The movie in question, The Terminators wasn't made for SYFY though, it was one of The Asylum's "mockbusters" released around the same time as Terminator Salvation, made strictly for the Direct to Video Market.
And judging by that trailer for The Terminators, production quality wise I don't think that would cut it these days.
Even though the VFX in SYFY movies is by no means flawless or at big budget studio film level, most of the times it is much better than that.
Nowadays low budget production companies can churn out increasingly better CGI cheaper than ever.
The thing is, I think you actually might be working with 1/5th of The Asylum's budget level. I'd say most of their movies cost between $100k and $200k, some even much lower than that.
Some possibly higher, but nowhere near the often reported $1M.
They churn them out fast and cheap. They probably own their own gear, they have their own editing equipment, they have their own VFX guys, everything is done in house.
They're also known for hiring young filmmakers to work for them for dirt cheap.
I heard a story where a name actor who was hired for one of their mockbusters at the time heard that the grips on set weren't getting paid a nickel, so he felt bad and gave the guys money from his own pocket.
One story tells how they were shooting a car stunt with a bunch of professional stunt drivers, but they were too cheap to order an ambulance or a firetruck on set in case of an accident.
Finally they had to order the ambulance and firetruck since the drivers refused to perform the stunt otherwise.
Later it turned out that the firetruck was empty, since apparently it would have cost them extra to fill the tank.
Take that as you will, but bottom line is, they're notoriously cheap.
Regarding Troma, their business is largely based on distribution these days. They acquire no-budget genre movies from amateur filmmakers, slap the Troma logo on the cover and sell them on DVD.
The last actual movie they produced themselves was Poultrygeist in 2006. Lloyd Kaufman, the founder and owner of the company financed the movie himself and later went on to say that they lost every penny they invested in the movie. They made 0% back.
also the Roger Corman produced tv show you linked from the 90's isn't really an indicator on what sells in 2012.
I think it's great that you're trying to improve the production quality of your movies, and you have, but even if you can make your movies to *look* the same way as many of SYFY's programming, doesn't mean that they would necessarily air it.
SYFY acquires a lot of their programming from established production companies who they have existing relationships with, such as The Asylum and Active Entertainment.
And most of the stuff they produce for SYFY are the ever popular creature features or disaster movies.
You have to ask yourself, are you making a passion project, or an actual product, made by distribution in mind, targeted toward the direct to video and TV markets?
Are buyers looking for movies similar to yours at the moment?
