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.....?