ivan94film
Active member
Hello everyone, I am writing this complete guide on how to become an independent filmmaker because I feel like this is something I should have read when I first started out. This is, in other words, a manual I want to give to myself 10 years ago if I could travel back in time.
This will be a wall of text, but for those of you who have the patience and are willing to read all the way through, you should have a better understanding of what it takes to become a filmmaker and how the whole process works from beginning to end.
I am not a “guru” and these instructions should not steer you away from your path if you have already found success or have a solid business model. This guide is from my own personal experience and the information presented here could be inaccurate or obsolete in a few years, depending on many different factors in the ever changing independent film world. With that disclaimer out of the way let’s get to it!
I personally believe filmmaking can be divided into 2 categories. The first is “Serious” filmmaking and the second is “Popcorn” filmmaking. Both have their pros and cons. This guide will concentrate more on Popcorn filmmaking because that is the path I have chosen. I will digress here and there and talk more about serious filmmaking for those interested in going down that path but the main subject of this guide is on how to produce and distribute entertaining popcorn short films at the no budget level. ($50-$2000)
What is Serious filmmaking? “Serious” in my opinion consists of non-genre films, mainly pure dramas and period dramas, non-narrative, avant-garde & experimental filmmaking. If you wish to go down this path, then know that this is the more expensive, difficult, longer & slower path. However the rewards can be very huge if you have the fire in you to become the next Terence Malick or Barry Jenkins as you will be very well respected and seen as a serious storyteller and win many awards. These filmmakers also have the opportunities to do blockbusters such as Chloé Zhao and Cary Joji Fukunaga, while pure popcorn filmmakers rarely enter this exclusive space and are not as respected by film critics.
What is Popcorn filmmaking? Popcorn films in my opinion, are high concept, genre films with a clear simple narrative that can be summarized in one powerful sentence, aka Logline. These are the type of stories that resonate with a global audience and have the potential to go viral online. This is also a highly competitive space but it is also where most legends such as David F. Sandberg (lights out, Shazam), Andrés Muschietti (mama, It) & James Wan (Saw, Aquaman) got their big break.
Filmmaking is one of the most expensive art forms in the world. The sooner you realize that 99.999% of short films don’t make any money, the quicker you can decide which of these 2 paths you want to take. Short films are a huge investment in your career and time. You are building a portfolio and also playing the lottery to see if one of your stories goes viral (popcorn) or gets critical acclaim (serious).
The myth of the “overnight sensation” glosses over how many of these successful filmmakers we worship have at one point struggled like us and made dozens of short films that were never released or shown to a wide audience. For every Tarantino there are thousands who gave up and never reached their full potential.
Another disclaimer I want to point out is that filmmaking is a full-time commitment. You are committing at least a decade or more of your life to becoming a starving artist. For most people this will mean losing their 20s and seeing their friends drive cars, buy houses, have children , etc. Is that the path you want to take? If filmmaking is truly your passion then it will be an easy yes. I have seen over the years many talented filmmakers who have given up because they have taken full time jobs or lost their passion, this is the death sentence. If you don’t have a family that supports and invests in your career then you will need to get a part-time job to make ends meet, but the moment you take on another full-time career, your filmmaking dreams will be secondary and non-existent. Another trap you can fall into is if you become a full-time music video director or full-time employee at a rental or post house, so while you are working in the entertainment industry, you won’t have time to become a narrative filmmaker.
OK, so how do we make MANY short films and minimize costs & risks i.e. how do we not go broke and in debt within a year?
According to a PHD study by Dr J.T. Velikovsky, Ph.D, titled StoryAltiy (do read his blog, very good info) the cheapest movies to make that gets the most viewers are horror films by writer-hyphenates. This is very important.
I will start with explaining writer-hyphenates. A filmmaker is a visual storyteller. So in that sense your greatest asset, is your ability to tell a good story. All the legends, Tarantino, Rodriguez, Cameron, Nolan etc all started out as writer-hyphenates. That means you need to be able to write screenplays. If you are a director, producer or actor that requires the help of a writer and their ideas to create art, then you don’t have a voice and won’t stand out in the overcrowded space of low budget visual entertainment.
Writing is the cheapest art, and yet it is the hardest of all filmmaking skills to master. To make a good popcorn flix and stand out amongst the crowd, you either need a very powerful concept or a very emotional story that resonates with the audience or better yet both!
Now I believe writing is not something that can be taught, it can only be honed through years of experience but I can part with tips and knowledge that I find most useful through years of scouring youtube for tips and tricks.
By far the biggest mistake, filmmakers make, is that they confuse a situation for a story. Writing and filming a good situation can open the door for you as evidence by short films such as Lights Out, Mama, and Panic Attack, but these legends would not have the opportunity to direct Hollywood movies if they had not mastered the craft of telling a story. Go read Lights Out treatment for example. If David F. Sandberg was not able to write that treatment, Lights Outs would at worst, not get made or at best, the idea would have been bought and he would maybe get a story credit but have no further involvement.
What is a story? A story is a situation that propels the protagonist to find inner change. This internal change, the hero’s journey, whether positive (star wars) or negative (requiem for a dream) is what gives your story a moral and a thematic statement which is a subjective answer you present at the end of the story. This statement is not the absolute truth but gives the audience food for thought that propels ordinary situations into myths. Example Star Wars Episode 3: Did Anakin (tragic hero) kill all those people to save his love, or was is for greed? Your goal as a popcorn filmmaker is to create myths that can be turned into new franchise blockbusters.
Now to start writing a story you need a powerful concept. A concept can be summarized as a logline. A very powerful 1 sentence, that will hook your audience and make them want to watch your film. A logline should consist of the protagonist, the conflict (what they must do/what is stopping them) and the reason for it (what is at stake?)
Example: A desperate junkie must rob his father’s drug store so he can go cross country with his girlfriend to meet his dying mother.
This logline tells us everything we need to know about the story. It could be a dark comedy-heist-road movie, there are two antagonists, his father, who is preventing him from getting the money, and his girlfriend who probably fuels his bad drug habits and his dying mother which is what’s at stake.
With a powerful concept it is time to put it into a structure. The most popular structure is the 3-act structure. This structure can be seen in countless movies, and the worldwide audience is so accustomed to it that if you do not follow this structure, then most viewers will think you didn’t “nail” the story or something feels off. In essence, the 3-act structure is the beginning middle and end with multiple turning points (big and small situations where the protagonist can’t turn back and must go forward). Google 3 act structure and put them up on your wall. Drill it into your head. 2 of the best ones are by Blake Snyder and Michael Hauge.
The 3-act structure is there to give you a narrative line you can work with. Some of my favorite films, El Topo, Too old to die young and Memento do not follow the typical Hollywood 3 act structure, but these Auteurs have complete mastery and understanding of beginning, middle and ending that they know how to bend the rules and create compelling narratives that the audience can easily follow.
The 3 act structure is the physical conflict your hero must overcome but there is also an internal conflict you must tell. This is where the Hero’s journey/arc comes in. The most popular one today is Dan Harmon’s story circle, based on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. This structure fits best with Mythological hero stories such as Luke Skywalker, Frodo, Bilbo etc but there are different types of arcs you can use. Example Flat arc (cat in the hat), Disillusionment arc ( Thin red line), Fall arc (star wars prequels) Corruption arc (Godfather) etc. Google for more arcs and details.
Now if you are a beginner popcorn filmmaker who has done less than 3 short films, these story tools should be studied and honed but your best bet is probably writing a powerful situation with a very strong concept where the main character doesn’t go through a change. Why? Because your best bet is to start with 5 minute or shorter short films, preferably at least 3 before doing longer shorts. If you can hold the audience’s attention for 5 minutes then you can expand and create more complex stories and scale up to 10, 15 then 30 and finally feature length. If you are a serious filmmaker then drama requires internal change so you do need to implement a character arc and see if you can fit that within the 5 minute time frame.
Last words about writing, at any time during the filmmaking process, you should constantly have a minimum of 5 loglines in your incubator that you are constantly developing. This is so that you have a good concept ready to go and develop once you are in postproduction on your latest film. That way you won’t have an unproductive moment in your quarterly schedule. Treat your company and career as a startup. If you only have one concept and it flops what happens?
Ok enough about writing. Let’s talk about Horror. Why are horror films the most viral genre? Horror films are the most viral because they are the cheapest to make and presents a narrative that resonates with all cultures worldwide. Horror taps into our primal fears of life & death. A good horror film will reach a wider audience than a difficult drama story that is very culture specific or dealing with taboo topics many cultures are not ready to face yet.
This will be a wall of text, but for those of you who have the patience and are willing to read all the way through, you should have a better understanding of what it takes to become a filmmaker and how the whole process works from beginning to end.
I am not a “guru” and these instructions should not steer you away from your path if you have already found success or have a solid business model. This guide is from my own personal experience and the information presented here could be inaccurate or obsolete in a few years, depending on many different factors in the ever changing independent film world. With that disclaimer out of the way let’s get to it!
I personally believe filmmaking can be divided into 2 categories. The first is “Serious” filmmaking and the second is “Popcorn” filmmaking. Both have their pros and cons. This guide will concentrate more on Popcorn filmmaking because that is the path I have chosen. I will digress here and there and talk more about serious filmmaking for those interested in going down that path but the main subject of this guide is on how to produce and distribute entertaining popcorn short films at the no budget level. ($50-$2000)
What is Serious filmmaking? “Serious” in my opinion consists of non-genre films, mainly pure dramas and period dramas, non-narrative, avant-garde & experimental filmmaking. If you wish to go down this path, then know that this is the more expensive, difficult, longer & slower path. However the rewards can be very huge if you have the fire in you to become the next Terence Malick or Barry Jenkins as you will be very well respected and seen as a serious storyteller and win many awards. These filmmakers also have the opportunities to do blockbusters such as Chloé Zhao and Cary Joji Fukunaga, while pure popcorn filmmakers rarely enter this exclusive space and are not as respected by film critics.
What is Popcorn filmmaking? Popcorn films in my opinion, are high concept, genre films with a clear simple narrative that can be summarized in one powerful sentence, aka Logline. These are the type of stories that resonate with a global audience and have the potential to go viral online. This is also a highly competitive space but it is also where most legends such as David F. Sandberg (lights out, Shazam), Andrés Muschietti (mama, It) & James Wan (Saw, Aquaman) got their big break.
Filmmaking is one of the most expensive art forms in the world. The sooner you realize that 99.999% of short films don’t make any money, the quicker you can decide which of these 2 paths you want to take. Short films are a huge investment in your career and time. You are building a portfolio and also playing the lottery to see if one of your stories goes viral (popcorn) or gets critical acclaim (serious).
The myth of the “overnight sensation” glosses over how many of these successful filmmakers we worship have at one point struggled like us and made dozens of short films that were never released or shown to a wide audience. For every Tarantino there are thousands who gave up and never reached their full potential.
Another disclaimer I want to point out is that filmmaking is a full-time commitment. You are committing at least a decade or more of your life to becoming a starving artist. For most people this will mean losing their 20s and seeing their friends drive cars, buy houses, have children , etc. Is that the path you want to take? If filmmaking is truly your passion then it will be an easy yes. I have seen over the years many talented filmmakers who have given up because they have taken full time jobs or lost their passion, this is the death sentence. If you don’t have a family that supports and invests in your career then you will need to get a part-time job to make ends meet, but the moment you take on another full-time career, your filmmaking dreams will be secondary and non-existent. Another trap you can fall into is if you become a full-time music video director or full-time employee at a rental or post house, so while you are working in the entertainment industry, you won’t have time to become a narrative filmmaker.
OK, so how do we make MANY short films and minimize costs & risks i.e. how do we not go broke and in debt within a year?
According to a PHD study by Dr J.T. Velikovsky, Ph.D, titled StoryAltiy (do read his blog, very good info) the cheapest movies to make that gets the most viewers are horror films by writer-hyphenates. This is very important.
I will start with explaining writer-hyphenates. A filmmaker is a visual storyteller. So in that sense your greatest asset, is your ability to tell a good story. All the legends, Tarantino, Rodriguez, Cameron, Nolan etc all started out as writer-hyphenates. That means you need to be able to write screenplays. If you are a director, producer or actor that requires the help of a writer and their ideas to create art, then you don’t have a voice and won’t stand out in the overcrowded space of low budget visual entertainment.
Writing is the cheapest art, and yet it is the hardest of all filmmaking skills to master. To make a good popcorn flix and stand out amongst the crowd, you either need a very powerful concept or a very emotional story that resonates with the audience or better yet both!
Now I believe writing is not something that can be taught, it can only be honed through years of experience but I can part with tips and knowledge that I find most useful through years of scouring youtube for tips and tricks.
By far the biggest mistake, filmmakers make, is that they confuse a situation for a story. Writing and filming a good situation can open the door for you as evidence by short films such as Lights Out, Mama, and Panic Attack, but these legends would not have the opportunity to direct Hollywood movies if they had not mastered the craft of telling a story. Go read Lights Out treatment for example. If David F. Sandberg was not able to write that treatment, Lights Outs would at worst, not get made or at best, the idea would have been bought and he would maybe get a story credit but have no further involvement.
What is a story? A story is a situation that propels the protagonist to find inner change. This internal change, the hero’s journey, whether positive (star wars) or negative (requiem for a dream) is what gives your story a moral and a thematic statement which is a subjective answer you present at the end of the story. This statement is not the absolute truth but gives the audience food for thought that propels ordinary situations into myths. Example Star Wars Episode 3: Did Anakin (tragic hero) kill all those people to save his love, or was is for greed? Your goal as a popcorn filmmaker is to create myths that can be turned into new franchise blockbusters.
Now to start writing a story you need a powerful concept. A concept can be summarized as a logline. A very powerful 1 sentence, that will hook your audience and make them want to watch your film. A logline should consist of the protagonist, the conflict (what they must do/what is stopping them) and the reason for it (what is at stake?)
Example: A desperate junkie must rob his father’s drug store so he can go cross country with his girlfriend to meet his dying mother.
This logline tells us everything we need to know about the story. It could be a dark comedy-heist-road movie, there are two antagonists, his father, who is preventing him from getting the money, and his girlfriend who probably fuels his bad drug habits and his dying mother which is what’s at stake.
With a powerful concept it is time to put it into a structure. The most popular structure is the 3-act structure. This structure can be seen in countless movies, and the worldwide audience is so accustomed to it that if you do not follow this structure, then most viewers will think you didn’t “nail” the story or something feels off. In essence, the 3-act structure is the beginning middle and end with multiple turning points (big and small situations where the protagonist can’t turn back and must go forward). Google 3 act structure and put them up on your wall. Drill it into your head. 2 of the best ones are by Blake Snyder and Michael Hauge.
The 3-act structure is there to give you a narrative line you can work with. Some of my favorite films, El Topo, Too old to die young and Memento do not follow the typical Hollywood 3 act structure, but these Auteurs have complete mastery and understanding of beginning, middle and ending that they know how to bend the rules and create compelling narratives that the audience can easily follow.
The 3 act structure is the physical conflict your hero must overcome but there is also an internal conflict you must tell. This is where the Hero’s journey/arc comes in. The most popular one today is Dan Harmon’s story circle, based on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. This structure fits best with Mythological hero stories such as Luke Skywalker, Frodo, Bilbo etc but there are different types of arcs you can use. Example Flat arc (cat in the hat), Disillusionment arc ( Thin red line), Fall arc (star wars prequels) Corruption arc (Godfather) etc. Google for more arcs and details.
Now if you are a beginner popcorn filmmaker who has done less than 3 short films, these story tools should be studied and honed but your best bet is probably writing a powerful situation with a very strong concept where the main character doesn’t go through a change. Why? Because your best bet is to start with 5 minute or shorter short films, preferably at least 3 before doing longer shorts. If you can hold the audience’s attention for 5 minutes then you can expand and create more complex stories and scale up to 10, 15 then 30 and finally feature length. If you are a serious filmmaker then drama requires internal change so you do need to implement a character arc and see if you can fit that within the 5 minute time frame.
Last words about writing, at any time during the filmmaking process, you should constantly have a minimum of 5 loglines in your incubator that you are constantly developing. This is so that you have a good concept ready to go and develop once you are in postproduction on your latest film. That way you won’t have an unproductive moment in your quarterly schedule. Treat your company and career as a startup. If you only have one concept and it flops what happens?
Ok enough about writing. Let’s talk about Horror. Why are horror films the most viral genre? Horror films are the most viral because they are the cheapest to make and presents a narrative that resonates with all cultures worldwide. Horror taps into our primal fears of life & death. A good horror film will reach a wider audience than a difficult drama story that is very culture specific or dealing with taboo topics many cultures are not ready to face yet.
