I've been watching Daredevil on Netflix. It's interesting how often it miraculously finds itself in deserted settings, in NYC no less. I wonder how much of that is budget related (though it seems to really shoot in NYC, which isn't cheap).
It's not inexperience in that case. It could be the particular kind of experience the filmmakers have. It seems pretty heavy on former Buffy people, and that show was masterful in its use of a low budget. I do wonder if that experience kind of over-molded them all. Even Whedon is just now coming to terms with what he can do with an actual budget. Anyway, just musing.
I've only watched 3 episodes of that so far but it does seem like a conscious decision to me - the main character is a vigilante, there's a lot of crime and corruption going on, so there are good story reasons for characters to isolate themselves. But it could be part budgetary - extras must get pretty expensive when you're signed up with all of the guilds and so on. whereas an indie producer on a tiny budget can get away with inviting people to be in a movie for novelty, free food, and a DVD, established producers have to pay all those warm bodies. On Elementary for example (also set in New York, and with loose structural similarities - investigating crime every episode, regular obligatory scenes in police stations and courthouses etc. - they easily use 30+ extras per episode. There's almost always an interview scene involving a suspect and lawyer that takes place in a windowed office with as many as 10 background actors in police uniforms etc.
It's not inexperience in that case. It could be the particular kind of experience the filmmakers have. It seems pretty heavy on former Buffy people, and that show was masterful in its use of a low budget. I do wonder if that experience kind of over-molded them all. Even Whedon is just now coming to terms with what he can do with an actual budget. Anyway, just musing.