[…] Lo-Fi Sci-Fi is an emerging genre of the last decade or so inspired by Mumblecore and budgetary constraints. The name is derived from ‘Low Fidelity’ and ‘Science Fiction’, seemingly meant to convey the low budget, amateur approach of filming a Science Fiction movie. This is not to dumb down the genre at all but portray its indie status devoid of any Hollywood blockbuster characteristics that many contemporary Science Fiction films have. New Sci-Fi cinema has unfortunately began to suffer in thematic substance and has been generally …read more […]

If you'd been in the UK over the last 10 days you could have paid a visit to SCI-FI-LONDON, the capital's only dedicated SF film festival, and seen a whole bunch of lo-budget (or lo-fi) science fiction films from around the globe. In fact, over the last 13 years they've shown all kinds of lo-budget SF that you probably wouldn't see anywhere else, including a fair few of those featured on that list. Ask Gareth Edwards. He got the funding for 'Monsters' off the back of winning the SCI-FI-LONDON 48hr Film Challenge and the short he made features on the 'Monsters' Blu-Ray. Catch it here: http://www.sci-fi-london.com/48-hour-film-challenge/previous-winners From 48hr film challenge to Godzilla in 5 years. Not bad eh?

That's great to know, swinefever, especially re Monsters, which is one of the movies cited in the Taste of Cinema list. I'll add your link to the OP with a HT to you. Thanks!

Another good movie that serves as an example is 2004's movie the Final Cut (with Robin Williams).. technically it's a science fiction film, and set in the future, but they don't dwell on "the future" for one nanosecond. They get on with the story, and the movie is better for it. "Moon" is a great movie. I love what you are saying here, which is basically, let J.J. Abrams dream up new, expensive special effects... you.. you should focus on telling a great story, and how you can tell it best without spending $100 million.

Yes, FilmTimelapse. As a writer who traffics in sci-fi put it to me a few months ago: "The key is big idea, small budget." In some ways, it seems to me, science fiction is perhaps the perfect genre for this formula because you can come up with a surprising, distinctive, unusual idea that has big implications, yet like Moon, use a contained environment to minimize budget. Write a kick-ass story, then managers will be all over that, and as noted in the OP, can send out the script to dozens of potential interested parties.