Making movies: Funding and effectiveness

If you know a lot about making films, or if you already are relying on films to put food on the table, this most likely is not for you. This is for people who are very inexperienced. But if you are experienced, feel free (please) to comment on what you think, and maybe some advice for when you started out. This is just some advice i thought i would add. If i did anything wrong, tell me. And this long and probably boring but i think it should be worth your time.

Before i start, I'll say that I don't have much experience in making films. I've done a decent amount but only one I'm proud of. But i think the way I will go about making my next film will work very well.

I am in high school so my process and needs considering filming is different, considering i do not need to make money off of my projects. I'm in pre-production of a short film I am really looking forward to doing and I'll tell you what I'm doing to prepare for it and what i expect to do afterwards.

Study! Before anything, learn about filming. To me, the most important is cinematography. No film festival (more on that later) will take you seriously if all of your shots are centered and dull.

As far as funding, This is my way of doing a little to no cost project.

First off, I'm doing very meticulous planing on what will happen. I walk around my house which will be the set and sort of act out what i would do. I carry a pad to wright down the actions of the character which I'm playing and put down what shots i expect to use to show it. This allows me to see how many actors i need, when i need them, and what equipment i need to do the shots i want to execute the shots. If I have a good script (By script i mean shot list and calender as well) , I save time by not sitting around thinking what on earth to do, which saves the time for the actors as well. This is important so they don't just ditch you (Considering you might not even be paying them.)

I go and look up the equipment i need and see how to build it myself. If i say need a Dolly and steady cam, i can build good ones (With high quality materials) for max 50 bucks. As far as mics go, I would borrow one from my school. However, if that's not possible i could rent one (This is where a good script would come in.)

Actors could come from your friends, but i would be careful about this because friends often times will be un-committed to the project and that is an immense pain in the ***. I would much rather set up an audition for actors in your area, and say this is a no-pay project. Local actors who haven't been featured in any other film or aren't known at all would probably be happy to do any film, even if it doesn't pay. I would rather have an audition and see who gets to be the actor.

Film using the equipment you built and film efficiently. Use that elaborate script and create a calender. Why run from one place to another, when you can film all the shots used in that setting at once? Now i have to say that going into a film project alone will kill you, so use the people around you to help. Often times someone who is interested in making films is around people who are also. Tell them you need someone to help you do some overall things. If you are in dire need, say your looking to co-direct a film. It's better to have someone working beside you from the start, so do that.

If you need to shoot somewhere specific, set aside your shyness and ask people if you can film there. Like a restaurant manager, a store owner, etc. Look for small places, don't use popular places because they're likely to blow you off. Promise the person a section in the credits thanking them, and describing their place of business.

Review the shots you've made and look out for any possible re shoots that would need to be done. If something does not go to your liking DO NOT EXCEPT IT. It's things like that get noticed. Laziness isn't something to demonstrate in filming. Work on a shot until its perfect or as close as it can possibly get. Look out for continuity, be sharp and into it. Being excited will cause others to share your mood which will make better work. Be patient.

After filming, (Obviously) It's time to edit. There's tons of free software and depending on the length of the film, you could even use professional software on a trial download. Maybe a friend will be willing to let you download his copy to use. In my case, I use IMovie at school. It seems lame, but for simple films its more than enough. I stay away from special effects, it looks cheesy unless its professional. A good thing to mention is to have some sounds recorded at a different time than the footage. If the mic is on or in the camera, it wont pick up little sounds such as sheets ruffling, foot steps, hits, etc. You could record the sounds by yourself afterwards even, using your camera and separating the sound from video. Don't over use sounds, it becomes noticeable in say a fight scene. And stay away from downloaded sounds, the ones that a free are absolutely terrible and make the viewer feel disconnected. Sound is so important in filming, but its overlooked by a lot of amateurs. In Hollywood, there's an entire crew dedicated to it. So why not pay some extra attention? Color correction is very important as well. Almost every movie has tons of color correction. Read up on that, my fingers are killing me.

Finally, Submit it to film festivals! Read closely about them, some don't let you post on Youtube before screening it. Submit your film to festivals which specialize in your genre, this widens chances of being screened and possibly winning something. An absolutely amazing website is withoutabox.com go there, create an account and browse. It shows you TONS of festivals you've never heard of. Its not just sun-dance and Cannes. Being shown at a film festival can be a rise to fame. It could mean never building another dolly again. But most likely, this wont be the case. Submit to festivals that are specialized and less popular for the first time. Slowly you'll become more and more known. If you get nothing back, you can post on youtube and send your film to people like IndyMogul who show films that people sent in and provide a link to watch them. This could be really good for you. You could take the route of even just submitting to youtube and building a good fan base before going higher.

That was alot of writing. Keep in mind, i wrote this for what i would do, in my situation. Yours could be much different. If you need money to get by, have a job besides this. But invest your time in filming. I had so much on my head when i wrote this, i probably missed a few important things to mention.

Btw, I wrote this as a way of showing how i wouldn't use kickstarter or something similar (at my level)

Great read Will definitely be keeping this in mind.

There's some good ideas in there, yup.

Nice post. If you follow this plan and it works you will end up back in the same boat. You will have the ability to pick and choose your projects. You will have the ability to work within budgets. While I can see you are externally not concerned with the funding you are still concerned with the bottom line of the project by being crafty.

I have my own theory of the three career stages of being a filmmaker from personal experience:

1. You are starting out as one in a million ametuer film makers. You are broke. You have no discernible income. You are an artist. You seek validation for your art. You starve, eat noodles, struggle, listen to everyone bitch about your career choice while you desperately try to prove yourself. You look like a homeless person.

2. You move to the next level where someone is paying you to edit, or film. You do commercials, weddings, corporate sponsorship videos, youtube one offs. You start making money. You buy gear. You develop a name for yourself as someone who can deliver a project then your big opportunity hits. You are wearing a business suit.

3. You are starting off as one of a million professional film makers. You are broke. Outside of production budgets you have no discernible income. You are an artist. You starve, eat noodles, struggle... but

You no longer have people bitching at you about your career choice. Your mom finally understands what you do for a living. You no longer feel a sense of desperation to validate yourself. You become less concerned of what people think of your lifestyle - because you are back to looking like a homeless person. You actually go back to when you were in high school and you just wanted to make films.

I'm responding back because you spent quite a bit of time typing out your post and I wanted to give you my honest reflections on what you wrote. I mention the above because even though I am not in high school I am also not concerned with the finances to make a film. I have many options on the table - more than enough work. You have detailed out essentially the same process I use, which is: make the film happen.

CrackerFunk mentioned making a lot of money. So far, in all of my time - all of original content creators from musicians to film makers - I have not met anyone who is actually making money. I had a singer from a very well known progressive band with a 20 year career and four international releases e-mail me his ASCAP check the other day: One Penny.

There is always a random chance that lighting will strike and you will take off to some epic super star level but think about TV: Networks generally take in about 25 to 30 pilots for TV shows out of hundreds of submissions - out of thousands that never made it through the submission process - they along with an external production company will provide development money to make an actual pilot. Out of those 25 to 30 pilots only 2 or 3 will get a green light for production. Then, one of those shows will actually become a functioning season of a show. At this point most shows get cancelled. Your expectations should be low Greg The Bunny.

At this point I have done two projects - pilot development - for major cable networks neither of which made to the second green light. I've not made any money. The only thing I got out of all of it was a huge sense of personal satisfaction and the ability to continue to make films without having to take a job. I moved to the central coast of Cali. I have the ocean out of my front window. When I got "home" I limped in from the road with nothing, just a backpack.

Since I have demonstrated myself as someone who finishes projects with a pretty decent reel - using the process you described above - the people around me hooked me up with a Mac Book, Premiere, a guitar and amp, a Nikon D 60 still camera, and a Panasonic HVX 200A, and gave me a second shot.


I want to add a disclaimer to all of this. I know the goal is to steadily make films while branding yourself as an artist. I have managed to do this and create a very comfortable life for myself. I want you to consider all of the above but remember that almost winning the super bowl really fucking sucks. The kick in the gut that you feel when you don't get a green light on something you've spent 8 months of your life filming is staggering. If you are not living at the bottom of a bottle for a month after a blow like that then you just not human.

I'm definitely not offering up any of this to brag. I'm hoping that by sharing that I can help give some perspective on what to expect if you pull off what you wrote in your original post.

Good luck.