I make no-budget movies too. Because I am young I use my friends and I as actors. I recently am filming a movie about a group of army soldiers trapped underground in a military bunker. I used an old Scout hut to do that. The only thing I've actually spent money on is fake guns which came to about ?40 in total. People are just so helpful and generous.
Also, I make films based around campsites and the outdoors so I don't need a set, it's all there for me.

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You can't keep 'em out, they're already in!

back before everybody and their grandma had a dv cam and editing software, my friends and i would make movies on a vhs camera and do the whole vcr-to-vcr-rewind-and-record method of editing. it took a long time and the only transitions we could do were cuts and fades. im still broke as hell but still love making movies.

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This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country.
? Clint Eastwood

Hell, I remember those days. Thank <<insert religious leader here>> for digital editing!

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You can't keep 'em out, they're already in!

film making has different meaning to different people. for me, its all about finding a cheap way to do supposedly expensive stuff nand perfecting it to look just as good. one of my biggest barriers in this is that i make war films and nearly all the time 80% of my budget is the uniforms (for cheap modern day military uniforms, www.militarymart.com is the cheapest out there), pyrotechnics i make myself from supermarket products (white spirit, car windscreen cleaner -both very cheap and very flamable-) and i buy broken bb guns for super cheap of anywhere that sells bb guns (btw to make them look good, spray them a metalic silver, wait to dry, then spray them black, and once dry, get fine wire wool, and gently rub all the bumpy bits on the gun and the black paint will fade to reveal the 'metalic paint undernieth', trust me, it coulnt possibly look any more real. finaly, a lot of real guns have plastic parts where you touch them (pistl grip, but rest etc ) so spray these parts dark green, like the design of the british SA80.

I am very young, but all of my movies had about a 100 dollar budget (all together, I reuse props and costumes a lot). But the films I am going to shoot, I am excepting to cost a lot more money. Since I don't have a budget I have turned to do a lot of my stuff on the computer. My post-production time has more than doubled, but I get good results. As long as the story gets through I'm OK with that.

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"Imperfection equals Realism"

The most I've ever spent on a movie is $4,000, and that was for a camera, powermac, and final cut studio, which I'm still using. But when it comes to movies, the budget never breaks $100. I write the script around what I have, and try to keep the character count as low as possible. I use natural lighting, and the most extensive non-natural lighting I've used thus far is a flashlight and a flood light.My stuff usually comes out pretty good, because I don't pay anyone (I can't) so I need to find people in the same boat as me, who just like filmmaking, or makeup, or acting. And one thing I like about low/no-budget filmmaking is the need to be creative and improvise, instead of throwing money at problems, having to get creative and think of ways around problems.

Love your attitude, filmmaker!

Can we see any of the movies you have made?

I def. agree with Lance Uppercut and Filmmaker, in the end it's how you use the resources provided to your advantage.

But just a word of advice, if you have people volunteering their time, do what Lance Uppercut does...exchange a trade of some kind or just provide some food, snacks and water on set and thank volunteers. It really does go a long way.

Thanks

Nothing fancy, just honesty.

f1lmmaker

as you said you made afilm for just 100 us dollars. is it afeature film or a short film? If it was afeature film then can we know its synopsis. it will help us and we will come to know how to use the surrounding in the best way and how to make a feature film for just 100 US dollars

adeel akhter

I believe it's possible to make a film for $100...a feature, but you would need alot of people donating there time...plus i feel the quality would be diminished....

Nothing fancy, just honesty.

If everything is donated (equipment, locations, power, props, costumes, makeup, transportation,
supplies/expendables, food, editing, audio, cast and crew) and none of those soft costs are
counted, it's possible to make a feature for free. And with no loss of quality.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Ha ha... yeah i'm one of those broke filmers too (and actor as well). I remember the old days, when i was 13 and would borrow my friend's vhs video cam to make movies with them. I would edit it by using that old vhs recorder. I then remember using my parent's digital camera that was able to take 30 sec clips at a time. Finally i got a cheap video camera, which gets the job done. I am currently making a 1/2 hour suspense film that has about 5 bucks spent into it... but its all going great. I just wish the image and sound quality was better. I do use Premiere pro and after effects, which save the day..... You just have to improvise. Come up with a story line that uses everyday material.... like obviously you cant make a james bond film or anything like that, but you can make a film that involves a story line that uses everyday items. For all my films, i use props that i already have. The hardest thing for me, is finding the actors.

"There's no point in living if you can't feel alive"

Might I suggest that if you know the sound quality will suffer, that you plan ahead to minimize the sound.

For example choose shots for dialogue scenes where mouth movements are not as obvious. Such as a character facing away, or holding a cup or arm up to partially obscure their face, thus making ADR easier. Or choose extreme closeups so the sound/camera can be close to the speaker and the background obscured to allow for shooting this bit inside under controlled conditions. Choose stories that are action rather than dialogue intensive. Swamp your movie with layers of exterior sound to cover flaws the way George Lucas did in THX1138 and American Graffiti. That sort of thing. This can also speed up your filming as a bad take for sound doesn't matter as much.

Bad sound is terrible, but not having good sound equipment can be a challenge, it doesn't have to be a handycap.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

quote:

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Originally posted by rocket attack

back before everybody and their grandma had a dv cam and editing software, my friends and i would make movies on a vhs camera and do the whole vcr-to-vcr-rewind-and-record method of editing. it took a long time and the only transitions we could do were cuts and fades.

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Same here. That's how I started out, by shooting stuff on an old vhs camera my dad bought when I was 8 years old. Since then, I've been shooting short films with budgets lower than 50 dollars.
Nowadays, as a film student, I have free access to professional equipment, but that doesn't change a thing. I'm still broke, so when it comes to writing a script I just work with what I have, as Bresson would advise. I use my friends as actors, I have a couple of mates from University who help me out with make up, sound, and stuff like that. I do editing on my PC, with Sony Vegas (since I don't have the money to buy a MAC and use Final Cut ?:(?). And work with the "sets" I have, meaning, my house, and the houses from everyone I know lol. All I spend whenever I shoot something is on a new DV, perhaps a little bit of the budget goes to the Art department, if I don't get everything I need, and then the rest goes to feeding everyone ?:D?