Anyone here do no-budget filmmaking?

[Substance24Films]

Hey, I've been making short little movies since I was about eleven (I'm fifteen), but now I want to start making serious films without any budget, just using what I have around me. I've got a couple of ideas for movies, and I've got one that I just have to shoot and edit.

Any ideas/tips to get me started?

Thanks.

 

[Keyse Soze]

hey, im kinda new to the film making myself, but have always admired it.. and wanted to get into it. finally reaching my dreams.. well tryng to
but anyways, you can probably Youtube all of these or if you own ANY Robert Rodriguez films, he alwys has a 10 film school, or 10 minute flick school, and is soooooo helpful, i have done lil practice shots, and scenes just playing around using his ideas and he keeps everything cheap.. the man is a genius.. so check those out. may be a bit helpful.

 

[Substance24Films]

Thanks, dude.

 

[Mr Taylor]

Wow, started at 11.
You will be an expert by the time you get through school.
I'm trying to remember what it was like when I was 15.
I think that all my art type activities got side tracked by girls.
It's the hormones you see.
They hijack your mind.
If you are able to keep focus on several things, then film making could be a lot of fun at your age.
If you have a group of friends that will be in your films then that's great.
What do you mean by Serious films?
and what sort of films do you want to make, horror, action, drama, comedy???

I think the main thing to remember is that "story" leads.
and everything else serves to support the story.

 

[Panya]

I made my first fun film when I was 11 as well.. Im 16 now

I am atm just doing what I have, or buying things with my pocket money.
But theres ALWAYS good short films to do on a low-no budget.

I think a good start would just be taking out a camera and going for a walk either by yourself or with your friends and just recording..

I always doubted I'd come up with ideas when going for a walk, but I actually get a burst of ideas.

 

[Mr Taylor]

Yes, you could come up with something very interesting that way.
It reminds me of the French impressionist painters.
They would walk out of their studios and paint their impression of the real world.
They did it with oils, you do it with tape.
It goes to the idea that the director is an artist with a personal view, rather than just a technician.

 

[Mr Taylor]

I made my first fun film when I was 11 ...now
I always doubted I'd come up with ideas when going for a walk, but I actually get a burst of ideas.

Ray Bradbury came up with the idea for "THE BEAST FROM 20'000 FATHOMS" by going for a walk.
He saw an old lighthouse next to the remains of a rusted out broken down roller coaster track.
He thought it looked like a sea monster that came up to investigate the sound of the lighthouse.

 

[Kandiman]

Hey, I've been making short little movies since I was about eleven (I'm fifteen), but now I want to start making serious films without any budget, just using what I have around me. I've got a couple of ideas for movies, and I've got one that I just have to shoot and edit.

Any ideas/tips to get me started?

Thanks.

I shot my first feature aged twelve and I'm 24 now, so I know exactly what you're dealing with.

Assuming you intend to do basically what I did - shoot using friends as actors and beg, borrow or steal locations, props, whatever - then I suggest you keep it very simple.

I found comedy is the easiest thing to shoot on a low budget and I wrote parts for specific people, to their strengths and weaknesses, with the fact I had ZERO budget in mind. What I put together turned out fairly good, ruined only be the fact that the editing equipment I had that the time was two inter-connected video recorders...

 

[alexcraig]

The two most important things is that you need good audio and good lighting. You can do lighting with lamps around your house or you can buy cheap lights at Home Depot. A shotgun mic works good for audio, but you might just be using the mic on the camera. Just make sure you don't film outside when it's really windy. if you have to film when it's windy, you can put stuff over the mic so that it won't have that crappy wind sound. Also, if you are serious about this, id build a homemade dolly track. Once I did that my production quality went through the roof. Good luck man.

 

[ChrisFeatonby]

I'm a new sound designer/editor/composer looking for experience so if anyone wants to make low to no budget films I'd be more than willing to help out with sound for free to get a bit more experience and build up my show reel