In December 1959 Roger Corman shot the interiors of The Little Shop of Horrors in two days, on a standing set at the old Chaplin Studios. The actors were hired for one week, three days of rehearsal and two of shooting. Exterior scenes took four more evenings. The film cost less than $30,000 and earned back its cost.
Corman titled his memoir How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime. “I had never thought of myself as doing Great Art,” he said. “I felt I was working as a craftsman.” Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese worked for him early in their careers. In 2009 he received an honorary Academy Award.