From the original press kit...

These comments were written in 1999, and seem to be just as relevant today...

Betaville represents the future of cinema!
No doubt we will continue to have blockbuster mega million dollar productions from Hollywood for many years to come, but technology has now reached a point where the first hurdle to film making is creative rather than financial. To make a 35mm film requires financial backing from people who expect a return on their dollars, and who are unlikely to want to run with a wild card.

However the cheap digital technology now available means that almost anyone can put together the necessaries to make a film. All you need is a camera, a computer, skill, actors, a make up guru, locations, sets, a good soundtrack, a thorough knowledge of continuity editing, a desire to work for months without pay and the ability to convince others that they are actually enjoying themselves and this really is all worthwhile.

Why Betaville?
When I was a teenager in the 1970s I watched Jean Luc Godard’s Alphaville. Alphaville is a  New Wave science fiction  film made in 1964 on the  smell of an oily rag. I was  astounded at Godard’s  audacity in his methods  of dealing with the lack  of expensive special  effects. For example, since building a mock spaceship  was out of the budget, he simply had an image of a car on a  motorway with a voice over: “Traveling all night through intergalactic space...” Ed Wood’s solution to the same problem was to dangle burning paper plates in front of the camera, but the budget of Betaville did not allow us the luxury of burning paper plates as we borrowed and had to return absolutely everything. Actually the budget for Wood’s ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’ was huge compared to Betaville - actors got paid, he had the use of a studio, and shot on 35mm.

All materials © 2006 Phil Davison
All rights reserved.