Costa's films, at least since
In Vanda's Room (2000), have shared certain unique characteristics: they are shot using a digital video camera, "a camera that you can buy in a supermarket," says the director; the production is collaborative, the people on screen 'playing' themselves, supplying their own words and working as an ad hoc film crew with Costa; they use real locations and whatever light happens to be available, only now and then making use of additional lamps or mirrors; and, most pertinently given Costa's filmmaking ethics, they are shot on very low budgets. When he made "In Vanda's Room", he went to Fontaínhas alone, the only equipment his cheap digital camera.
