7 STEPS TO MAKING A MOVIE ON NO MONEY

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. 

Original Concept Poster

A few years ago I had just graduated from University, I had no money and a job with very few hours and very little pay. It was impossible to save anything towards improving my gear etc. In regards to filmmaking this didnt really affect me on a grandscale as I had always made all my short films on next to nothing and so that kind of carried on as usual, as I had never equated making movies with needing cash. 

I carried on making short films, taking everything I had learned from the stuff I made whilst studying and applying the mistakes I made three to what I was producing now. There was an urge in me that I could'nt fight, a film that came to be known as Creepsville. It was a concept I had worked on for years and I knew it had to be a feature, my first feature.  

My intention had always been to raise the money to make it and I had kind of been treading water with shorts till I was in a position where I could afford to make it. Then, one day, whilst I was scrollling through the pages of Fangoria, I read a quote from a filmmaker called Gabrielle Albanesi (Last House In The Woods) and he said something like this : "If you are waiting for money, You are NOT a real filmmaker". That statement hit me like a ton of bricks, It felt like a challenge, a Challenge to me, a challenge to my work ethic and I like a challenge. 

The Horror Channel around the same started to post a no budget filmmakers blog by a filmmaker named Pat Higgins (Whose debut film inspired me to write Slasher House back in 2005) and this gave me a much better idea of how to achieve my goal of putting together a feature length movie. So with nothing but a few inspirational quotes behind me I set out to make my first feature with no money.

There are things that will make this a lot easier, Some I thought about, some I learnt along the way and some stuff I wish I had know whilst I was there. I've taken the liberty of listing some helpful stuff below. 

1. WRITE TO YOUR STRENGTHS

Pre Production On Creepsville

Sitting down to finally get Creepsville down on paper, I ask my writer friend Paul Thomas, who had much more script writing experience than me, to help me break the story. We used Robert Rodriguez approach of looking at what we had access to and worked from there. We crafted the story with budget in mind and although it limited our scope it made us much more creative in how we handled it. The key to getting it made was writing within our boundaries. 

We knew we had access to an abandoned train tunnel, to the old Mill where I was working at the time, an old abandoned house, a large storage garage (although that eventually had to be reshot somewhere else), a park and various cool urban locations, so we just threw all that stuff into the mix and started using it to set our story of masked maniacs and killer taxi drivers.

Looking at the script I saw we would be shooting a lot of night shots in the streets, which I knew would result in a very orange looking picture. As there was very little way around this with what we had, I decided to make that the films look and colour scheme and it helped turn what could have been a weakness into one of the films strengths.  

2. ASK FOR HELP

Original cheap £shop mask for PumpkinFace

People get too proud and sometimes pride can hold you back, its okay to do it. Ask for help, the worst thing that can happen is that people can say "no" and even then your only back where you started. Just make sure that when people do help you are grateful, and try and pay it forward. A lot of cast and crew came from the local music scene that I was a big part of with being in HockeyMask Heroes and so I managed to call in a great many favours there too. 

Our sound guy on set was the sound guy from the events we put on at weekends. Other than that we kind of just asked people what they could help with and worked from there. One cast member was a makeup artist so we incorporated that, one cast member had a car that we loaned to be our taxi (using a old broken sign that we 'borrowed' from the dumpster outside the taxi rank). We pulled some strings at the University to borrow some better equipment too, But I was quite happy to shoot on a decent miniDV camera that I already had if it had come to it. 

We wanted some very specific mask props from an amazing mask masker at Rubber Gorilla, but they were way out of budget (which was £0 anyways). However, I knew that would lift the value of the film compared to what we had as back up, After a few e-mails and a chat with the guy who made them, he agreed to give us an extended loan and we could buy them if we wanted later or return them. The actors decided they wanted to but thier masks as keepsakes in the end anyways, but all we had to do was ask and the awesome Neal Harvey helped us out. We've used his products for all our movies ever since and he's been more than helpful :) 

3. CAST YOUR FRIENDS

People always say that you shouldnt do this, I disgaree to an extent. I had some friends who were actors and my friends had some friends who were actors and we worked from there, making sure that they were local and could get to our central location without any real bother. Not having any money we asked people involved to invest themselves in the project, by bringing food for on set or paying there own travel. 

This of course didn't suit everyone and I was happy to let them go, I simply made sure that everyone involved just wanted to make a movie for the sake of making a movie, I didn't want anyone who wasn't comfortable with spending their own money to put themselves out. We simply wanted to make something, Something that would showcase all our skills as actors, filmmakers, special effects artists, stuntmen, editors, cameramen etc.

I think the only person on the entire set who came from outside our network was the leading lady Helen Pawson who we found on Casting Call Pro. She looked right for the role and so I messaged her and told her about what we were doing, after a meet up and a reading, she agreed to join the cast and we were off. However casting you friends can have its draw backs. Two people pulled out at the beginning of the shoot, one of them a friend of ours who didn't even call to let us know, we just simply got an e-mail saying he couldn't do it the day after he was due on set. 

4. DON'T SPEND ANY MONEY

Reshooting the Garage scene with Helen

Once we had decided to not spend any money and make it on £0, the trick became maintaining that. We borrowed everything we could, including lights, equipment, props and everything in between. Then suddenly we would need something specific and of course the first thought would be to go and buy said item. However we didn't allow for that luxury. 

One night on set we needed the stanley knife prop only to realise that we had lost it. Because we couldn't buy one we had to think of a solution in regards to what we had. A couple of felt pens, a tea light and some gaffer tape later and we had crafted one hell of a prop knife that I'm still proud of to this day. 

The most important thing however, was that it started to teach me that throwing money at problems just wasn't the answer. When your shooting movies on a low budget, every penny counts and I carried these lessons with me onto future productions, Nowadays I only spend money as a last resort.

5. GET EXCITED

It's fair to say that the cast and crew were made up of my friends (or friends of friends) who just wanted to get involved in something interesting and we used that excitment that we all felt to see it through. Even waaaay back in 2009 not 'everyone' was making movies and so it was an exciting thing for us all to attempt. 

The sheer size of the project would terrify me now. It had over 32 locations, all of which had to be found with 0 budget. I think the only way we even managed to begin shooting was just by being so excited about making a movie. 

6. KEEP EXCITED

On set With Neil and Co Producer Pete

Our 14 day shooting shedule went to shit after about 3 days, a cast member (a friend of mine) pulled out without any notice or warning and we were stuck. We had already replaced a cast member on Day 2 this was a major blow to us. Luckily the other actors recommended a guy named Andy Greenwood to us, (who you may remember as Cleaver the Killer Clown in Slasher House) and he agreed to join us as an opportunity to get himself out there as an actor after only previously doing stage work. He was the furthest away cast member and he only lived about 30 miles away at the time.

This whole process of replacing the original actor took time out of our shedule however and eventually we went over and began shooting when people were free which took our shoot over into about 5 months, due to one of our locations disappearing overnight. I wish I could tell you thats the only thing that went wrong. Much more on that later. 

My point is, If we hadn't been excited about what we were doing the film would have died after the schedule fell apart. It was only because we were excited it that we kept going. 

7. JUST GO FOR IT

Final Artwork

Just believe that you can do it. That's the only thing that really kept me going in the end, was just the simple belief that I could do it. That we could all do it. It can go a long way, something as simple as belief. When everything around you is going wrong you just have to hold on to that. In the current year 2014, you don't even need to try to get a decent image out of a camera that costs £200, theres no reason why you can't go out and shoot your own no budget feature movie with your friends or at least people who are interested in the filmmaking. 

Creepsville is due out later this year after 4 hard years of work, of working around other peoples schedule and personal issues and whatnot, and sat here being the only person left on the project now it sometimes seems hard to keep giving it that extra push, But even then I haven't given up on it and the only reason the film is finished (or there a bouts) is because I believed it could be.

Check Out The Trailer below. The Film will finally be seeing a release on DVD and VOD later this year :)

BONUS STEP : DO IT ALL AGAIN

One of my biggest regrets on Creepsville is my, obvious, lack of hindsight. I wish I had known then what I know now and all that. I've since gone out and made 2 budgeted films (be that extremely Micro Budget) but I always look back at my first feature with fondness and admire the youthful persistence that I had there whilst making it. I love the idea of a bunch of people just getting together and making a movie, for fun, as a challenge and I think about the overall hellish experience with a great fondness.

So In the interests of that I decided that I would do it again. Following the above steps, this spring/summer we'll be going out and shooting another zero budget movie called "I've Got Better Things To Do Tonight Than Die' you can keep up with it HERE. It's a project that I've had on the back burner for sometime and last year found the perfect way to approach it with a no budget attitude. I have no doubt it'll be tough, because no budget filmmaking can be hell and I don't know why anyone would put themselves throughout that. 

Then again, I like a challenge. 

MJ

IF YOU FOUND THIS HELPFUL OR HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT BELOW. 

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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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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