Australian filmmaker Anthony Frith directed a feature film for the low-budget studio The Asylum in just six days, capturing the chaotic behind-the-scenes reality in the documentary Mockbuster, according to reporting by The Guardian. The project paired a minuscule budget with an aggressive production schedule, exposing the friction between independent creative ambition and a commercial formula built on rapid-fire, bargain-basement cinema.
Inside The Asylum’s Fast-Paced Production Pipeline
The Asylum is widely known for producing low-budget B-movies, frequently operating as “mockbusters”—cheap imitations of major Hollywood releases with titles like Transmorphers and Top Gunners, as reported by The Guardian. Frith’s assignment for the studio was The Land That Time Forgot, a pulpy adaptation featuring an Australian naval vessel attacked by a Russian submarine, stranding the crew on a dinosaur-infested island. According to Paul Bales, the chief operating officer of The Asylum, the studio’s business model is unapologetically commercial: “We make shitty movies, for people with bad taste … we’re barely above porn,” Bales stated in Mockbuster, as noted by The Guardian.
Overcoming Production Fiascos on a Six-Day Schedule
Frith entered the production with a self-described level of bravado, admitting he genuinely believed he could make something special despite the tight six-day shoot. “Because you’ve got to have that bravado, right? Otherwise, why are you doing it?” Frith told The Guardian. That optimism collided immediately with logistical hurdles. Production fiascos included discovering deep into filming that all the Russian flags sewn onto the cast’s costumes were upside down. In another instance, a producer objected to Frith’s plan to film in front of a garage door and pass it off as a battleship, forcing a hasty relocation to a nearby concrete wall.
Creative Friction and Post-Production Additions
According to Frith’s accounts in The Guardian, working within the studio system meant that any distinctive creative flavor was systematically smoothed over. “Through their pipeline, they shave off all the flavour from the cast and crew,” Frith said. Following the initial shoot, the studio added new dialogue scenes set in the Pentagon to patch narrative holes. Frith criticized these studio-mandated additions, arguing they ultimately generated more plot holes and bored audiences.
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