The Main Tricks of No-to-Low Budget Indie Filmmaking
After 11 years of making short films in Colorado on a (snapped, facsimile of a) shoestring budget and beyond, I get asked this question a lot. Like A LOT, a lot.
How do you do it?
How does one make over 60 films with such a lack of funds and financial investment?
Well, strap on your mind expanding goggles, because below I lay out the main pieces you need to start making your own no-to-low budget films today!
- Know Your Limits
- Just Ask
- Respect & Recognize Contributions/Collaborations
- Yogi Flexibility
KNOW YOUR LIMITS
The first major thing I had to adjust when I began down this road, was understand realistically, from a storytelling perspective, what I could and could not manage to pull off.
I had to know the limits between what I could imagine on the page, and what I could create visually on the screen.
This was a big adjustment.
It wasn’t about necessarily reigning in my creativity, but adjusting it.
- Giving it recognizable boundaries in which to flex and find its threads.
- Writing simple setups and situations, with a focus on story and character.
- Learning the limits of your reach and social currency in the sphere of online communities and networks, to find out what you can beg and borrow in terms of locations, props, costumes.
All of this, and more, is key.
JUST ASK
To that end, in order to find out where those limits and reaches extend and what you have access to, remember that it never hurts to just ask.
The old saying holds true here.
The worst someone can say is (well, actually a lot of hateful and hurtful things that can cut deep but that typically don’t have anything to truly do with you so try to let that go) no.
You never know what little bit of magic you might have access to simply by reaching out to those in your circles.
I needed a basement to film a single scene where a character was murdered.
I never imagined that what I would be offered was a mostly empty, partially gutted and under renovation 12 building former factory site, with floor upon floor of wonderful locations and tons of inherent production value.
I wrote a whole new film just to capitalize on these facilities and freedom of access that I could not have fathomed was floating through my network.
RESPECT & RECOGNIZE CONTRIBUTIONS/COLLABORATIONS
It may not seem like much, and it should be a no-brainer, but in my experience this has carried me oh so far in the indie film game of no-to-low budget filmmaking.
No one person is an island, nor can anyone do this on their own.
There are so many talented, passionate, and generous individuals that end up being part of the process.
Each contribution and collaboration we are lucky enough to garner as we create, is invaluable to the project and the final film that is rendered in the end.
We need to show in every interaction and moment shared with those who support us, how much their contributions and collaborations mean to us and the project as a whole.
Easy ways to do this:
- Punctuality/Mindfulness of time
- Adapting shooting schedules to personal schedules of your cast/crew
- Providing food and drinks on set
- Engaging with everyone on set and thanking them verbally and on socials
YOGI FLEXIBILITY
And so remembering to be flexible, patient, and understanding with those you are working with is also a vital ingredient to these cinematic confections you hope to create.
But the flexibility must go further than that, from page to set, and in turn screen.
Know that what was written, and as such imagined on the page, may not logistically translate to the real world when staging the scenes to be shot.
Everything on that page works in theory. But when put into actual practice with real world blocking and location layouts to contend with, some compromises might be necessary.
Okay, they will be necessary.
Allow the story to find its most natural movement and progression in the space as you shoot. Don’t be so rigidly married to what is on the page that you end up painting yourself into the corner of inachievability.
Bend so as to not break the project, timeline, and trust of those who have so willingly given of their time, talent, or property.
In the end, there is no guaranteed recipe for success in the arena of visual storytelling.
But the more you learn to work with your limitations the stronger your storytelling game will get. Use them as creative assets rather than viewing them as impediments.
Equipment, while necessary, is so often accessible. It’s not about the level of gear you have at your disposal, but how skillfully those who are wielding it work.
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