Having just spent July making a feature film on a production budget of $7000, I figured I'd do my best to impart a few pieces of wisdom that I've picked up along the way.
Keep to a single location for as long as possible- This wasn't because of the obvious expenditure issues. We filmed in a whole bunch of different locations and it worked out that only one of those locations we actually had to pay money for (a very smart restaurant in Central London and, even that, only cost £115). The reason why I'd be inclined to stick to a single (albeit visually variable) location in future is a matter of convenience for cast and crew. We also ended up shelling out quite a lot of money getting the gear back and forth between locations. On certain days I would've liked to have been able to get a few more pick-ups at certain places but as it was, in order to do that, we would've had to have moved all the equipment back to that location. It's just a pain in the neck when you're working with a small crew. If you can keep things to, roughly, a single location, then you'll find it much easier to organise the whole shoot. Addendum: At the same time, it's important to stress the role that locations play in the production design and scope of your movie. The more locations, the bigger and more impressive the production feels. If you are shooting on a single location, try and ensure that has visual variety- there are a number of different interiors you can you, there is more than one exterior that you can use, there is a feature that is unusual and interesting...etc.
Make sure you know where people are travelling from- When I was working out how much to budget for expenses, I figured that £10 per day would cover most people, given that that's more than the cost of a travel card for public transport in London. It wasn't until midway through the shoot that I found out that one of my actors had been travelling from a couple of hours away each day and that his expenses would come to £50 per day. I don't think it was amazing form on his part, given that his online casting profile listed him as being based in London, but it's always good to check that sort of thing in advance because that turned out being 5x what I expected to be paying, every day that he was on set. I know that it's kind of churlish of me to complain about this when I'm only paying them their travel expenses, but it affected the way that I budgeted the movie.
Everyone stop for lunch- I've been on sets where lunch was staggered so that some people could be setting up whilst other people grabbed something to eat. I'm sure that, when you have a big crew, this is the most time effective way of doing things (and we used it on occasions) but I found that breaking, for about 30 minutes, to get something to eat meant that everyone was in a much better mood for shooting in the afternoon. It also meant that, with a small cast and crew, it was easier for people to build a professional rapport. The actors and the crew all eat and drink together and that, I found, made things more harmonious in the afternoon. Plus, by the end of the morning session people start to get a little tetchy and frustrated and a nice, laid-back lunch solves a lot of those issues. Addendum: Don't wait too long to stop for lunch (although finish what you're doing, don't break mid-scene) as people will start to run out of energy. A bit of food in the belly will help to reenergise your cast and crew.
Pick up your phone (with caveats)- Yes, this is something I learnt the hard way. I'm not an amazing phone person and I'd much rather use email wherever possible. As a result, I always have my phone on silent and quite often don't have it on my person. This is not an amazing idea, as either the director or the producer. It's good to take calls. BUT, if you're ever working on a film as either an actor or a crew member (or indeed, producing) it's much better to have people email you their arrangements, so that you have a permanent and accessible record of what's happening. On occasion I found that I had a conversation with someone in why they said 'I can only do so or so time on so or so days...' but that, a little bit later, I was having to email them again so that I could put the details in the schedule. It makes it easier for everyone if you can send that sort of information in writing.
Have LOTS of copies of the script on-set- It's remarkable how often you'll need to check something in the script. Because my printer is faulty and I, somehow, didn't find the time to go to a professional printer, I never had a complete printed copy of the script. Some of the actors brought these with them and I had the whole thing on my iPad. If I were doing it again then I would make sure that there are a bunch of scripts on set for each day, perhaps isolating the pages from those scene. It's good to make sure that sound and camera departments each have their own copies of the script so that they don't waste time asking other people to tell them certain things about the scene. It's also important to have someone in the room who's got the script in front of them at all times. Sometimes an actor will do a near perfect take but will need a little prompt, if you're having to search around for the script then it's going to ruin everyone's rhythm.
Extra bodies will only slow things down- I had a lot of friends who were, in their words, interested in 'helping out if you need anyone doing odd jobs'. The reason that we kept the crew as small as possible (in addition to the cost thing) was so that it was easy to get stuff done on time. You're making a low budget film with only a small(ish) light kit, so do you really need your DoP, gaffer and grips to move those lights? Do you really need two PAs to make coffee? Do you really need a 2nd AC just to do the slate? Do you need a 1st AD to keep you on schedule? These are all great things, no doubt, but they a.) cost a bunch of money and b.) will take up valuable time on set. Getting round this problem leads me to...
Don't be afraid to do things that you think are 'below your station'- Yes, I was the director but I also made the tea, did the slating, cleared the set in between takes. Could I have got someone to do these jobs? Probably, but what a waste of their time, not to mention my time and money. It's hardly a huge extra burden for the director to pop the kettle on and make five mugs of tea. I sometimes get the feeling that directors feel that cast and crew won't respect them if they do any jobs that aren't traditionally within the purview of the director. I really think that if you're making a low budget film and you're passionate about getting that made without wasting people's money, then you shouldn't be afraid to get your hands dirty. When the film is on the big screen, no one will know who slated the movie or laid out the food for lunch. All you'll do is save time and money on the set which is a very important thing in low budget filmmaking.
Keep the camera moving- This might seem like a decision that your DoP needs to make, in conjunction with the director, of course. However, keeping the camera moving serves both a practical and artistic purpose on your low budget level. Practically speaking, the reason why a lot of indie films do this (in addition to the obvious fact that it is much, much quicker to go handheld) is because the slight movement of the picture will force your audience to try and focus on the most important thing in the frame (usually the actor). Because they are actively focusing on this, the rest of the scene is relegated to the periphery of their vision which helps enormously when you don't have stacks of money to spend on production design. The production value of your movie will increase if you don't allow your audience to explore the frame in too much detail- and keeping the picture moving at all times (beyond the clear aesthetic reason) will help you accomplish this.
I might add a few more points to this at a later date. These were just a few things that struck me.
Keep to a single location for as long as possible- This wasn't because of the obvious expenditure issues. We filmed in a whole bunch of different locations and it worked out that only one of those locations we actually had to pay money for (a very smart restaurant in Central London and, even that, only cost £115). The reason why I'd be inclined to stick to a single (albeit visually variable) location in future is a matter of convenience for cast and crew. We also ended up shelling out quite a lot of money getting the gear back and forth between locations. On certain days I would've liked to have been able to get a few more pick-ups at certain places but as it was, in order to do that, we would've had to have moved all the equipment back to that location. It's just a pain in the neck when you're working with a small crew. If you can keep things to, roughly, a single location, then you'll find it much easier to organise the whole shoot. Addendum: At the same time, it's important to stress the role that locations play in the production design and scope of your movie. The more locations, the bigger and more impressive the production feels. If you are shooting on a single location, try and ensure that has visual variety- there are a number of different interiors you can you, there is more than one exterior that you can use, there is a feature that is unusual and interesting...etc.
Make sure you know where people are travelling from- When I was working out how much to budget for expenses, I figured that £10 per day would cover most people, given that that's more than the cost of a travel card for public transport in London. It wasn't until midway through the shoot that I found out that one of my actors had been travelling from a couple of hours away each day and that his expenses would come to £50 per day. I don't think it was amazing form on his part, given that his online casting profile listed him as being based in London, but it's always good to check that sort of thing in advance because that turned out being 5x what I expected to be paying, every day that he was on set. I know that it's kind of churlish of me to complain about this when I'm only paying them their travel expenses, but it affected the way that I budgeted the movie.
Everyone stop for lunch- I've been on sets where lunch was staggered so that some people could be setting up whilst other people grabbed something to eat. I'm sure that, when you have a big crew, this is the most time effective way of doing things (and we used it on occasions) but I found that breaking, for about 30 minutes, to get something to eat meant that everyone was in a much better mood for shooting in the afternoon. It also meant that, with a small cast and crew, it was easier for people to build a professional rapport. The actors and the crew all eat and drink together and that, I found, made things more harmonious in the afternoon. Plus, by the end of the morning session people start to get a little tetchy and frustrated and a nice, laid-back lunch solves a lot of those issues. Addendum: Don't wait too long to stop for lunch (although finish what you're doing, don't break mid-scene) as people will start to run out of energy. A bit of food in the belly will help to reenergise your cast and crew.
Pick up your phone (with caveats)- Yes, this is something I learnt the hard way. I'm not an amazing phone person and I'd much rather use email wherever possible. As a result, I always have my phone on silent and quite often don't have it on my person. This is not an amazing idea, as either the director or the producer. It's good to take calls. BUT, if you're ever working on a film as either an actor or a crew member (or indeed, producing) it's much better to have people email you their arrangements, so that you have a permanent and accessible record of what's happening. On occasion I found that I had a conversation with someone in why they said 'I can only do so or so time on so or so days...' but that, a little bit later, I was having to email them again so that I could put the details in the schedule. It makes it easier for everyone if you can send that sort of information in writing.
Have LOTS of copies of the script on-set- It's remarkable how often you'll need to check something in the script. Because my printer is faulty and I, somehow, didn't find the time to go to a professional printer, I never had a complete printed copy of the script. Some of the actors brought these with them and I had the whole thing on my iPad. If I were doing it again then I would make sure that there are a bunch of scripts on set for each day, perhaps isolating the pages from those scene. It's good to make sure that sound and camera departments each have their own copies of the script so that they don't waste time asking other people to tell them certain things about the scene. It's also important to have someone in the room who's got the script in front of them at all times. Sometimes an actor will do a near perfect take but will need a little prompt, if you're having to search around for the script then it's going to ruin everyone's rhythm.
Extra bodies will only slow things down- I had a lot of friends who were, in their words, interested in 'helping out if you need anyone doing odd jobs'. The reason that we kept the crew as small as possible (in addition to the cost thing) was so that it was easy to get stuff done on time. You're making a low budget film with only a small(ish) light kit, so do you really need your DoP, gaffer and grips to move those lights? Do you really need two PAs to make coffee? Do you really need a 2nd AC just to do the slate? Do you need a 1st AD to keep you on schedule? These are all great things, no doubt, but they a.) cost a bunch of money and b.) will take up valuable time on set. Getting round this problem leads me to...
Don't be afraid to do things that you think are 'below your station'- Yes, I was the director but I also made the tea, did the slating, cleared the set in between takes. Could I have got someone to do these jobs? Probably, but what a waste of their time, not to mention my time and money. It's hardly a huge extra burden for the director to pop the kettle on and make five mugs of tea. I sometimes get the feeling that directors feel that cast and crew won't respect them if they do any jobs that aren't traditionally within the purview of the director. I really think that if you're making a low budget film and you're passionate about getting that made without wasting people's money, then you shouldn't be afraid to get your hands dirty. When the film is on the big screen, no one will know who slated the movie or laid out the food for lunch. All you'll do is save time and money on the set which is a very important thing in low budget filmmaking.
Keep the camera moving- This might seem like a decision that your DoP needs to make, in conjunction with the director, of course. However, keeping the camera moving serves both a practical and artistic purpose on your low budget level. Practically speaking, the reason why a lot of indie films do this (in addition to the obvious fact that it is much, much quicker to go handheld) is because the slight movement of the picture will force your audience to try and focus on the most important thing in the frame (usually the actor). Because they are actively focusing on this, the rest of the scene is relegated to the periphery of their vision which helps enormously when you don't have stacks of money to spend on production design. The production value of your movie will increase if you don't allow your audience to explore the frame in too much detail- and keeping the picture moving at all times (beyond the clear aesthetic reason) will help you accomplish this.
I might add a few more points to this at a later date. These were just a few things that struck me.
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