Pieces of April

I just saw the low budget indie shot-on-digital film "Pieces of April" and I have to say I'm amazed they could make an all-digital movie for only $500,000.  Most of the characters looked so lifelike and moved so smoothly that I could've sworn they were real people.  To be sure, the character voiced by Katie Holmes did look like something only a computer software engineer could dream up, a bit "off" if you know what I mean, but if you pay attention while watching you'll see that her artificial inhuman look and jerky movements, those rough pixelated edges and the overall roboticism of her character are key to the movie's central theme of humanity and inhumanity. 

You don't get quality CGI like that with a $500,000 budget.  I have no idea how they did it, other than to guess that the CGI company rendered it at a reduced rate in exchange for a share of the film's profits.  I'll bet at the time they joked about getting their piece of "April."