Location, Location, Location!

As most Los Angelinos know, filming in LA can be a nightmare when it comes to getting locations. This town is very savvy to the film industry that it revolves around, so most business owners will charge you an arm and a leg to film at their joint. And the cops are on the lookout for renegade film crews. The LAPD apparently has their own department dedicated to busting film crews without permits. (Not sure if this is actually true, but still, it sounds scary).

The company in charge of permits, FilmLA, is a privately owned company and is insanely expensive (you’re looking at about $700 minimum for a basic permit) So – if you are trying to shoot on a tiny budget there is no way you are gonna be able to afford permits. So, shoot somewhere other than LA or….. FUCK PERMITS!!!

BUT you need to be clear with everyone who comes on board your crew that you are not going to use permits. There are some people who like to do things very much by the book, and it’s not cool to mislead them into thinking you are using permits if you’re not. AND you must, must, MUST make sure you have a good AD or producer or SOMEONE reliable on your crew that is looking out for everyone’s safety. And really this comes down to common sense. Don’t go doing dangerous shit in dangerous locations. The tragedy that happened on the set of Midnight Rider last year obviously could have been avoided with or without a permit. Just don’t put peoples lives in danger under any circumstances!!!!!

I had 17 locations in my film, and I didn’t get a single permit and we were fine.

Really, if you are making a microbudget film and have hardly any money, you should be thinking about locations from the moment you conceive your idea and start writing your screenplay. This was a something I did NOT do, and just figured that once I'd raised $75,000 through my successful crowd funding campaign this would be no problem. When I only raised about $9000, finding locations turned out to be the hardest part of pre-production and I had to do many re-writes of the script to cut locations.

But enough about me – back to you. What locations do YOU already have access to? Can you film in your own house or apartment without pissing off your neighbors? If you’re shooting a scene where the charatcers are screaming at each other the entire time, maybe not. But otherwise, you should be golden. Can you shoot in your friends houses? Do you have any close friends who work in bars, restaurants, nightclubs, cafés, offices, gyms, etc. that might be able to hook you up at their place of business after hours when they are closed and you won’t be annoying anyone? I’m still relatively new to LA and didn’t have any hook ups in terms of businesses (although a few of my cast and crew kindly let me film at their houses) – so when I needed to find such things as; a dive bar, a restaurant, a café and a mini golf course, what did I do??????

Here’s what I did – I went on Yelp.com and called business after business after business until I found places that I could afford. Yes, it was boring and tedious. Yes, it was discouraging at times when I was constantly told it would cost between $2000 - $6000 per day to shoot in a dive bar. But when I finally found that business owner who let me shoot in their bar for $150 per day, all that hard work was so worth it.

And this goes without saying but, BE NICE TO PEOPLE. When you talk to the owners on the phone or go in and speak to them in person, be polite and friendly and grateful. It helps.

And if you can’t find enough apartments/houses amongst your friends and family in the area that you are filming, try using AirBnB. That’s what I did for 2 of my locations and it worked out great. Just make sure you tell the host that you want to film there. Some hosts are not ok with that, but many are!

Now, if you have exterior locations….. it’s time to go ninja style. If you have little money you probably have a skeleton crew anyway, but if you’re lucky enough to have a ton of volunteers and crew working on your film for free, figure out the minimum amount that you actually need that day and then leave the rest at home. DO NOT bring a tripod and lights and a ton of equipment. Use available light and go hand held and you’ll be fine. If your sound guy/gal is able to use lav mic’s on your actors and ditch the boom, that’s even better. And then just use common sense. If you want to shoot a scene where your actors are walking down the street, don’t go to a busy street with lots of people around. Go to a quiet street, where people won’t give a shit. If you need to shoot in a park, go to one without a park ranger. And if you are unlucky enough to get stopped by someone, just try using the excuse that you are tourists shooting home movies of your vacation, and then quickly get out of there.

Here's a pic of me and my co-star Mike Gray after a successful day of filming like total sneaky ninjas down backstreets and parks in North Hollywood. See how happy we look because of all the money we saved! ;-)

And finally if you’re really struggling to get a specific location, ask yourself if the scene that it's set in can take place somewhere else. Rewrite the scene if you have to. In my film, I had a scene that required a huge mansion with a fancy pool party and a ton of upscale partygoer background actors. I soon realized there was no way I'd be able to pull that off with the money I had. So we looked at the scene and what it was about. At its core, the scene was about a girl feeling insecure about how rich and successful her new boyfriend is. We completely rewrote the scene to a conversation between them in her bedroom. And in my opinion it was a much better and more realistic scene. So, think outside the box and it might work in your favor!

How Low Can You Go?

Now that the production phase of my film is over, I’m completely and utterly broke. Which some people have told me is a huge problem because post-production is very expensive. 

Call me naïve but these words of warning don’t rattle me too much. I found a way to shoot the film for a fraction of the cost of what most people said I would need, so I know I’ll find a way to get post finished. I’ll do it the same way that I shot the movie. With every paycheck I get, I’ll keep putting as much as I can afford to into post production costs. And if I still don’t have enough, then hell, I’ll finish it myself on iMovie if I damn well have to. I’m more determined than ever. And I’ll tell you why:

One of the part time jobs that I have right now (along with freelance film PR, babysitting and dog walking) is that I am on the screening committee for a well known US film festival. I won’t say which one, just in case I’m not allowed to – but to put this blog post into context I will say that it’s considered to be a very well established and competitive festival. My job is to basically watch a ton of films that have been submitted, give them a rating out of five, write coverage on them, then pass that coverage on to my supervisor, who is one of the festival programmers.

I was stoked when I got this little job because I’m a huge movie nerd and especially love watching great little under the radar films. I was excited by the possibility of discovering some new talent and seeing what the latest generation of indie-filmmakers are up to.

Instead, what I discovered was a disappointing trend. 90% of the narrative features that are being submitted have very good production values but no effort has been put into the script and story. And I’m sorry, but in my opinion it doesn’t matter how professional a movie LOOKS – if it has nothing to say, then who gives a damn?

With the advancements to digital filmmaking technology in recent years it has become a lot cheaper to make a film now that it was in “the old days”. And when I say the old days I mean when you had to shoot on film and when the studios controlled almost everything.

These days you don’t need 20 million dollars to make a decent looking movie. You don’t even need 1 million. But you do need some money. Filmmaking definitely isn’t cheap.

Which seems to be where this trend is coming from. Currently the indie film scene is flooded with self financed films under the $1M mark, made by people who haven’t had to get through all the red tape of the studio system but have rather been able to greenlight themselves because they have some money (with some simple IMDB searching it’s easy to find out that many of these films are being made by first time directors – some who’ve never even made a short). As a result we are hearing a LOT of the same voices telling their stories. The voices of upper class and upper-middle class white people (usually men).

Then I started thinking..... well what are the chances of an aspiring director being a very talented filmmaker, having something to say AND being rich? Pretty low, right? Because most people aren’t rich.

Now, I’m not rich, I never have been rich and maybe never will be. BUT I did end up in an incredibly fortunate position that allowed me to make my film. For the year leading up to the movie I was able to keep my living costs very low. My partner Pete really helped me out by taking care of most of our household expenses, leaving me the ability to put all my earnings into the film.

But what about the aspiring filmmakers who are not in that position? Well, some would say – turn to crowdfunding. But from my experience, unless you have a lot of rich friends and family or you already have a huge following, this is more trouble than it’s worth and most campaigns fail. So how do you make your film and tell your story?

My film ended up costing about $25,000 to shoot. But knowing what I know now, I could have done it even cheaper. Over the next few blog entries I will be going in to some detail as to what I spent that money on and how I could have done it for less.

My mission for 2015 is to investigate all avenues for cutting budgets so that filmmaking can be more accessible to people who have big ideas but small wallets. 

I really want to know, just how low can you go.....?