Austin Comic Con Panel: No Budget Filmmaking Summary

One of the more interesting panels that I attended involved Jus Riddick, an actor, independent director, writer, and producer from Atlanta (now in L.A.) who is known for his feature length film Only in L.A. He provided some interesting tidbits for budding filmmakers who wanted to create but did not have the budget to do so! Here is what I gathered from the short panel:

1. Most important positions on screen to have apart from actors, writers, and director is

  • DP/Director of Photography (even better if he has his/her own camera)
  • Make up! More important that people think - go to film/make-up school to get free/low cost help
  • Sound guy!!! People will forgive grainy images but not bad sound!
  • Gaffer (I think I spelt this wrong) - Person who directs the lighting. 
  • First AD - This is the mum on set making sure everyone is where they need to be. he/she is extremely organized.
  • Visual effects depending on what you are filming
  • Production assistant

One person can play one or more of the roles listed above. Teaching yourself to do certain things will save you money!

2. Feed your crew home cooked meals - cheaper and they will thank you for it. People are willing to work for free if they are fed.

3. Never take budget into consideration during the writing stage. Write what you want to make! Someone may like it and fund it but if not, you can figured out what you need after you detail what you would like to do.

4. Location. Location. Location!! Use friend’s houses, use social media and emailing to find locations. You may get hits from people who want to help you.

Another a great source is craigslists. Even if your post gets removed, keep posting till you get what you need!

5. Interview people before you put them on your team! The more people you get the more you need to trust them. Make sure you gel with them creatively. Make sure they are friendly and humble! Don’t hire anyone blindly.

6. Resources: Mndy or Mandy.com; craigslist, staffmeup.com, shortfilmstexas.com << use these to find crew work, post what you are looking for, get actors etc.

7. Cameras: Canon, DSLR, Black magic camera - new one coming out that may be cheaper.

8. Highlighted this the most! Spend most of your time on pre-production! 

  • Plan everything out in detail!
  • First AD is involved in this process from the beginning
  • set list figured out, finding locations.

The more work you do at this stage, the less things can go wrong, the less money you will end up spending!

9. Utilize people from film school and film students. Some resources are available to them for free i.e. locations (they are fill out forms for you so you can get free locations), equipments, and knowledge.

10. Production Stage: Remember that something will always go wrong! You can’t do anything about this. This is why it is important to pick good people and plan in post production stage to avoid these issues!

For those seasoned filmmakers, what else would you add to this list?

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