MAKING A LOW BUDGET FILM

Bruce Bisbey…please follow us at: https://dumbdogproductionsllc.blogspot.com

MAKING A LOW BUDGET FILM

Independent filmmakers’ can make films much more cost effectively than the majors. Because the budgets are relatively modest, independent filmmakers can afford to make a movie that fails (unlike the majors). In this brave new movie world, everyone wants in – the studios want in, the websites want in, traditional TV want in, the gamers and app builders want in, the big banks, the big brands and hedge funds want in. Everyone wants in. The studios and distributors, websites and television broadcasters all have the hardware to play movies. What they lack is the software – the movies. And if you are able to make compelling content, you will make money.

BE DISCIPLINED

It's hard to be prepared and intentional when shooting digital, but its good practice.

CAMERA’S

High-end film cameras are expensive. The cost to use an 8K RED Weapon, for example, can grow astronomically out of hand very quickly. Chances are, you or someone you know has a perfectly capable DSLR or mirrorless camera that can shoot high-quality HD or even 4K without breaking the bank.

Having a “good” camera is not a prerequisite for getting your film into film festivals or posting it online. If you understand of the technology (or have a good DP who does), you should be able get footage that is dynamic enough to tell your story — which should be your main focus.

GREATER DYNAMIC RANGE MAKES CINEMATIC SHOTS POSSIBLE

The higher-end cameras can often offer several more stops of dynamic range. This latitude allows shot compositions that the cheaper cameras just can’t possibly perform. For example, indoor shots that have bright windows are now possible without too many problems. Here’s a breakdown of dynamic ranges with some varying levels of cameras.

LOW-LIGHT PERFORMANCE SOLVES LIGHTING PROBLEMS

With a lower-grade DSLR, lighting is a constant concern — but not in a good way. There is always a struggle to make sure you have enough of it. Often you don’t, so you need to spend either a good deal of time getting creative with what you have available, or with boosting exposure in post.

With a higher-end camera, low light is not always a hindrance. In fact, with a wide enough latitude, shooting in low-light situations can really be explored and utilized to help set mood and tell a story.

EDITING IN 4K GIVES LEEWAY AND OPTIONS IN THE EDIT

Similarly, when you do shoot with a better sensor and greater dynamic range, you’re left with much more flexibility in the edit room with colors and contrast range. Also, if you’re using 4k footage for normal 1080p web video, you have the added luxury of cropping a frame to a much higher degree. This also opens the door for better stabilization and digital motion after the crop.

WORKFLOW AND GEAR CAN BREAK THE BANK

Despite all the perks of 4k, there are some factors that weigh in favor of a lower-end camera. 4k footage takes up a lot of space. Like, a LOT of space — especially when compared to the normal HD that you may be used to. On top of physical hard drives, that means more space is needed in the cloud and over the uploads and downloads. You’ll also need to invest in everything from higher-end cards or solid states, along with a general higher quality of equipment overall.

You’re not going to want to put a $10,000 camera on a plastic tripod you got from your uncle.

Here’s a good breakdown of all the costs of upgrading that you might not have thought about. But, all told, be prepared to spend around $4,000 to $5,000 to upgrade equipment, storage and editing capabilities.

BE FLEXIBLE ON SET

When you’re on set, try to keep an open mind about how to keep production costs down. A very detailed production script and schedule will help, but in the face of the many unforeseen setbacks you will undoubtedly face, flexible decision-making will get things done (and done well) without increasing costs.

SHARE CREDIT AND OWNERSHIP

When working on low- or no-budget passion projects, one of the major downsides is that you probably are not going to be able to pay your cast or crew very much — if at all. This means you’re working on favors, goodwill, and mutual benefits. In this situation, put your ego aside, and share as much credit as possible. This can create much greater buy-in and a sense of ownership for everyone involved — even when there’s no money.

FOCUS ON THE FUN MAKE IT AN ADVENTURE

On a similar note, make your project fun to work on. Filmmaking, at its heart, is a fun endeavor. You’re creating art, and it’s a break from reality — even if requires hard work. If you can keep that in mind and make your collaborative process enjoyable, your crew will give you as much as they can and come back to help out again.

Don't take things so seriously: You’re not performing lifesaving surgeries here, we're making movies. Being overly severe to the point that you're not enjoying yourself or having fun might mean that your audience won't enjoy it or have any fun either.

SKIMP ON EVERYTHING BUT THE STORY

This should probably be the first, last, and all the pieces of advice in between, but always, always, always put the story before everything else. Your camera, acting, and even directing is secondary to the focus on the story. As any filmmaker will tell you, the story is what will shine through, and it is what people will remember. The story gets films shot for free on old camcorders with non-actors into film festivals and launches careers. So, before you shoot, make sure it’s a story you’re ready to tell.

SOME TIPS:

1. THE STORY IS EVERYTHING

Nothing glues you to the screen more than a good story. If the story is there, does one really care about the budget of the film?

Stories and screenplays have four main elements:

Firstly, your story must have characters with a specific goal. A specific goal is one that can be measured, so at a point in time we can see whether or not the character achieves or fails to achieve the goal. For example, if your character’s goal is to move out of London – this is a weak goal. We all want to leave London. It’s dirty, expensive and increasingly dangerous. But if the goal of your character is to leave London by noon tomorrow, or else… then we have a goal that is easily measured.

Secondly, your story has a setting. The setting can be usual or unusual.

Thirdly, there are the Actions of the main characters and finally what they say, or Dialogue.

The trick of a good storyteller is to weave these four elements together so the seams do not show. When a writer achieves this, we say they have mastered the craft of storytelling. But not necessarily the art of storytelling.

Lo To No Budget Filmmaking

2. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

There are two expensive components to a film shoot. Image capture (camera) and the locations. When doing your pre-production, be aware of your scene settings. Reaching out to your network before deciding where you can shoot for cheap or for free shouldn’t hurt your creative process.

Consider public locations or places you’ve been before. There’s no reason you need to pay thousands of dollars in location fees or halt production because a scene’s location is too ambitious — especially if you could easily set the scene someplace much cheaper.

In addition to keeping locations in mind, think about your locations’ amenities — specifically lighting. This can help you cut costs, save time and reduce equipment needs. Look for locations outside or with lots of natural lighting, as that will help you save on large lighting setups.

You can still shoot stylistically. Just remember that it’s cheaper to create darkness than it is to create light.

Moving a cast and crew from location to location is time consuming, and expensive, regardless of your budget.

If you can reduce the amount of location moves, or eliminate them altogether, then you are a huge step closer to reducing your budget.

Locations in this scenario suddenly have a huge impact on the script. To learn how, we need only to look at some of the most interesting films of the last few decades: Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Kevin Smith’s Clerks, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Orin Pelli’s Paranormal Activity and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. These films have one thing in common: limited locations. In fact, they would each make excellent stage plays. The trick, it seems, is to take a bunch of actors to a limited location and chop them up. When you do this, you will essentially be filming a stage play. But a stage play filmed as a stage play is boring. Turn your limited location script (which is essentially a stage play) into a movie successfully, and you will have, what the moguls in Hollywood call, Talent.

3. IMAGE CAPTURE

Choosing the camera that suits your script and your budget is simpler than ever before. Most likely you will be shooting on a digital camera. Two elements of any camera you should look out for are: compression and lenses. Remember that all digital cameras generate the same signal. What influences the image quality are the lenses you film through and the numbers of pixels per frame (compression).

Since the shooting of the Sundance sensation, Tangerine, shooting on cell phones is becoming commonplace. We’ve been championing cell phones as cameras since the early days of 2004 when we created the 15 Second Shorts completion with our partner Nokia.

The ultimate no budget camera trick is use a little known fact of British law: security camera footage can be recovered if you have been the victim of a crime. The UK is covered in security cameras, some private and some publically owned. By law, if you suffer a crime, the police will request a copy of the tape from the camera owner.

Recce the CCTV cameras in your neighborhoods, write a screenplay, re-enact a series of ’crimes’ and presto – you will have your movie shot – for absolutely nothing.

4. SOUND

It isn’t the look of skin on skin that turns you on in a sex scene. It’s the sound of skin on skin. Professional filmmakers spend much of their time considering and creating the sounds that go with their pictures.

It is a fact too that our brains are wired in such a way that when we need to strain to hear what the actors are saying, the picture goes dim. Good clean sound with interesting effects added in is the quickest way to make your images, even those shot on your mother’s humble video camera, look great.

5. THE BUCKS ARE IN THE MUSIC

The fact of film revenue and distribution is that the main revenue streams are from the sound tracks for your film. This is because the musicians unions are much stronger than the actors, writers and film unions. After you film leaves the cinema (if it was lucky enough to get there in the first place) the main revenue streams a movie generates is for the mechanical copyright royalties for the sound track.

Filmmakers are usually the last to understand how music royalties are decided, registered and administered. Explaining music copyright law is something that falls outside this short article.

Briefly, filmmakers can get cheap or free scores by composing and performing it themselves. Remember that there are three music copyright streams: composers, lyricists and performers. Or, by getting an unsigned band to perform, or to acquire the movie rights to an existing band by contacting them through their agent, or estate if deceased. Research the track you are interested in through http://www.ppluk.com/

6. GET ORGANIZED

Nothing is more disheartening than showing up to help out on a mate’s shoot only to spend an hour looking for a screwdriver. Disorganization is totally unforgiveable and easily preventable by advance planning. Make sure you know where everything is, and make sure everything and everybody shows up at the right place at the right time. If this is not within your organizational ability, partner with someone who is.

7. YOUR FRIENDS CANNOT ACT

It is always tempting to get a few friends together to make a movie and use them as actors as well. This usually leads to peril because your friends are not trained actors. They may have spent hours and hours with a video camera in front of the bathroom mirror, but they will not know how to act in front of a camera on a set. When your friends think they are acting well on set, you will probably be so shocked at their hammy performances that you will be unable to direct them without running the risk of destroying your personal relationship.

Far better to advertise for actor/collaborators at local theatre and acting schools, hold rigorous auditions until you find a stellar cast of talented unknowns than use your friends.

If you have a suitable script and some money, you can approach a casting agent who will then pimp your script and your project out to established actors who might be willing to do it for nothing if they like the script, their role, and have been offered a suitable cut of the profits.

8. BUILD A FOLLOWING

In the good old days filmmakers would submit their films to a series of film festivals and tour with their film building the hype for their film until they received sufficient distribution offers to finance their next project. By making and touring film after film, a filmmaker was able to build up a loyal fan base which would guarantee them and their producers a predictable revenue stream.

The explosion of social media has changed the landscape and created two types of filmmakers: those who loathe and abhor social media, and those who embrace it.

Contemporary filmmakers can use social media to create a following of people eager to sample and appreciate their latest work. Astute filmmakers employ two producers: one who deals with the traditional production work flow, and one who deals with social media.

A first step for any filmmaker is to register the domain name for their Production Company and film title, as well as Facebook and Twitter profiles. Often these are sold on to eventual distributors, as was the case with Paranormal Activity.

One way to build a following is to attend industry events.

A great way to build your list is to comment on relevant articles, like this one. You can comment below.

9. ARE YOU A FILMMAKER, A CONTENT PROVIDER OR A COMMUNICATOR?

Whatever your goals are, remember that you need to decide what it is you are doing.

Filmmakers make films and hope to cruise the festival route until they are discovered and become festival darlings.

Content providers are professional filmmakers who deliver movies whether dramatic, corporate or documentary at a price per minute.

Communicators are filmmakers and content providers who have something to say using the power of moving images with excellent sound, well-crafted stories and good sound tracks. Communicators will also consider a host of different mediums including short two and three minute episodes for mobiles (mobisodes) or internet (webisodes). Gaming and phone apps also provide interesting storytelling possibilities with a host of different strategies for monetizing current content being debated around the world.

10. THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS LUCK

I believe that luck is earned through a combination of hard work and karma. If you maintain your integrity and your passion, success will surely visit you.

IT’S A WRAP

Nothing is as powerful as a good movie. And by using the medium of cinema you are able to influence and change lives. It is people like you that can make a difference and make this world a better place.

Sources, References & Credits: Google, Wikipedia, Wikihow, Pinterest, IMDB, Linked In, Indie Wire, Cinema Blend, Variety, Creative Skill Set, No Film School, Cinema Blend, Science 20, Reddit, Business Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, , Collins English Dictionary, Investopedia, Study, English Oxford Dictionaries, Hollywood Branded, Premium Beat, Business Weekly, Valve, Rain Dance, Elliot Grove, Film Maker Magazine,

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