On the Cheap: My Life in Low Budget Filmmaking

by Greydon Clark

During four decades Greydon Clark has worked in front of and behind the camera to bring some of the most memorable exploitation movies to life. “On the Cheap” is an in-depth, first person account of a lifetime spent in this fascinating Hollywood sub-culture.

From the sexy pep squad of “Satan's Cheerleaders” to the dirty dancing of “Lambada, The Forbidden Dance,” to “Joysticks,” “Without Warning,” “Black Shampoo” and dozens of others, Greydon breaks down each of his films into easily understood categories: screenplay, financing, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution, allowing the reader a true behind the scenes look at the ins and outs of the low budget world.

His movies boast Oscar winners - Martin Landau, George Kennedy, Jack Palance - and stars in the making just beginning their careers - Andrew Dice Clay, David Caruso, Julia Duffy, Laura Harring and many others.

"On the Cheap" is required reading for anyone interested in film or the art of low budget filmmaking. Greydon tells an amazing story of his days on the fringes of Hollywood, struggling to make films in the most cut-throat business there is. Reading his autobiography is like being taken on a personal tour of the gritty, remorseless but always thrilling ground floor of the film industry.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Cheryl Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start by saying I am a HUGE Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan and a lover of good/bad films, so frankly I know of Greydon Clark and his low-budget pictures.

This was an interesting read. Mr. Clark definitely loves to make movies, but most of the book was all about money (isn't everything in movies though?). Financing made up a good portion of it, and in the beginning it was interesting but after a while there was so much back and forth and all of it the same money deals. It became tedious.

Speaking of money, his wife Jackie (the schoolteacher from Angel's Revenge for all you MST3K fans out there) was an angel in every sense of the word. Every chapter after they're married begins with "so I talked to Jackie and we agreed to take out a second lien on our home". She put up with a LOT for Greydon to make his movies and never seemed to complain. The book should have titled "Thank God for Jackie".

I would give this 2.5 stars, rounding up to 3 because it was a little cumbersome after awhile and wasn't worth the high Kindle price (I had a credit so I could justify it) especially when you encounter weird typos here and there and some weirdness like where Greydon Clark praises actor Darby Hinton only to call him Darcy for a couple of chapters. But it was a light, breezy read and interesting to see a few tidbits on movies I'd seen along the way and a few I wanted to see (Wacko sounds like goofy fun and Joysticks is one I have to watch).

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A straight-ahead nuts and bolts chronology of the production of Greydon Clark movies; the behind-the-scenes, brutal mechanics involved in launching low-budget projects off the ground (mortgaging homes, sacrificing bank accounts) and the oftentimes unrewarding distribution hell. Not to mention, the always-present Hollywood thievery and dishonesty. There's not a drop of pretentious artsy talk about cinema aesthetics here, just the hard work. To say that this book covers infantry-level, dog soldier film-making is an understatement. It covers all the production departments, some of them too briefly, but if you've seen some of the movies, you can attest to them running by pretty fast. Clark's on-set diplomacy is the funniest, especially his dealings with difficult people (actors, etc). His deal-making skills are covered in such great detail, the book reads like a business text. Uncommon in almost every book about film-making out there. The skills of Clark's repertory company of workers and actors come before any real characterizations, but you do get to know what a tough, supportive wife he had behind him on so many productions.

[M. Coutee · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Filmmaker with a Great Story!

I found Greydon Clark through Rifftrax and I hope he appreciates what they've done. It's good.

983 books on Kindle and I rarely leave reviews, but this book deserves it. It's brilliant for an autobiography in this format. Seriously. It tells you everything you want to know about making B-Movies and what that life was like in the film industry from the 60s to the late 90s, in a charming way. Thank you! I loved that you did Star Games and so many more. Thank you and Jackie and everyone else for creating so much for the rest of us to enjoy.

[Andie Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written in screenplay form since--as the author states early on--it's the format he's most comfortable with. Once I got used to the layout I found it an entertaining memoir of Clark's career making low budget films during the 1970s through the 1990s. If you're an MST3K fan you'll undoubtedly recognize many of his film titles. Fun stuff.

[Katharine Coldiron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should give this three stars, but I’m giving it four for heart and insider value. It’s not terribly well-written and not professionally edited, but it’s a genuine treat to read about Clark‘s adventures at the margins of moviemaking (budgetary, not identity). He worked small miracles on every film, even if the stuff he turned out was quite bad; learning how he made these bad movies, I was astonished he pulled them off at all. (The chapter on The Forbidden Dance was a major highlight.) If you like bad movies, want to learn more about how cheapie movies get made, and can set aside your inner copy editor for the length of a book, definitely lay your hands on this.