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Advice on making independent movies cheaply, efficiently.
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Advice on making independent movies cheaply, efficiently.

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matthornb
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Advice on making independent movies cheaply, efficiently.
Creating movies sounds fun, right?
It is.
But first, I want to shatter some illusions. Your first videos will be bad. It's virtually inevitable.
Secondly, you will most likely not make money as a filmmaker at first. It will cost you money. Third, it will take way more time to make movies than you probably think it will. Expect to pour hundreds of hours into a video project if you want it to be any good.
Okay? That basically says it. But there are people, like me, who think the whole process is exciting, fun, and worthwhile, even without much of a budget to work with. Your key to success in this field will be practice, perseverance, patience, and a willingness to learn new skills and adapt to changing situations. You can be a movie director, and it's exciting, but it comes at a cost.
Learn the rules of moviemaking, but be prepared to ignore them if you have a reason to. Flexibility, people! Flexibility,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]!
There are all sorts of people who will tell you the "right" way to do something, but in truth the right way is whatever technique works for your production, and story, schedule, and budget. So be prepared to use skateboards or wheelchairs instead of camera dollies, ladders instead of cranes, compressed air instead of squibs, natural lighting or only a few lights where Hollywood would have a lighting rig.
You can use all sorts of oddball DIY methods to save time and money, and by working for free on your project, you can do stuff that leaves others amazed.
Learn how to get things done on your budget. I've seen people make feature films below $400. Seriously. You need to take stock of what you have at your disposal,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and work within those boundaries. Consider borrowing equipment if you don't have it, or renting. Or buy it - and reuse it on a whole string of projects, so you get your money's worth. I officially list some of my videos on my website as $500, $100, or $200 projects, but what I don't point out is that I had over $4000 worth of equipment on hand going into them, which meant I could pull off a lot with a little, because I make so many movies. You can do that too. It makes sense.
As Robert Rodriguez says in "Rebel Without a Crew", you can intimidate Hollywood. You can learn to do things more efficiently than professionals know how to do them.
Plan everything out ahead of time. That means costumes, locations, script, cast, everything. Without a plan, especially without a script, you're just another random person making a home movie. You don't need to get the formatting right if you're directing it yourself, but at least write down what you're planning to do.
If you are trying to pull in talent, however, good formatting is a good idea.
Get good sound equipment if at all possible. The little internal mic in a camcorder doesn't cut it. A shotgun mic might.
Your lines of dialogue are useless if the audience can't hear the words.
Pay attention to the acoustics of a location before shooting there. I've seen some of my scenes ruined simply because the shape of the room was wrong. Basically, if you hear an echo, that's a problem.
If you've got the microphone on a boom, you can try aiming it up, or down, towards the actors. This is a good way to deal with noise coming from a distance horizontally, like traffic behind the actors.
Get some editing software. Get a camcorder, come up with a story that you think is interesting, and start shooting.
Try to make connections with other talented people. The more talented writers, actors, etc, that you can find, the better.
Know your strengths and their strengths and split the work accordingly. Early on you won't be able to persuade pros or even semi-pros to work with you. So pick some friends and make a small first project, just to prove that you are able to create something, and use it as a demo reel to draw in talent for later projects.
Treat your actors with respect so they won't get angry and leave. Supply food. Try to pick people who are right for the part, and who are reliable. Do consider casting as early as the writing phase - that is, write your story around the list of people, locations, and equipment you know you have access to, and schedule your shooting days based on locations, actors, and basically when different things are available.
Don't tackle a huge epic first time out of the gate. Remember that short but fast-paced is better than long and tedious, and it's easier to create short videos anyway.
Pick topics that are relatable. My mistake was too many in-jokes. That's fine at first but know how to aim for a larger audience. Many people create fan films their first time out, and there's a reason for that - "Star Wars" or "Star Trek", for instance, have a built-in audience.
Label your tapes and be organized. I can't tell you how many times I've lost important stuff. Save often when working with software.
Search for advice online, or in books. There's a lot of relevant stuff out there, go look for it. College courses are useful but honestly,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], you can learn as much, and more cheaply, in other ways.
Shoot digital. If you're running on MiniDV tapes then it is cheap and flexible. And digital allows massive flexibility to alter things in post-production. If you have more to work with, there are some prosumer HD cameras in the $900 range nowadays. But a really good MiniDV camera is good enough for DVD.
You can remove jaggies from your video with a mild vertical blur. That makes it look a bit less like video. You should also play around with contrast and saturation. Good lighting is also key when going for a good "look", but often you'll find ways to take advantage of existing lights in a location.
Seek out constructive criticism, and learn from it. Don't give up, when some of your work sucks. Just keep at it and you'll get better.
Learn how to do visual effects, or special effects, or find someone to help who is in that field. I do VFX in videos, I'm actually earning money off of it now. It's a career. If you can do effects work, then you have the capacity to wow your audience - which is hard to do otherwise on a tiny budget.
I've done digital sets, some pyrotechnics, 3d elements, miniatures, and other effects work. It's fun stuff to do, and your audience will enjoy it. But try to have a good story too, effects by themselves can only take you so far! But yes, do keep in mind that good-quality VFX can be done fairly cheaply with tools like Photoshop, Lightwave, and After Effects. For a cheap compositing toolset, also try looking at FXhome's Compositelab DV.
For stock footage, check out detonation films, they have some great free stuff.
Finally, once you've got something done,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], show it to people. And use it as a springboard for gathering support on later projects. Try putting your work online. It draws attention.
I could tell you about eighty times more but the advice I've given here should provide a start.
You don't need Hollywood to make movies. Just get a camera and make one. You do that, you're a movie director.
Plain and simple.
Now go out there and make your movie!

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Matthew Hornbostel is a freelance visual effects artist and director with a repertoire of dozens of independent videos, paintings, miniatures, and software programs, available at his website, [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
He is an Eagle Scout and a senior at the University of Houston. Over the last seven years, he has crafted over 1000 visual effects shots and spent many thousands of hours working in digital media fields.
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