Scott Free Thinking

For those of you who may be reading this who aren’t frequest readers, let me start by introducing myself. My name is Scott Lee, and I am the codirector of a Houston film production company called Barton Ct. Productions Inc. I’ve been involved in the making of dozens of short films, and I’m considered at least a little bit beyond the beginner stages of making cheap movies of what most tell me is a surprising quality. In this article, I will tell you a bit of how I do it.

So you want to make a movie. You might know how, but you’ve got no money, or maybe you’re just looking to give it a shot and you don’t want to toss too much out the window. Before I get into how to make movies on cheap budgets, I need to first start with telling you that a cheap budget is no excuse for a bad movie. Dozens of powerful, well made films have been made for miniscule budgets, or at least, films have been made you’d never have guessed they were done on such a small budget. The original Star Wars, in 1977, was created with something close to a million dollar budget(very small for a high end feature length film), and the most famous of all, Robert Rodriguez, the director of Sin City, and his first film, El Meriachi, which was produced for approximately $10,000. $7,000 or so of that money from Rodriguez’s film, by the way, was spent on the cinematic film itself.

Watching movies like Star Wars or El Meriachi, you begin to think, how? How is it possible?

The first thing that can be said, is that film making is based on talent, and not money. Some people reading this will think that is nonsense, but it is the cold, hard truth. You might think $750,000 or more would give you the ability to make your dreams come true on a film, but it may, it may not. It all depends on how you use what you’re given.

-The first thing you need is knowledge. And how can you get knowledge for free? You hit the local library, read whole chunks of books in your local bookstore, and start going to any resource you possibly can. That means going to the colleges, the high schools, even, and talking to people. Don’t you pay the tuition; the time is better spent just going straight to the people and developing relationships. If you want to start making movies without money, then forget money as your currency. The currency of independent film making is favors.

-You need a great idea that uses what you already have. Remember that little movie called Saw? The idea for Saw came out of needing to have a movie idea that didn’t use a setting beyond, for the most part, that of a single room and a few characters. The idea to have two guys trapped by some serial killer is not the only idea you can come up with when given that limitation. Know your own limitations, and work within them to create a fully functioning world. Film making is about storytelling, not about glamour. Even if you’re making a documentary - it is about storytelling.

-Once you have an idea, develop it to pieces, sweat, and tears. Notice that we’re already at the third item here, and I’ve yet to even mention going outside the confines of what would likely be your own home to do anything. More than 50% of the movie is development, so remember that this makes sense. Learn the proper format for writing a screenplay if you do not already know it, and follow that format as you develop your script & story. If you get stuck, let it sit and come back to it after weeks of not even touching it. Being in the mood and holding a great idea is more than half the battle in writing, and if you want a great film, it’s a battle you’ve got to win. Do NOT shoot the movie before you are 100% satisfied with everything in the script. Now, on the other hand, there is a flip coin to this. If you are absolutely new to film making, some might suggest just making dozens and dozens of bad, cheap movies to get them out of your system, out of the way, and on the road to making better ones. This may not be bad advice either. You are the ideal judge of that. If you’re making a documentary, make an outline of what messages you’re looking to speak out about, what information you want to capture, what overall direction you think you’re headed in. More than halfway into the project, you may find you’ve made a different movie than you thought you were making, and that is not just true of documentaries.

-Find the right cast & crew. Finding the right cast and crew is easily a more important step than actually filming the movie. A very well talented cast that works for free is possible to find, but you’ll have to work hard. Again, pull any strings and take any leads you possibly can. Visit countless different locations that you can afford to visit and set up/hold auditions. Again, favors are the currency of independent film making. If you’re main character needs to be a highly versatile character, you’ve got to pair it with a highly versatile actor. Accept nothing less - I have made this mistake in the past, and it’s a painful one to make. Bad performances mean a bad movie. Can you find the great performers for free? Yes, do not stop until you do. The crew is just as important. Bad technical errors and the like will ruin a movie possibly more or just as much as bad performances will.

-Buy great equipment for your budget & purpose. You’ve got to have good equipment, but you can’t afford the top notch stuff. Do research on the popular independent mediums, and question what can get you the highest quality for the smallest possible amount of money. Again, remember that your currency is favors. If you can find any socially oriented resources to do this, take advantage of them! Otherwise, consider your formats and look into what’s practical. How are you spending your budget? If this is your first film, you’re only going to need a few things to start with. A camera, a microphone or two, and the accessories that go with it. I recommend the new Sony HDV cameras, or if you can afford it, the Canon XL series. Whether you’re filming on HD, or Mini-DV, learn about the ins and outs of whatever format you choose to go with. Anything higher than consumer-level HD or Mini-DV is likely out of the $10,000 budget range. You can get a high quality consumer camera for often less than $1,200 dollars.

-Keep the production simple. Keeping your production needs, activities, and costs simple, and without complication as much as possible is always a good idea. Also, only include people on set or on location that absolutely have to be there. If you’re shooting a scene that involves dialogue between two people, then make sure only you, whoever operates the equipment, and NO ONE else is there during that time. Again, this is a painful mistake I’ve had to learn the hard way. Excessive people on set can ruin a performance, make unwanted noise, cause complications, etc. Always keep it to the absolute minimum necessary. If a person can’t read a line exactly the way it appears in the script, feel free to let them change it a tiny bit to make it more natural to their character or just their own form of speech.

-Be prepared to spend hours upon hours editing, tweaking, and perfecting the film in its post-production phase. Cheap films often mean not setting deadlines, and if you do set a deadline, always take the scope of the project into consideration. If you don’t have money to buy sound effects and music(or if you just flat out desire to make your own), remember your currency, favors, and also remember that if you do not have money or people to already do something, you’ll need to do it yourself. Making all of your own sound effects and music takes a lot of time - be prepared to make that sacrifice. Perhaps one of the biggest central trade offs in inexpensive independent film making is that for a lack of money and to achieve a similar amount of quality you’ll have to exchange that lack of money for your time. Relentless, persistent effort over time, can make even the cheapest films seem like at least moderately budgeted masterpieces. High quality digitial editing packages are now available to the struggling, broke, film maker. I recommend the Adobe line of products, which include Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing, Adobe After Effects for two dimensional motion effects and motion graphics, Adobe PhotoShop for all kinds of uses, either rotoscoping frame-by-frame, creating logos, or creating elements for use in the previous two programs, Adobe Audition for high quality audio editing, mixing, and even some mastering. All of these programs give you a level of quality equal to that of a professional for a reasonable price. And what’s best that I love about Adobe, is that all of their programs can work together in one integrated workflow.

And that has been just a few tips and pointers for making cheap, high quality films. I wish all of you film makers out there for the best of luck!

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E-mail Scott about film making and any other topic from Dirty Mechanism at: scottlee@dirtymechanism.com.