Ways To Create An Indie Film With No Money

This article is about how to get going in Low Budget Indie Film Making. The objective is to get you motivated to start today. We will discuss the script,resources and equipment needed, productions, post production and what to do when your finished. Our task is to convince you that you can do this and that even the most busy and poor human being in the world can make a feature film. If your not organized it’s time to get prepared. Start with buying a note book for 99 cents and finding an hour a day. If you are unable to find an hour lets start off with 30 minutes.

The film script is the most crucial factor of any movie. If you do not have a wonderful story you have nothing. There are lots of resources and great materials on film creating try going to your library and find Syd Fields book. You may want to spend 30 minutes a day reading his book, while you pick a story concept to work on. Y our script should essentially be a stage play. Minimize the number of actors and the number of locations. Finding locations on a small budget can be one of the most stress filled and difficult road blocks to getting your movie crafted. Attempt to come up with a story set in a specific location that you have access too. Limited the requirement for props and anything else that might cost money. If your rich and have a bunch of money I still advise keeping this to a bare minimum on your first project. Keep things as basic as possible.

As far as gear goes you obviously will need a video camera to record the film. If you can afford one or have access to a pro-summer HD camera (has a jack for a microphone and audio adjustment controls) that would help your production value. If you have the means to film on a camera with a 35MM lens that’s going to get you the very best finished product and production value. You need 3 lights. Keep in mind when you film HD video you only need 3 soft boxes. You can get by with 2 soft boxes and your third light can be practical lighting. Microphone really helps the production value if you have good sound and audio your film isn’t going to seem too novice. Even if you can borrow everything else or go with just practical lighting and the microphone on the camera you are still going to need media to record and store the film. I highly suggest having a back up of your film saved on a hard drive. This is the one element you need to invest money on. Trust me if you only have one drive this will be the time you get a bad hard drive that will break and you will end up losing all your video footage. Definitely do not skip the cash for a backup of your footage when you are going to make a movie. The only other subject I insist on is that if your directing you are not staring or acting in the movie.

To secure your production started make sure you have a great story. I like placing my story on trigger street to have feedback from unbiased film makers. If your story doesn’t get panned on trigger street it is time to get started with pre-production. Hopefully you possess a friend who wants to be an acting professional and you wrote screenplay for your friend. If you require actors craigslist is a very good place to try. The other option is networking with other local film makers and cast your actors from their projects. Nearby festivals and film competitions is a superb spot to discover actors this way. If you see a short with an actor who would work for your venture you can not only get their contact information through the director but in addition a reference. If you have no budget you are going to function as the sound,lighting and camera operator but you may still want to sign up a buddy or someone to be a producer to assist you with things so you can concentrate on actually directing your movie. While you direct you frequently want to start with an establishing shot and after that go in for coverage. I also always prefer to get at least several takes and I like to shoot with a ratio of at least 1:15. That means each scene is shot 15 times. You get your close ups and reaction shots.

Post production is one of the toughest elements of creating a movie. If you don’t have a lot of experience with computers this could be something you bring on someone else to assist with. As you film you should keep a log of each shot. Mark which take you liked the best. If there was a good make a note of it. This will help when you have a 90 minute film with 15 takes that translates to over 1300 minutes of video to re-watch and shift through. Other issues in post besides putting together a rough cut is sound and color timing. These things really assist in production value and can make or break your movie. At least they can assist making the film more watchable.

When your film is done, think about finding a producers rep to assist you in marketing your movie. They can help negotiate with possible buyers and assist in getting your film into film festivals. They usually do the job for a back end and their experience might be the one thing that gets your movie watched. There are tons of film festivals. Be sure to take a really serious look at any area film festivals as movies do get picked up from these festivals and it’s a great opportunity to network for your next film.

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Independent Films That Triumph In Film Festivals And Establish Film Makers Careers

Over the last few decades there has been a growing trend in the success of Independent Films. The most successful niche are the indie Horror movies, but there are numerous other films to succeed going the independent low budget route. Most of these films have won awards at the top film festivals and later launched the careers of the movie maker. Despite the fact that horror films seem to be most lucrative they seem to be the least effective type of indie film to start careers.

Possibly the most well-known of the small budget indie films of all time is Reservoir Dogs. The film had a lot of famous actors but was made on just slightly over $1 million bucks. Quentin Tarantino proceeded to go on to turn into one of the most widely known film makers of his generation and has filmed a couple of cult classics, including pulp fiction. It was Reservoir Dogs that put him into the spotlight. Initially the movie was going to be produced for $30,000 dollars without celebrities.

This past year one of the better independent films is called Monsters. It cost just $500,000 dollars to make and was done in an unconventional way. The movie maker didn’t have a shooting script but instead just an outline of the scenes he needed and cast just two actors. He took a film crew and the actors to Mexico and Costa Rica and started filming with just $15,000 worth of equipment. When he found locations he’d then cast locals for the bit parts in the movie. When he finished principle photography he put together a rough cut and then re shot 20% of the movie. The most remarkable part of the production was the FX that the director did utilizing Adobe products using more than 250 effects he wound up with an excellent looking product on a really low budget.

Another success story is El mariachi (1992) by Robert Rodriguez. His approach was to write a story based on props which he had. His budget was around $7,000 dollars that he earned by doing clinical drug studies. The plot was based on a guitar, a gun, and a dog. Who might have known that this film would launch a franchise with very successful bigger budget sequels. The movie was entirely in Spanish and his strategy was to market it to the Mexican market to raise money to get a bigger budget project. After these people had no interest in the film he was able to market it in America to Columbia. The movie went on to win honors in the the film festivals and kick off his career.

These are just a few examples of indie films that launched the careers of their film makers. These movies have won top recognition in film festivals and found distribution. Something to think about if you would like to get into full time film making. This technique has worked in the past and might be right for you. They call it working outside the Hollywood studio system.

Learn more about Best Low Budget Films. Stop by John Young’s article where you can find out all about Film Festival Winners and indie film makers.