NO BUDGET FILM MAKING : THE MYTH. THE LEGEND. THE TRUTH.

READ THIS : Please bare in mind that this is just how I have approached filmmaking. These are things that have worked for me, they may or may not work for you. I'm not saying there is a right way or a wrong way to do these things I can only speak from my own experience and point of view. There is also no substitute for hard work. With that in mind Read on. 

It's fair to say that No Budget filmmaking is becoming more common, the drop in the price of technology and accessibility to cameras and computers has seen to that and made it all tremendously easy, I mean its highly likely that right now your reading this on something that capable of shooting and editing a movie. So I'm shocked in this day and age that people consider it, not only a myth, but actually something to be looked down upon. In a world where you can make a film and even edit it on your phone, some people still view no budget filmmaking as nothing more than a legend and a fabrication of truth. As someone who spent the first decade as a filmmaker working with pence to make my short films, I want to talk about the truth.

THE MYTH

"The No Budget Film Is A Myth"

I've been confronted with a school of thought recently and it has kind of shocked me. Especially as back in 2009 I made my first feature with zero funds. I've always been incredibly proud of the fact that myself and a handful of people looking to break into the industry as actors, camera ops, sound techs, etc, achieved on little more than belief. Yet some people look at this kind of achievement as somehow less valid, because little or no money passed hands.

A still from Dead In The Woods

I think that no budget filmmaking can be 'A Myth' if you want to be. If you're looking for a reason why you 'can't' go out and make movies then I guess it is quite convenient for it to remain just that, A Myth. I didn't have the luxury, as a teenager I didn't have the money to even own my own camera, So I borrowed my friend's camera whenever it was free and used college editing suites or my friend's computer when he wasn't using it for his own projects. 

The first film I ever shot, was on SVHS and cut on a tape deck in an old dusty room at our local college. It sucked (ironically it was about Vampires), but it taught me a lot about how not to make films. More than I'd learned from any of my extensive reading on the subject. See I just simply wasn't interested in 'not' making movies, I was, however, interested in actually going out and doing it.

I spent the next decade making short films, all of which had no or very little budget and learning each time how to make the next one better than the last. Whilst I was at university, most of the students made 3 films during their study time. I made about 25, not all of them good, some of them terrible, but with each one I learned a new lesson about lighting, about sound, about directing actors and about a bunch of other things that I never would have even considered to be important. All on nothing.


THE LEGEND

I spent the most part of my early teens following low budget filmmakers and trying to learn as much as could from their movies, their writings and sometimes working with some of them. The internet back in 1999 wasn't really the extensive knowledge base that it is now and to learn specifics you couldn't just jump onto youtube and find what you were looking for, you just had to figure it out. I struggled for many years to find a no budget feature though, but I knew there had to be one, but it seemed to just be a legend.

The first appearance of Evil Santa in the MychoVerse

During this time one filmmaker had really stood out to me. Robert Rodriguez, who made his first film, El Mariachi, on £4000 ($7000). After some research I found that Mariachi's budget had been spent on filmstock and that everything else in the film had been snatched up from Roriguez' family and friends. It was at that moment that I realised the no budget film was staring me right in the face.

Film stock was no longer an issue, in 2008 we had inexpensive digital tape (I understand the quality difference, but 28 Days Later was shot on MiniDV and that's good enough for me) and so without that as an expense, the no budget feature was certainly closer to being a reality for me. From here, removing the element of filmstock, I started to see more of my favourite films had been made on little to no money. Evil Dead, Phantasm, some of my favourite movies of all time could have been made today on much less money.

After graduating I had a theory, and that theory was pretty simple. I had made 25, 5 minute long short films on no money, that would amount to 125 mins. I figured that a 90 minute feature was like making 18, 5 minute movies and that was the beginning of the basis for Creepsville.


THE TRUTH

Whenever this comes up, the first argument I get is where did you get the camera, the computer, the etc, etc, etc. Here's the simple honest truth, I had it. Already. I worked 3 jobs whilst at university and saved up for a camera. Because I knew I was serious about wanting to make films, before I ever had the notion of wanting to make a feature, I spent £300 on the cheapest minidv camera on the market. I bought a computer with my own money to edit my footage on, before I ever had the notion of wanting to make a feature. It took me about 10 years of buying stuff here and there to have everything I needed to make movies. The truth is, if you're serious about this. You'll have it. 

Our 1st werewolf (Fool Moon) made with £land Halloween stock 

Now people say "well that's your budget" and I say to that, no. Whether I had made a feature film or not, I would still have had that stuff. Because I just wanted to make movies. I just got to a point where I could sit on my arse all day waiting for money or I could just go and do it.


See the real truth is that no budget filmmaking is resource based. It's about writing around what you already have. If you want a tank in your movie, but don't have one or have access to one, leave it out. Maybe someone you know has a range rover that you can mount some guns made of toilet paper rolls on. Ok maybe not that, but you get the picture. Work with what you have, with who you have and with where you have.

Our cast were all local, we shot out of hours ( about 6 hours a night) so people just brought thier own snacks. Our locations were all local so there was very little travel involved, it was all just a matter of using what we had accessible.

The Original 'Cleaver' from Clowning Around

It's same when it comes to gear. In this day and age everyone has some form of camera and editing facility on thier laptop, on thier phone, on their tablet, or know someone who does. Just use what you have, don't have film lights, use work lights or bed side lamps or whatever, just go out and do it and play to your strengths. With Creepsville we had what we needed to do it, then ironically the Univerisity allowed us to borrow some old gear after hours during the summer holidays, however the old gear was still better than our current gear and so we went with that, but the lesson remains the same. If you look for excuses you'll find them forever. The irony is, if you look for other ways, you'll find them forever too.

MJ

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RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL CROWD FUNDING CAMPAIGN

 READ THIS : Please bare in mind that this is just how I have approached filmmaking. These are things that have worked for me, they may or may not work for you. I'm not saying there is a right way or a wrong way to do these things I can only speak from my own experience and point of view. There is also no substitute for hard work. With that in mind Read on. 

So you've written your killer script (pun intended), Now what? What do you do with your 90+ pages of awesomeness. You could try and sell it sure, that is pretty tough (although not impossible) but if you're a first time screenwriter it going to be difficult. You could produce it yourself, but how would you raise the money to do so? Well, as with everything, The internet has the answer.  ;)

If you haven't heard about crowdfunding by now, well I'm not sure why you're reading this. Crowdfunding through IndieGoGo and Kickstarter is now a very viable tool in funding your project, be it a movie, an album, a video game or even a sex dungeon that specialises in Dwarf bondage. It has become a very useful tool for audiences to decide what they want to see, play, listen to and gives them a chance put thier money where thier mouth is and make projects happen. 

In 2010 crowdfunding was still in its relative infancy, but we used a combination of early IndieGoGo (when it was still only available in $) and our own similar paypal based system where people could essentially donate small amounts of money for thanks credits, DVD's and Posters, to help raise money toward our budget for Slasher House. We raised a small amount of money this way (about 10%), as we were realativly unknown beyond a few shorts and Creepsville (our first no budget feature affair) that at the time one of Warner Bro's Independent subs were interested in, Due  to the success of Paranormal Activity. 

We raised the rest of the money for Slasher House through private investment amongst ourselves and close friends and family members and manged to raise enough to push us to production and kind of wrote off crowdfunding as a viable option for us as we felt it had been largely unsuccessful for us. However, a couple of years later, as Slasher House picked up a bit of speed and press, we started to get a lot of messages asking if we would be be doing another 'kickstarter' for our next movie, Legacy Of Thorn, which we had announced earlier in the year. 

It was something I wasn't keen on, I didn't really enjoy the stress of it the last time we'd tried it, There was a lot of maintenance needed doing to keep interest up and it became a 24/7 job. Yet this time, I felt, we had enough interest before even started to justify it. We were already pouring all of our own money into it, as well as into post production costs to get Slasher House ready to be distributed, so we decided to give it a shot to raise some of our budget.

1. WHICH PLATFORM TO CHOOSE?

Although there are a variety of options these days in terms of where you set up your crowd funding, There are two main platforms that most people take on. IndieGoGo and Kickstarter. They both work in a very similar way. You set a target and then offer incentives of various values that contributors receive in return for their contribution. 

There are subtle differences, 

KICKSTARTER

 Kickstarter offers a target based service, In which, if the target is not met then no funding is received and no contributors are charged. This is a great idea as it forces you to work around the clock to make sure you get those donations in. Its not like you're Veronica Mars, so chances are you gonna have to work your butt of earn those contributions. Upside is, that you won't be left in a tough position should you only hit some of your target. 

http://kickstarter.com

INDIEGOGO

IndieGoGo offers the same service, as well as another which allows you to keep any contribution you get for a higher fee to IndieGoGo themselves, however the fee is reduced if the target is met.  So even if you don't meet your target you keep all contributions given. 


It sounds like the better option, however it became obvious very quickly that it was riddled with pit falls. I'll talk about that later. 

http://indiegogo.com

Oh, yeah. We went with IndieGoGo, based on raising as much as we could there and then making up the difference ourselves if needs be. 

2. WHAT TO INCLUDE

IndieGoGo have a template built in that is very helpful in covering what you should include in your information to make your project more appealing, which I found very helpful as this was the first time I had attempted this on any serious level. What you need to do is ensure that you spend this time really selling your project, discussing why you want to make it,why people should want to watch it, why people should want to get behind it.

You should go into specific depth about what each one of incentives is (Including their terms and conditions), Explain what each one actually entails. If one of the incentives is a ticket to the premiere, for instance, are you covering travel, hotels? If so mention that, if not, make it clear. You need to make sure that contibutors understandfully what they are getting into. 

It's important to let people know how the money will 'Help' your production. In our case we had some very specific costumes needed making and very specific props that needed building. On top of that there were some big effects shots that we wanted to achieve that needed some specialised equipment that we just didn't have a work around for, so we explained where we would be spending the money, how it would help us and how it would improve the production. This is an area I wish we had gone into more detail in, simply for our own sake. But it really does help to let people know exactly where thier contributions are going. 

I see crowd funding campaigns everyday that are literally 1 or 2 lines, that read like 

"Its a zombie film, about zombies eating people and people trying to survive being eaten by zombies" 

and they offer stuff like 'Special Thanks' for £1000 and then wonder why their own £1 pledge from their mum is the only contribution. Be thorough here, it'll be worth it. 

You can check the page for our it here
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thorn-a-new-age-slasher-epic

Although please note the videos have since gone. 

3. WHAT TO PREPARE

The real key to a sucessful crowdfunding campaign is here, you need to be prepared. For Legacy Of Thorn I had some stuff ready, in the form of artwork, the Thorn short film that we had made back in 2009 on £0 (it had won some awards too which helped) and of course we had Slasher House about to hit major stores in the UK, which features the title character. This was all stuff we already had in place from early pre production. You can view the no budget short film below. 

After that we prepared a pitch video, In which. I sat in front of the camera and just pitched our movie in as short a time as I could. It was a simple talking head video that just went through the information in the campaign, but people tend to find video more engaging than just reading and it plays a huge part in making others want to contribute.

Over the course of the campaign we added more incentives based on what was popular or by request.  We did social media shout outs to contibutors, which in turn helped us find more contibutors. We did interviews, sent out press releases, did video up dates and cast announcements, all in the name of getting people interested and keeping them interested.

We prepared a strategy well in advance and every step of the campaign was planned out mine before we implemented it. We let the campaign built up a bit of a buzz and that got us into the local paper and even onto BBC radio with Ted Robbins from League Of Gentlemen (That's a big comedy show in the UK, I don't know how big it was in the rest of the world), All of which we had planned to do from the outset (Although the Ted Robbin's thing was a bonus). 

As preparation goes, we made one huge mistake. We didn't pre announce the campaign, we didn't get people ready invest, we launched it and then realised that the flood gates were open and no flood was coming in. All the guys who had asked us to do a campaign for the movie went silent. By the end not one single person who had emailed me asking me to do so had contributed anything. However, a lot of other people did, which we are eternally grateful for and these are the people that helped us really make a difference when it came to making the movie. 

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4. WHAT TO OFFER

That really comes down to what kind of project your making, in regards to making a film. We offered Thanks Credits, Signed Posters, Digital Downloads, DVDs, Walk On roles, Screenused Props, Producer Credits amongst other things. All of them obviously related to the film and all them exclusive to the campaign.

We used the incentives to get people not only interested in investing, but also to drum up excitment about the project itself. We did competitions in conjunction with the release of Slasher House and entered everyone who donated anything into a raffle to encourage smaller donations. 

However we only offered things that we knew we could deliver, people were warned that there maybe delays on somethings, especially set appearances and such, but we were very careful not to offer incentives that we couldn't make good on. 

5. WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR

The biggest problem we came across straight away, were the fees that IndieGoGo began to apply to every payment. Instead of holding the money till the end of campaign, every payment was placed in our company account, with IndieGoGo's fees already taken off and then on top of that paypal took a fee too, so we lost a decent percentage of each investment before it even got to us. That might not sound like an issue, but as we hit just under a £1000 we realised that if the campaign wasn't sucessful we were going to be left with 3 choices. 

Make the movie on a portion of the budget, borrow the remaining money from the bank or pay the money back, but this time the fees had already been taken and so they would have had to go back out of our own pocket. The pressure to hit target became emmense and it certainly wasnt good for us creatively as suddenly all our effort went into trying to raise money rather than focusing on fine tuning the film.

The biggest issue we had was that we raised 125% of our target, due to round the clock hard work and a very kind contributions for our biggest incentives that helped reach our target a couple of weeks before the campaign ended. However after fees we ended up landing only just over our original actual target. Had we simply hit our target, We would have ended up way further off still. 

I understand that companies need to make their living, so please know that I'm not complaining about these fees, they certainly need to be there to maintain these sites, but if I was going to do it again I would certainly be more wary at the very least. We could have very easily ended up in worse position than when we started and that shouldn't be the case here. 

One more thing. IndieGoGo waited till our campaign had finished before telling us that we couldn't offer stakes in the movie (Our highest incentive offer), but by then it was over, We went through their policy about this, which was clearly labelled on the Kickstarter site, but here on IndieGoGo (at least at the time) was worded in such vague language that we had deemed it safe to offer said incentive at the time. This nearly caused a problem, but we sorted it out privately with those contributors.

6. WHAT TO REMEMBER

I'm not saying that crowdfunding is bad, Quite the opposite, I think its a great tool in regards to giving audiences a voice and creatives a choice in now they fund thier projects. It has its pitfalls, the same way that private investment does or making a movie on no budget does. It is worth bearing in mind that you have to hit way over target to actually hit your budget on the nose. 

That being said, running the campaign saw us find much more support for the project, it built more interest, We ended up on the radio and in the papers, in national magazines, all of which was great for the movie and Slasher House which was just hitting major stores in the UK during the campaign. 

I think that next time (if there is one) we would most likely aim for the Kickstarter option, but I really think that whatever approach you take needs to suit your project. Thorn was happening with or without the campaign so every little toward that helped. If you want your crowdfunding to decide weather your project lives or dies then the Kickstarter option maybe for you. After all it is certainly a lot less pressure. 

7. WHAT TO DO AFTERWARD

Campaign Exclusive Posters for Legacy Of Thorn

A quick side note, Once you've hit your goal (or even if you haven't) it's important to keep your contributors updated on the films progress and the incentives they will be receiving. If, like us, you are small independent studio in North England, keeping to schedule can be tricky, but we do our best to deliver the incentives as soon as they are ready. I hear a lot of stories about people running crowdfunding campaigns and then never receiving thier incentives and you want to avoid being branded one of those people. 

As with anything, do your best to stay on time and if you can't, just let people know. they are usually every understanding. Within reason.

Above all just try to have fun with it, making movies, and even raise money to make movie is stressful. Luckily it's the good kind of stressful, the kind that doesn't see you trapped in a sex dungeon that specialises in Dwarf bondage.

Oh yeah... Heres the Trailer For LEGACY OF THORN. 

MJ

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WRITING NO BUDGET SCREENPLAYS

READ THIS : Before we get started, Let me just say, once again, that this is my approach to writing and developing film projects. I'm not saying it the best way, just one way of doing it. In the end, you should really find your own way of doing anything, shit that works for some people doesn't work for everyone. It's all just a matter of what works for you as a filmmaker/writer/artist/juggler, whatever. However you should be able to apply any approach back to your own work to try and better the final product.

Also please try to bare in mind I have NO idea whatsoever how good of a writer I am. I've had reveiws that called me 'The Next Tarantino' and on the other hand, I've had reviews that have said that I write at a "GCSE Level" and that I "Should never be allowed near a film again". So all I can say is that I write from my own heart and my own experiences and write with a love for what I do, I can't control who enjoys it and who doesn't. I can just remain true to myself and that's all you can do. So with that said lets go.

Before you start writing you should have done some preparation. I've gone over some of this previously. You Can Find my previous articles to get you to this point below :

HOW TO COME UP WITH IDEAS

GIVING CHARACTERS CHARACTER

TURNING IDEAS INTO STORIES

When writing most scripts I write looking at 'The Bigger Picture'. That means that, most of the time, I'll be producing or directing the film afterwards and so therefore I keep that in mind when I'm scripting. Looking at what's possible, available, and more importantly, 'exciting' whilst not blowing the budget into the stratosphere. It takes a little bit of practice, but it's something you soon get used to. I'm not saying you should do this, If you want to write a Hollywood blockbuster go ahead, I'm writing this simply from my perspective, as a filmmaker, I make most the scripts that I write and so I'm always keeping that in mind. Slasher House started out as a big budget movie that I planned to sell to a studio. 

Also note that even though I tend to be writing for a low budget, I never let that dicatate what goes into the script. I just write what the film needs most of the time and terrify our art department (Which is usually one guy) with how we are going to achieve it. Put it this way, I wrote a Helicopter into Legacy of Thorn. Everyone thought we would drop it. We didn't. 

Anyway on we go.

My first rule, is that I allow maximum 5/6 locations in a movie, Making Horror, that makes it pretty easy and I like the challenge of trying to make my story work within those constraints. However this is not set in stone and you have to know when to break the rules. 

I learned this the hard way, my first feature Creepsville had 32 locations, it's not surprising that the 14 day shoot ran over into 5 months of pick up shoots and with another 2 days of pick ups etc about a year. Which ultimately led to a delay in its release by 4 years, maybe forever. 

Learning my lesson, when I did my rewrite on Slasher House, I kept my main shoot down to 1 location. and shot for 13 days. (I did do 5 pick ups in my own time when people were available. Even then all these pickups took about 5 days in total. 18 days however is a lot less time than 5 months.  

There are 3 simple steps that I take when writing a script (After all of my pre production for it of course). 

STEP ONE : FINISH YOUR SCRIPT

Seems like a strange first step I know, but finishing your script even in its roughest possible form really is the best first step. Your work really doesn't begin until you've finished your first draft. I know it sounds hard, it is. The simple fact is this, once I finish a script I can see in much more clarity where it needs to be fixed. Kind of like putting a model together, when it's all just bits and pieces its hard to see how it's going to come together. But once you have a framework in place, adding bits, taking away bits and reworking pieces all together becomes much easier. 

My first draft of Legacy Of Thorn was a nigthmare to get through, I was worried that I was over explaining some things, leaving some things out all because I was too close to the story to see it clearly. So I finished it, in the roughest, most brutal way that I could. I just ploughed through, dropping every idea that felt natural and some that didn't and just made sure I got to THE END. 

STEP TWO : REWRITE YOUR SCRIPT

This to me is where you actually find your script and get it to where it's going. Where you nail down important plot points and disregard others, where you add characters, cut characters and everything in between. This is the moment you shape your film into what it will become.

On any script, once I'm done, I send it to various trusted sources and then insist that they ask me questions about points that don't make sense or are vague. Unless you are a genius, then your first draft should raise a bunch of issues that you'll want to try to fix second time round. Armed with what's wrong with your script you should be able to fix most of its major issues right here.

Always try to choose people with as much writing experience as possible at this stage to give you feedback. I haves a little group of experienced writers/filmmakers who I know won't bullshit me when it comes to feedback and I send my 2nd or 3rd draft out to them.

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STEP THREE : REWRITE YOUR SCRIPT

No, its not a typo, Once you're 'done', don't just stop. You've got some feedback, now keep going back over, trying to trim the fat, get rid of as much as you can whilst maintaining your story, add information that might make your audience less confused. Make sure the themes of your story are clear and intact. Just keep polishing it, until you simply have no time left to do so. Every film I have ever worked on, I have carried on writing right up until shooting and sometimes during the shoot, things change and you may have to adapt. 

On Legacy, the location we secured didn't have the school assembly hall mentioned in the script. However, we simply couldn't find another school that met the rest of our needs. The school did however have a set of science labs that were very cool and so, we rewrote the scene to fit with that instead. We didn't really lose anything in the end and actually got a slightly more tense scene than the original out of it, because of the tighter nature of the set.

Your screenplay should be your plan for your film and plans change and you need to be prepared for that. 

BONUS STEP : KEEP WRITING

Getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but its important. Even when you are done and cutting the film, the choices you make here will change the way that someone perceives your film. The choices of shot will completely determine how your audience feels when watching it.

In Legacy, I added a Janitor character in the background of a couple of shots, He was only marginally important in terms of the script and even when shooting. However when cutting the film, I found that he helped solidify one of the major plot points, by including him in more shots. It shifted the focus of the film from the Teenage characters we were following to focus more on the underlying evil that fits the theme of the film. 

Anyway for now focus on getting your script right, it is the foundation from which you will build your film, make sure it's sturdy. 

MJ

IF YOU FIND THIS BLOG USEFUL. PLEASE SHARE. You can keep up to date with our filming goings on at our FACEBOOK PAGE :)

ALSO IF YOU'RE BASED IN UK, MICROBUDGET MASSACRE AND THE MILTON KEYNES FILM NETWORK ARE HOSTING THE FIRST OF THIS YEARS SPECIAL 'MYCHO MICROBUDGET MASSACRE MASTERCLASS' LIVE SHOWS ON TUESDAY 8TH MARCH.  

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THE 4 ELEMENTS OF GIVING CHARACTERS CHARACTER

READ THIS : Before we get started, Let me just say, once again, that this is my approach to writing and developing film projects. I'm not saying it the best way, just one way of doing it. In the end, you should really find your own way of doing anything, shit that works for some people doesn't work for everyone. It's all just a matter of what works for you as a filmmaker/writer/artist/juggler, whatever. However you should be able to apply any approach back to your own work to try and better the final product and with that said lets go.

I jumped over creating Characters briefly in my first writing blog HERE. 

Concept Sketch of Jody from Creepsville.
Jody was based on an old college friend.

In my first blog I briefly talked about how I sometimes begin by designing a character and then work from there. Which is fine when you're creating killer clowns, Giant brutish psychopaths and Demons from other dimensions. Here I draw from comic books, films, real life horror stories and many other sources and then can retrospectively create backstories for them based on the story needs or what suits that character, But when crafting real, rounded characters I have to draw from a different source all together. 

Over my 30+ years on this earth, I have lived a very strange and interesting life and as a result I have met all kinds of different people, talked with them, seen the good in them, the bad in them and shared moments of joy, sadness and boredom with them. This is the pool into which I dive when I need real people, when I need characters. 

When I started writing what would become my 1st feature Creepsville in 2008 I was a fresh graduate from University with a degree in Screenwriting that had taught me how to craft a story, but had been somewhat lacking in helping me find my own voice. Being a little nervous about it, I asked a more experienced writer friend of mine, to help me break the script. We agreed that I would write the first draft and he would tighten it up before shooting began in mid 2009.

As we broke the story I began to develop the lead character in the first draft, he suggested that I base the character on someone I knew well. I, of course, chose myself. Taking it back to him, he felt that the character was lacking something, he wasn't rounded enough. This was simply because, when it comes to ourselves, we simply can't be objective enough, We project our ideal decisons into characters rather than real ones and although it worked ok, I was lacking an objective approach to myself. 

Fisrt quick sketch of Red. Complete with outlines for her backstory.
Blurred to avoid Spoilers. 

He suggested that I chose someone else to base that character on, So I looked at the story and looked at the people I knew who would realistically fit into that scenario. I chose,  a guy who I had gone to university with, a decent guy, but a guy who was somewhat flawed at the same time. Then an amazing thing happened, The flaws of that character actually started to give the story greater grounding. My lead went from a character who finds himself in a bad situation, into a lead character who, through his own selfish actions, puts himself and the woman he loves in a bad situation. The stakes were raised and the film now had a much better character arc.

From here I realised I had a whole world of inspiration to draw from when it came to developing the people who inhabited my fictional world. It helped me find a voice specific to me, as I was drawing from my own experiences of others.

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We've all heard the idea of 'Write what you know", well my approach since then has been much more about writing "Who you know".

For every Character I add to a script I look at four elements.

1.THE GOAL

What is it that this particular character wants? What do they hope to achieve both short term (in terms of the story) and Long term (in the bigger real world). How far are they willing to go to achieve these goals? Does their want and desire define them or is it an unlying part of their personality?

2.THE SECRET

For me humans are more complex than just one setting or emotion. Real people are not just what you see on the surface for the most part and so they usually have a deeper agenda. Thats important to how and why a character does what they do. So I always ask myself what deeper agenda does each character have.

3.THE WEAKNESS

Everyone and everything has a weakness, that's what makes people 'people'. It is our vulnerability that makes us seem the most human. Good characters have a weaknesses whether they are good or bad, there has to be a chink in their armour somewhere. Weakness is usually the key to me fully understanding any character that I create. 

4.THE FLIPSIDE

No one is the same all the time, we all have aspects of our personality that sit on the outside most of the time, but even the kindest, calmest person can be angry and cruel at times in the right situation. Most rounded characters are capable of all emotions and its interesting to watch those characters whilst putting them in different situations. People change dependent on what they experience and characters in a story are the same. Looking at your characters from every perspective is important to get a full picture of them. 

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These elements are important in getting an understanidng of each character you put down on paper, even if you're not putting this information into your story, it's important that you know it, as it will help you get a feeling for each and every character you add to your script. 

As a low budget filmmaker, I constantly try and reduce the amount of characters in my script to as few as possible, this way not only do I get more time to focus in on their 'character' and backstory, but It saves time and money in production. 

There are only 5 main characters in Slasher House, but every single one of them has a large fleshed out backstory, much of which we don't see in the final film. Yet there is enough history for each character that they could each carry their own movie. In fact one of them already has in Legacy Of Thorn, you can check it out HERE. 

MJ

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HOW TO TURN IDEAS INTO STORIES : 3 'EASY' STEPS

READ THIS : Before we get started, Let me just say, once again, that this is my approach to writing and developing film projects. I'm not saying it the best way, just one way of doing it. In the end, you should really find your own way of doing anything, shit that works for some people doesn't work for everyone. It all just a matter of what works for you as a filmmaker/writer/artist/juggler, whatever. However you should be able to apply any approach back to your own work to try and better the final product and with that said lets go.

Ideas are the easy part, Some people come up with a hundreds of ideas everyday. However those people are very lucky. If you struggle to narrow your creative flow down to any one idea then check out the Last weeks Blog Here for some ideas of how to do just that.

Yes having an idea is pretty easy, It can happen relatively naturally and be inspired by the strangest of things. Getting those ideas out and down on paper into a coherent story is another matter altogether. 

So you've come up with a concept for a film. Brillaint. However a film cannot live on concept alone and so you need to turn that idea into a script if its going  to become a movie. I started out as a writer and so I have a habit of writing a lot of the material that I Direct and Produce. I won't go into writing theory or anything, There are a thousand books out there that can help you with that, It took me 4 years at University to really get to grips with my own writing, But my approach is this.

1. SUM YOUR FILM UP

One of my favourite ways of figuring out my story is to give it a vague premise, the kind of thing that you would find on the back of DVD. If your submitting scripts to production houses this is great to get into the habit of anyways. The Blurb for Slasher House that appears on the back of the DVD is almost the same one I wrote before I started writing the film in 2005.

"When Red wakes up naked in a prison cell in an old abandoned madhouse, she has no idea how she got there or why she has been placed there. As her cell door opens she soon discovers that she is not alone. Trapped with the worlds most notorious serial killers she finds herself caught in a deadly game with no escape as one by one the other 'inmates' are released to stalk her. Red must now battle these psychotic killers and try and free herself from her incarceration but she soon realises she is being manipulated in a much deadlier game." 

I then used this to imagine how the movie would play out, Your short synopsis my change as you develop your film, but for me, I like to keep it vague enough and then run around within those parameters, as I find it keeps me on my creative toes.

Anyways, after this I hit my sketch book.

2. TIMELINE YOUR FILM

Timeline for Slasher House http://slasherhouse.com

I often draw a diagram. Usually based on the 3 Act Structure that you can read about in any good screenwriting book. I use this as a guide, not a rule as to how my film will play out. It's important to understand the typical structure of films, because understanding the rules makes it easier to break them effectively when you need to.

I Draw out a chart and then start to create events specific to the story as I imagine it. Here I tend to start with my inciting incident at the end of act 1 that leads us into the story we'll be following for the rest of the film.  

In Slasher House this incident is Red being freed from her cell with no memory and left in the seemingly empty house. Her adventure starts here.

I then head straight for my ending, This is to help me know precisely where I'm going and everything in the middle serves as a step toward getting to that point. 

In Slasher House, The End unveils the reason that Red is in the house and the truth about who she is. (If you want to know in detail you can check the film out at http://slasherhouse.com)

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Then I start add my point of no return, which is slap bang in the middle. 

In Slasher House this would be our main Antagonist (Corben) being set free, which totally changes the pace of the movie and takes it another direction, whilst utilising the elements that have already been set up. 

From here I fill in the gaps, each segment encompasses an incident that moves the story forward. Revealing information that the audience will ultimately use to understand the film in its final moments.

Here's our template that we use when breaking down a story. Each line represents a major Event in the story.  The bigger the line the more important the event should be. The large one in the middle is the Point Of No Return.  I try to add mini events in between each one if I can, character beats and things like that to help give the audience information and push the story along. Obviously script writing is much more complex than that, but this a good place to start.

This is then what I use to figure out my story. Which takes me to the next step.

3. TREAT IT TO A TREATMENT

A treatment in industry terms, is the film written down in detail, as much detail as possible without it being the script itself. A treatment comes in various lengths depending on whether you are submitting it or using it as your own guide. I have always written in terms of summing up each scene as best I can without adding dialogue (although this is perfectly acceptable). 

Segment Notes From Slasher House

My approach is to break the film down into segments, and then sum up each segment till I have a full story. I hand wrote Slasher House's segments in my sketchbook, but since then I started using a program called Celtx, which is Free to use and can be downloaded HERE. That allows me to add notes to scenes and so now I add notes to each segment in the form of summaries which is mega helpful, however if I have time I do try and write full treatments in a simple word processor before I start.

Once you have your story down, you can start to find holes and problems and iron them out before you hit the scripting stage. This can be majorly useful when you get stuck and save you hours of sitting in front of keyboard with a little flashy cursor taunting you.

I used to just jump straight to script when I was starting out and the result was dozens of unfinished films that I hadn't really though through fully. Preparation is always good in all parts of filmmaking and that should include writing.

I hope this helps you in someway in moving your project on to the next stage. Remember, this is simply the way I do things and you may have your own approach or may have read about another approach or whatever. Like I said before this is not the right way, Just a way.

MJ

IF YOU FIND THIS BLOG USEFUL. PLEASE SHARE. You can keep up to date with our filming goings on at our FACEBOOK PAGE :)

ALSO IF YOU'RE BASED IN UK, MICROBUDGET MASSACRE AND THE MILTON KEYNES FILM NETWORK ARE HOSTING THE FIRST OF THIS YEARS SPECIAL 'MYCHO MICROBUDGET MASSACRE MASTERCLASS' LIVE SHOWS ON TUESDAY 8TH MARCH.  

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