I have been becoming very interested in making a low budget film. I have an interest in this more so for personal expression than financial prospects. Anyone ever done full length films, or short films and have onsite on the process. I have some contacts with experience but would like to raise this discussion for the forum.

At my high school (and college to some degree) I would get some friends together with the promise of having beers and cigars afterwards, hand out some scripts, and act out a shitty movie which would get filmed and edited in a sitting. We would do these for school projects and by sophomore year of high school we had about ten "feature length" (probably fifteen minutes tops) films ready to go. That was enough for a nerd sundance film festival and I still have all the .wmv files from my shitty digital camera on my old laptop. It was a great time.

If you have an idea for a real movie but not much money, though, consider "Reservoir Dogs". It's a great movie where all the action takes place in one room (they do have a coffee shop scene, etc, but nothing to break the bank) and it's all made possible due to strong dialogue and good storytelling.

Interesting topic.

I have been thinking about this as well. The only problem I have run into is if you want to make a descent looking full-length movie, you actually need some expensive equipment and a lot of free time.

Be interested in hearing from people with film experience on how to keep the budget low. The best bet would be to try and make indie short films as cheaply as possible (while not compromising too much on quality) and see if you can build an that experience to make longer low-budget indie films that are still good.

I make short documentaries at the moment and make a youtube series for a pro sport team, nothing too major yet but hoping to make a career out of it. It terms of budget, I do everything myself; producing, directing, camera work, sound, lighting and editing, but it's very hard work. I would say decent equipment would cost around $3000 - $4000, maybe more.

To keep costs down, only invest in good equipment and then go to the library and bury your head in books so you learn how to do everything yourself. Get a pirate copy of some editing software and mess around with it, try and get some work experience in the industry so you learn how to produce / direct properly, watch youtube videos of people with experience in filmmaking ...

1. Invest in cheap equipment first and see if you even like doing it. A used camera and Adobe elements can get you started; or,
2. Find a local filmmaker and apprentice with him. Every major city has some sort of indie film group. Find them and make friends. People love free, reliable help.
3. Read. Read. Read. Start with the master of low budget/indie films Troma founder Lloyd Kaufmann:

Quote: (05-07-2013 01:11 AM)elabayarde Wrote:  

I have been becoming very interested in making a low budget film. I have an interest in this more so for personal expression than financial prospects. Anyone ever done full length films, or short films and have onsite on the process. I have some contacts with experience but would like to raise this discussion for the forum.

As long as it is for personal reasons you can definitely make one pretty easily in this day and age. You can make a movie with an iphone/ipad even. If you google there is an iphone film festival and you can see what can be achieved. If you want people to actually sit through it, you need to have good audio. People will be ok with visual issues etc. But if they can't hear it or it is echoes, etc they might stop. Editing software can be super cheap, just depends on how complicated it is going to be. You don't need Premiere Pro for a simple movie. Also, some editing software lets you rent it for a few bucks a month, like Adobe.

Head over to dvxuser.com, indietalk.com and start reading. Lot of stuff there.

Good luck!

There was actually a good article about this topic in Wired magazine last month: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/03/p...rruth/all/

This guy wrote, directed, and acted in a movie that cost $7,000 USD to produce, and it ended up winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. The movie is called Primer and it's on Netflix instant if you're interested.

Would be an awesome game niche too

Also study 70s and 80s horror movies. They were usually low budget. Especially John Carpenter's Halloween (300,000 budget for the time) for its usage of a steadycam and tracking shot (first scene where michael kills his sister). Troma as suggested is a great source for inspiration and really tacky movies. They use a much smaller budget than usual.

What is your budget?

You could use a dslr camera and some home made tracks / glide cam type stuff for cinematic looking shots. There have been movies made with the canon 5d which cost around 1500 without a lens for the mark II.

if thats too much you could always rent equipment but then that will put you on a tighter schedule to save money

It's absolutely doable and not that hard as people say it is. Even though it is a challenge for sure. Planning to do the same in less than a year. Read Making Movies by Sidney Lumet. Also check out Dov S-S Simens crash course and book. No BS 2 Day Film School. Best in business. Will Smith took that one when he wanted to learn what happened behind the camera.

Will follow this one.

I dunno why you would want to use a DSLR over a dedicated 3 CCD digital camcorder.

Because it is superior, image-quality wise. Especially low-light. Look it up.

Nice thread. I am already getting ideas. Start making movies in DR and Brazil. A new way to gain new pussy without much effort.

Go to local acting class. they will love you if you do filming and editing for free in return you will have free actors and actresses.

OP where are you based? I have done a fair bit of low budget film making, currently have a 25odd minute doc that I am directing in post production.

What gear you should get depends on what sort of films you want to make, but I'm guessing you are thinking narrative? Either way sign up at http://nofilmschool.com/ and download the DSLR film making guide. Its a cracking resource that covers what you need to know about technicals to get started. There is also loads of other great articles on there, its updated regularly. Helps to have a camera to play around with, but you probably know someone with a DSLR that you can borrow. Then as someone else has stated read up as much as you can from other sources.

Would recommend signing up at https://shootingpeople.org if they are present in your location. People post adverts for crew for low budget productions. They are usually not paid (unless you have experience), but is a great way to learn about the process. Go for jobs as a runner or camera assistant as these no not require gear (not actually true for camera assistant, but you can usually get away with it on small productions). Then we you feel ready to have a crack at making something of your own, you can post an add looking for crew for your own project, stating they need gear, which saves you buying/renting.

Also network with film students and actors, they are often on the look out for people to work with.

If you are UK based I have some more resources to share.

Quote: (05-07-2013 01:29 PM)samsamsam Wrote:  

If you want people to actually sit through it, you need to have good audio. People will be ok with visual issues etc. But if they can't hear it or it is echoes, etc they might stop.

+1

This is so important. So many low budget people neglect their audio and bad/weak/echo audio just destroys the whole presentation.

Quote: (06-13-2013 08:01 AM)username Wrote:  

Quote: (05-07-2013 01:29 PM)samsamsam Wrote:  

If you want people to actually sit through it, you need to have good audio. People will be ok with visual issues etc. But if they can't hear it or it is echoes, etc they might stop.

+1

This is so important. So many low budget people neglect their audio and bad/weak/echo audio just destroys the whole presentation.

For sure, as they say, you can edit round bad video, but you can't edit round bad sound.

Quote: (06-13-2013 12:51 AM)chinadawg Wrote:  

OP where are you based? I have done a fair bit of low budget film making, currently have a 25odd minute doc that I am directing in post production.

What gear you should get depends on what sort of films you want to make, but I'm guessing you are thinking narrative? Either way sign up at http://nofilmschool.com/ and download the DSLR film making guide. Its a cracking resource that covers what you need to know about technicals to get started. There is also loads of other great articles on there, its updated regularly. Helps to have a camera to play around with, but you probably know someone with a DSLR that you can borrow. Then as someone else has stated read up as much as you can from other sources.

Would recommend signing up at https://shootingpeople.org if they are present in your location. People post adverts for crew for low budget productions. They are usually not paid (unless you have experience), but is a great way to learn about the process. Go for jobs as a runner or camera assistant as these no not require gear (not actually true for camera assistant, but you can usually get away with it on small productions). Then we you feel ready to have a crack at making something of your own, you can post an add looking for crew for your own project, stating they need gear, which saves you buying/renting.

Also network with film students and actors, they are often on the look out for people to work with.

If you are UK based I have some more resources to share.

Hey,

Im based in the United States, but I would like to film it in a South American country. It will be a narrative. Thanks for the links, im checking it out now.

I love to see someone from the manosphere community do this, there is too much gd chaff coming out of Hollywood these days; it's basically the same old song and dance: crappy ideological films, ineffectual drama movies and comedies with sophomoric humor.

I'm actually thinking about making a parody news program with fake actors from characters I made on photoshop. If anyone wants to get involved doing voiceovers or submitting scripts - hit me up!.

Quote: (09-15-2013 11:43 PM)numanist Wrote:  

I love to see someone from the manosphere community do this, there is too much gd chaff coming out of Hollywood these days; it's basically the same old song and dance: crappy ideological films, ineffectual drama movies and comedies with sophomoric humor.

I will do it.

Day Bang: The Movie!

Read "Rebel Without A Crew"

One of MANY books on low-budget filmmaking.

But remember, if you have nothing to say, then no camera, budget or great actors will fix that.

No story = no film.

That's true. You need a vision. Essentially that's the role of the director.