So You Want To Be A Filmmaker

Film can be a very powerful medium, it combines both audio and visual, to tell a story. Watching movies can provide escape as well as excitement, while making a film yourself can be challenging, exciting and magical. Films have the power to affect emotions, they can make you see things from a different perspective, and discover new ideas, or simply create escape or fantasy. Film can make you laugh or cry and each film should have a purpose, whether it is to entertain or inform.

The important thing to remember about making a successful film is simple, it should tell a story.The best way to tell a story is with pictures. Film-making when broken into the components, is visual storytelling, in the shots that make up the scenes, and the scenes put together, make up the complete film.

There are so many different types of film and each serves it purpose.

Studio films are backed by film studios and usually have a hefty budget, averaging $70 million and as high as $300 million. Usually a major star will be featured. On the other end of the spectrum, are the independent films, which are often low-budget, because the money is raised by the filmmaker, without studio financing. Somewhere in between, there are independent divisions of the studio which is really a boutique, operating on smaller budgets but with backing of the studio.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both types. As an independent filmmaker, you have total control, and your film can be created exactly as you envision it, however you have no operating budget. A studio picture, with larger financial backing, and highly paid actors is determined by the studio for the best commercial success and creativity normally takes a back seat.

Your movie can be shot in many different formats. Filmmakers appreciate that the medium on which the story is set can elicit different audience reactions.Multiple choices include analog or digital video or high definition. The choice of film camera can go from super-8 which is an affordable format for beginners to 16mm which produces picture quality that may be adequate for television, or with studio production of 35mm motion picture quality, which is used for most television and feature films.

High definition usher in a new experience, with much sharper pictures, and in some instances it may seem closer to being live.

Great films are seldom made without a good story, and choosing the right material can be more important than anything else.Good ideas for films can come from almost anywhere, once allowed to germinate and blossom, a once nascent idea can develop into a full blown screenplay.

How to Make a Low Budget Movie - Bring Your Screenplay to Life

Feature length movies can be made for ten thousand dollars. However, they are more likely to be turn out better and be a success if you pay about five to ten times as much. There are exceptions of course, and some movies costing only 10 to 20 thousand dollars to make have made millions of dollars. If you want to make a movie on a low budget there are many things to consider besides just getting it made cheaply if you want to be a success. This article explains different ways that movies can be made at low cost, and the pros and cons to the different methods. It is primarily for someone with a screenplay or a movie idea who wants to see their idea come to life.

If you have a movie script or movie idea that you want made into a movie, it can be done, with difficulty, or with relative ease. And it can be completed under budget, or over budget.

To illustrate what I mean, imagine you have a house and you want to add two rooms to it and you have no building experience, but you know what you want. If you have enough money, you can explain what you want to an experienced builder, and have them do it all. If you want to save money, you may think about doing some of the work yourself. You might think, well I have a table saw and I can measure and I can pound nails, so I'll do the framing, and hire someone to finish it. When the finishing crew comes to finish it, they may find the rooms are a bit off square, and not quite level, and for them to finish it it will take lots of extra work because the basics were not done right. The total cost can then be more than if you had hired experts right from the start.

The same applies to making a movie. You have your screenplay, and maybe a camera and some of the equipment, and you know some people who will volunteer, and you have taken some workshops on operating the camera and practiced a bit. You shoot your movie, and then hand it to an editor to finish it. Like with the addition to the house, if the basics were not done right, the editor will have a lot more work to make it presentable, and may in fact not be able to make it totally professional looking because of errors that were made during shooting. It would have been cheaper to get expert help right at the start, and to only concentrate on directing and telling your story.

You might think well, what else can I do? I don't have the money to hire a big professional crew to make it. The answer is to find a very small professional crew, who are expert at shooting low-budget movies to do it. The cost will likely be less than if you tried to "save money" by doing jobs you were not expert at. You can still do a lot of the work yourself, but restrict yourself for the most part to doing the simple no brainer jobs, and let the experts do their thing. You can find filmmakers who have the experience and know how to bring your story to life, and all you have to do is find them. After all, what you really want is a nicely finished, professional looking movie that tells your story. Search, and you will find the people that you need, and be much happier in the long run.