Producing : First short movie producing advice wanted! by Katarzyna Adamus

Hi, I don't have experience with directing cats, unfortunately. :D But I love to think out of the box when there is no budget. I can advise you about the art galleries with no budget, ask around and maybe a gallery is willing to participate for the creative arts! Are there any local cultural center in your neighborhood with space for an art gallery? I visited a local children's theatre recently and they had a hall filled with art pieces that are for sale. Try an art school! Or as your final final backup, create a gallery yourself in an empty space/house and film it like it resembles a gallery. You could film the exterior of a real gallery. And then for the interior a blank wall with a hanging art piece and your cast. If you do this with closeups, you can "fake" it like that. :D Good luck!

Work on someone else's short movie and then pooch the cast & crew for your own movie.

But you gotta have some $$$$ to start, pay for insurance, permits, food, etc.

That's unattractive to cast & crew if your pitch to them starts with "I got 0 budget."

I've worked in art galleries with million$$$ of value art on premise. Nobody with any common sense will let a film crew shoot without production & liability insurance, or know you personally.

Marleen Irani thank you, I will have pictures, just was thinking about the big empty space for interesting shoot. But I realised I can do this in a friend 's restaurant, after business hours, so looks like probllem is sorted with this art gallery premise.

Dan MaxXx I am not looking for top actors, rather someone who is interested, like me, to gain experience. Thank you for mentioning the insurance, it is important. What kind of permits I would need?

Film production is indeed much like herding cats.

Welcome!

I've produced 18 pictures, including eight shorts. If you want advice, feel free to reach out. You should hire an experienced producer to help you set this all up in terms of obtaining free and cheap locations, donated and cheap food and craft service and quality actors who will make your words sing.

Katarzyna, You can do a micro-budget short film, but you will need more than 0.0. Again, you WILL NEED TO FEED the cast and crew - that is a basic courtesy. You also will need gas money and other intangibles. And, if you are doing this as an experiment to get experience and it turns out horrible, HOW in the long run will this help you? You might convince an art gallery to let you film there for FREE or even for CHEAP. But, you will need some form of budget. Reach out if you want advice. - Sam B

The absolute cheapest I've ever gotten away on a $0.0 budget short was about $250.00 per day using an all volunteer cast (3) and crew (5). It was a 2 day ($500.00) 'training' project. The film has never been shown.

I did a short film last year with no budget. I'm not saying it's easy but it is doable.

We were able to get an old mansion to shoot at.

The key was to get everybody that helped involved and my observation was that the more "involved" as in had a lot to do the better everything was. The more time people have on their hands the more they try to help out where you don't need help.

But on the other hand convincing people to use locations has never been a problem the thing is that you just need to find the person that loves film and finds the idea of their place being in a film cool.

Also finding public places to shoot as long as you don't disturb people and don't cause any disturbance peace and you should be fine.

I've had cops walk up to us while shooting in the middle of down town at midnight and just look and ask "oh so you're shooting a movie... cool" and watch a little and then leave.

But the thing that kept everyone going for 18 hour days was that we always had snacks and juice for when the spirits were down at 1am.

All in all everyone was excited to be part of it and making them part of it after the shooting was done was just as important as during filming.

A lot of people were so happy that they said that if we ever need more help or wanted to use the locations again that it would not be a problem.

Anyway good luck with your film. I hope you'll share it with us when it's done.

My ebook/book Funding for Internship and Scholarship Programs includes all the resources for what you mentioned. Stage 32 has a wealth of related resources as well.

Vital, I'm not sure how you filmed 'round the clock without feeding the cast and crew well. Snacks and Juice are fine, but you need plenty of water, other snacks and hot meals every six hours. That's just common courtesy. Also, most cops will NOT say, "oh so you're shooting a movie ... cool." You can always throw out, "We're doing a student film," and sometimes they will let you be, but not always. Saying you shot 18 hour days and filmed at 1 a.m. in front of cops is not recommended. And, again, 18 hour days with no pay and just snacks, well, I don't know a lot of people that would sign up for that. My fear is that newbies will read this and think, "Hey, this is a good way to go." Again, what is the point of making a film if it doesn't look professional or go anywhere?

Doug Nelson , Vital Butinar thank your for valuable insight. Tasha Lewis What's the title of ebook and where can I get it? Sam Borowski thank you for offering advice, I will definetely contact you :)

Sam Borowski I agree with you completely on all points. Not all cops will say that and most people would not sign on to that. That's competently understandable. But that's what we had to do on this project and it was not the only one. Maybe the key is finding the people how are crazy enough to try something like that. I was probably fortunate enough to find people that stuck around.

Yes we did eat. We ordered pizzas and there was a stack of water bottles around but like I said most of the people I know are not infants nor are they kids who don't know how to take care of themselves so I'm guessing the same as I do when I go and take a leak I think that it might be a good idea to drink some water at the same time.

I'm not saying every project would go this way for every person but this one and a few others did. But this was my film made for a good cause and we all new it and that's how it was approached.

The key thing is that the cast were all committed and as far as the crew goes nobody was handcuffed and could leave anytime they wanted with mine and everyone's gratitude and a few people did leave when it was getting late but most of them stayed until the end.

With me packing up the gear and copying files after everyone has been in bed for an hour.

And I'm not saying I'd do the same thing on every shoot but it depends how important the project is to you and if it's important to you well you'll be able to find people who will share your vision and stick with you. I guess I've worked only on projects I've been passionate about and so I've been able to swing it.

And I'll be the first to say know your limitations but I'll also say then find a way to work around them and it's just that simple.

The point of making films is sometimes also just to learn and get your feet wet with a new field and there's nothing wrong with that sometimes and sometimes you're not able to pull of what you set out to do but it gets you knowledge and experience. Sometimes going in head first into a project that you might not be able to pull of the way you imagined it makes your next project way better because of the experience gained. I've seen people accumulate vast amounts of knowledge and experience that way and I'm not saying that becoming a PA and standing around film sets and learning isn't the way to go. I just knew that it wasn't my way. Sometimes applying knowledge and know-how form a different field works just as well.

So yes I agree with you all of the things we did to shoot some stuff might not be a good idea but in my case it worked and we pulled it off. But I went into this full well knowing what I wanted to do and that if nobody would do what I wanted I was going to have to do everything. But that has been my problem always because I've always wanted to know every thing from every area and field even if I'm not going to be doing that particular thing I always wanted to understand it.

So Katarzyna Adamus all I'd like to say to you is good luck with your project.

Vital Butinar thanks! I will need lots of luck!

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Tasha Lewis sounds great!

My niece films TikTok videos with her friends on Iphones and edits on free apps. 0 Budget. They're learning basic filmmaking skills on their own.

Katazyna, I note that you are in Hawkinge, Kent, if you are still based there I suggest you join Kent Filmmakers on Facebook where you should be able to make contact with filmmakers local to you. You might also might want to contact student filmmakers at Canterbury university. They will have access to some very good equipment and many would be happy to be involved in projects for experience, so will be happy to do work for free. Happy to chat over the phone or in person on how you can keep costs down and ways that you might be able to get some funding for your short. But in basic terms your film is likely to be cheaper to make if you minimise locations, and cast. Some of the best shorts are set in just one room, with just two actors. That said we are lucky in UK because many people are happy to provide locations for free. (But do be realistic about how disruptive filming is to the occupants daily routine.). I was also able to get over a 100 extras for free by posting on the local Facebook Page for a shoot I did in Broadstairs. As others have already said do get public liability insurance. I also had a free run of Broadstairs esplanade, beach and lift for three days in the summer for just £60. (They council originally wanted to charge me £1,800). You will find Kent Film Office really helpful too.

Hi Michael Wearing Thank you for lots of good suggestions. I gave a script to read to someone who liked it, and said there is possibility to sort out filming in one of the bigger galleries in Kent. I'm still hesitating, to go for filming or no. I would like to see the screenplay on the screen but in the same time I am aware that with lack of skills I can mess it up.