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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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

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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 COME UP WITH IDEAS FOR MOVIES

READ THIS : Before we go any further, Please bare in mind this is simply my approach and everyone has thier own way of going about this. This is personal to me, but as with anything in creative industries the trick comes being able to apply it back to yourself and your own approach. Also some of this may seem obvious to some of you, If so good on you, you are more advanced than step one of filmmaking. Still its always nice to have a refresher. 

I think its safe to say that if you want to make movies, you first of all have to have an idea of the movie you want to make. (This is not exclusive however, as I have seen films that have been finished and they still don't really know what they were about). That aside the key to successful film is a GOOD idea. 

Good ideas are completely subjective of course, as everyone has an opinion. What tickles someones one metaphorical film boat won't necessarily grab someone else by the scrotum of cinema, All that matters is that you believe in your idea enough to bring it to fruition.

So people often ask how I come up with ideas for films, and to be honest it has and will continue to happen in a variety of different ways. Here are some of the most common.



1. COME UP WITH SOMETHING CONVENIENT

One of the best ways to come up with ideas for movies in look at what you have available. Creepsville was born of a title, but its substance was based on stuff we knew we had access to. I often joke that If you look out the back window of my old university building from the top floor you can see every location that we used in the film. That is absolutely true.

Even whilst casting we held an open auditions and had people come down and do their own prepared thing and adapted the script for the people we liked. We worked with what we knew we had and it really limited the amount of things that could go wrong*, because we knew our locations and props etc very well before we even started.

*Loads of stuff still went wrong. 

2. COME UP WITH A CHARACTER

Sometimes I look around at characters I've designed, which is quite common as I do a fair amount of graphic design and comic book work. Every so often I look through these sketches and doodles and scribblings and find a character that grabs my attention. Usually something I've sketch from subconsuiness or boredom and I start to give them a story and then sometimes, that story becomes a movie, or at very least the idea for one.

Thorn and the feature Legacy Of Thorn came from using this approach. I had been sketching the skull faced brute for about a decade before I finally decided to try and flesh out a back story for him in 2007. Eventually I fleshed it out a bit more for Slasher House and then even more for his solo movie Legacy. The approach all came from designing a character and then telling his story.

Slasher House was born from creating Red, I knew I wanted to create a very specific kind of character that could exist in a world of Slasher Villains. I knew I wanted to do something interesting with the 'Final girl' archetype that appears in that kind of movie, after that It was coming up with a scenario to place her in. That scenario became Slasher House.

3. COME UP WITH A TITLE

This is quite common for me, I have an idea for a title, then I sit down and brainstorm what that film would be about. Creepsville started out as a title, then I sat down with another writer and came up with the story that I felt fit the title and tone that I wanted the film to have. 'Blood On Santa's Claws' was the same, an idea for a title that then left me with the difficult task of figuring out what that movie would be about.

Its not an uncommon approach and I find that this is a great approach to forcing yourself to be creative, by limiting what you allow yourself to input, to a degree it allows you to be more creative with the small amount of information that you've given yourself. This is by far my favourite foundation to start with. I also sometime give myself extra limits or things that I force myself to include to spark my creativity just that little bit more. 

My favourite title I ever came up with was a movie we have in pre production currently which was I'VE GOT BETTER THINGS TO DO TONIGHT THAN DIE (A line spoken in the Animated Transformers movie). That sent my brain crazy and within a few days I had an immensely complex plot for an extremely unique rape/revenge movie.

BONUS ROUND :
STUMBLE ACROSS THAT LUCK SYRUM FROM RED DWARF

I wanted to limit it to the 3 most common ways that I come with and begin to develop ideas. However, there is one other that I think is fair to mention.

On a clear night, when the moon is at its largest size, and the stars move into alignment with Jupiter and Uranus (lol) you may, from absolutely nowhere, come up with an idea so radical and fully formed that it will surprise even you. It will be instantly ready to go down on paper and you will for a brief moment trick yourself into the belief that you may actually be a screenwriting genius. 

Don't worry this attack of ego will only last till you begin work on your next script and realise that you somehow managed to fluke an amazing story from thin air. Its rare as a Pie at a Sumo Wrestling contest, but it does happen.

I have come across this amazing occurance only once in my life in which the film simply fell from my brain onto paper, but that is is a story for another time. Its safe to say that the first 3 approaches work great and if you get stuck, just rip off some blockbuster thats coming out next year its works for our friends at the Asylum. You can check out thier latest release 'Android Cop' at http://the asylum.cc (I'm joking btw).

Coming up with ideas is the most exciting part of filmmaking for me. It's the part when you are at your most creative, but it's also the easy part. Bringing them into fully formed stories is something else and turning them into fully fledged scripts is another all together. But we'll talk about that next time.

MJ

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