Directors downsize their productions' scales

In "Taking Woodstock," the spirit of late '60s rebellion uplifts and frees audiences. It is not a concert film and features no footage of the celebrated music extravaganza but instead tells the true story of a dutiful, closeted gay son, Elliot Tiber, who attempts to rescue his parents' crumbling Catskills resort by enticing the promoters of Woodstock to set up their three-day peace-love-and-understanding rock festival next door.

At a budget close to $30 million, "Taking Woodstock" remains modest by studio standards but still cost twice the price of "Brokeback Mountain," mostly due to the 400 to 500 extras outfitted in full hippie regalia. Yet the structure of the lighter fare -- by his usual collaborator, Focus Features Chairman James Schamus -- was completely different from Lee's serious dramas, which were crafted with Swiss-watch meticulousness.

"Usually in dramas, you have your way to set up the character and conflict, and people fight their way out," Lee said. "Here you don't have that benefit." The Woodstock festival passed through this small hamlet, and a community of people "managed to survive this. It's like magic. It's chance. It's harder for a filmmaker to have a grasp on because it's not specific. It's abstract. That presented a challenge, which I welcomed."

"Away We Go," "Taking Woodstock," "The Girlfriend Experience" and "Drag Me to Hell" don't feature established movie stars, the kind who invariably end up on the studios' very short wish lists.

For "Taking Woodstock," Lee cast stand-up comedian Demetri Martin as the lead and wound up calibrating all the other actors' performances off Martin's naturalistic acting style. After making three super-sized, effects-studded films, Raimi went simple with "Drag Me to Hell," which was made for around $30 million and features Alison Lohman ("Matchstick Men"), who is hardly a household name. "I realized all these toys I'm used to are wonderful but not always necessary," Raimi told The Times. "All I really need is the actress."

In "The Girlfriend Experience," which details the day-to-day life of a high-end escort, Soderbergh actually created the film around Grey. "Employing non-actors, by design you are building the piece around them and what they bring of themselves," the director recently told The Times. "What's fun about it is that you're never sure what you're going to get. You have to let it go where it's going to go and not force it. It's a good way to work, you're constantly adapting to what's in front of you."