out of it? Do you really need to spend that much money for a heartbeat of a second in a film?… Because you’re talking $275,000, something like that, to build a house and blow it up.”
The scene was supposed to incorporate an entire house exploding. The initial idea had been to show the entire explosion taking place. However, Scorsese’s film would have asked to invest a total of $275,000 in the scene alone. As per The Direct, SFX supervisor Brandon McLaughlin brought up the issue. He suggested that putting so much of their funding on a scene that did not last longer than a second would reap no production value.
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The Exploding Scene Became Much Better
Speaking with The Direct, Brandon McLaughlin explained how he would have been the first in line to make the explosion happen had there not been any limitations. However, they did not take their lack of funding as an obstacle. They instead chose to craft the scene according to it.
“I’ll be the first one to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ But being in my position, you also have to weigh the cost of everything too… you have to make sure that you spend the money properly. So we came up with the idea of selling the explosion, or the magnitude of the explosion, by blowing the windows in Molly and Earnest’s bedroom while they were sleeping, which I thought actually sold pretty well.”
Instead of adding visual value, they chose to add emotional and thematic value. This would allow not only them to incorporate the budget but also move the audience in a manner by which the scene becomes impactful, no matter how small it may be.
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