Title: Shoestring Spectacle: Surviving The Last Stub Master
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Jonathan Gill
Starring: Ethan Toth, Sebastian Delgado
Runtime: 1 hr 8 mins

What It Is: In this documentary, Ethan Toth and Sebastian Delgado recount their experiences while filming The Last Stub Master, the final film in the Stub Master Saga. Ethan, as the lead actor of the film, and Sebastian, who served as the Director of Photography, each share the troubles of creating a feature-length film in two weeks and the many obstacles they overcame along the way.

What We Think: It’s truly hard to come to a conclusion about how I feel after watching this documentary. I wasn’t exactly prepared for the certain quality a no-budget production (according to IMDb it was one-hundred dollars) brings. The camerawork was lackluster, the audio quality fluctuated and there were some rudimentary zoom cuts that I’m most familiar with in YouTube videos. While this film and I started off on the wrong foot, I did grow to enjoy the experience of watching it as the pre, during, and post-production stories involved with shooting The Last Stub Master were rather interesting. On the one hand, I didn’t very much enjoy Toth’s scenes too much as he gave off pompous vibes and claimed to have made a great film but, on the other hand, Delgado was clearly more humble and was very truthful with the audience. The documentary would’ve worked a whole lot better had it contained more than just two interviews and had an actual budget so there could at least be some lower thirds to give the viewer something exciting to look at. Considering I had no idea who Toth or Delgado was or that The Last Stub Master was even a thing that existed, I surprisingly still partially enjoyed watching this documentary. Good context about The Last Stub Master, the Stub Masters YouTube channel, and their other projects is given which was very important to me not hating every second of this documentary. For what it is, it’s fine, but low expectations are a must when watching it.  

Our Grade: C-, This documentary is essentially just a way for Toth and Delgado to capture their fond memories of shooting The Last Stub Master. Delgado states that The Last Stub Master was a “nostalgic piece for everyone involved”. This documentary is roughly the same. If you have no idea who the Stub Masters are, have no interest in independent filmmaking, or hate to watch anything that was made without a budget, you should stay away from this documentary. Most people will never even know this film exists and that’s probably for the best.